I have written quite a lot and am passionate about our (US) Corporate Backslide. The US has become greed based. We are no longer human/employee centric. We have forgotten that it is the good and mindful employee who truly is the face of the company, affecting its success or failure. In the 50's, corporations offered a fair trade: Give up your individuality, the opportunity to control and own your business, along with both the headaches, overhead and rewards you might grow and pass down through the family. And, instead, work for us! Perhaps even your kids will too. We will pay you fairly, offer you security, reasonable 5 day work weeks, 8 hour work days, vacation time and retirement, all this in exchange for your dedication, and your loyalty. While that is still significantly different that our European comrades, who really have the balance down, this was a start. And back then, I think we all felt new technology would mean less work more leisure time. Again, greed got in our way.
Corporations today have loyalty to taking in as much money as possible and have limited loyalty to their employees. While this is nothing personal, it is teaching the next generation that loyalty to anything other than self is not where the payoff is. The smart money today is on getting the experience you need, fast as you can and at the top dollar you can get for it. Employment becomes resume butterflies (something pretty & impressive to look at) to better market you, the individual as you float to your new experience.
Don't most folks today stay just as long as they see regularly increasing revenue and skillsets and nothing better immediately on the near horizon?
I also believe the existing Corporate focus will shift us back into an entrepreneurial driven society. For anyone that has great translatable skills, this will be how they pay it forward and build something for their families with retirement at a corporation no longer an option.
Retention? Fair money in exchange for talent/hours given, being respectful, keeping the atmosphere fun and open is what makes being at work a joy.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Leading By Lawsuit Rather Than Leading By Ethics
I am seeing an alarming slide continue in the Corporate world. We have HR which ostensibly protects both the company and its employees. We have an Ethics Hotline and an 'Open Door' policy. And none of this prevents managers refusing vacation time, bereavement
time or helping out the over worked with comp time as appropriate.
Great companies are built upon the backbone of its stellar employees. Stellar does not mean you have no personal life or have the opinion that life at your company would cease to exist were you to take some time off. What it means is that you work diligently, get the job done, are easy to work with, a team player who can be counted on. You work an average of 40 hours a week and make that count. That is all you should ever have to work, an average of 40 hours.
No matter who you are, 12 hour days, non stop, are not a badge of honor; they are a sign that either you or your company is out of balance and is not efficient. I am not talking of folks who work such shifts as 10 hour days 4 days a week with 3 days off; that has balance to it. I am talking of folks who get paid to work 40 hour weeks (Exempt) but end up with enough work to keep 3 people too busy and the expectation that they owe the company their personal time beyond the 8 hours actually paid for.
When a corporation loses sight of at least pretending to care about its employees, they run afoul. In this age where a job cannot be counted on, it becomes ever more important to treat employees fairly while they are employed, with the highest of ethics, to mitigate lawsuits. A neighbor commented during a recent conversation that nowadays, Corporations don't act appropriately until they get sued. This would be why there are so many class action lawsuits the last 15+ years and ramping up. It doesn't have to be that way. Workers, by accepting the paycheck, it is legally incumbent upon you to work your level best and to treat your work as if you owned the company, meaning doing the right thing every day. Corporations, treat your employees right, work load balance appropriately when you see someone drowning in work. Assure your team takes their PTO, mentor, coach and counsel and document and write up employees with issues as is necessary. Corporations, know that when we worker-bees see peers who lose their parents and are forced into giving up their bereavement time, it makes all of us that see this, spitting nails angry. We want acknowledgement for being good employees and we hold the Corporation accountable for removal of dead weight non performers. Yes, all of us are tracking and documenting too, and we'd all prefer not to have to lawyer up to get a real work and life balance, to actually get back our private time! We just want to be treated well at work please and allowed to go home.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-unreasonably-long.fb48?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=14608049
time or helping out the over worked with comp time as appropriate.
Great companies are built upon the backbone of its stellar employees. Stellar does not mean you have no personal life or have the opinion that life at your company would cease to exist were you to take some time off. What it means is that you work diligently, get the job done, are easy to work with, a team player who can be counted on. You work an average of 40 hours a week and make that count. That is all you should ever have to work, an average of 40 hours.
No matter who you are, 12 hour days, non stop, are not a badge of honor; they are a sign that either you or your company is out of balance and is not efficient. I am not talking of folks who work such shifts as 10 hour days 4 days a week with 3 days off; that has balance to it. I am talking of folks who get paid to work 40 hour weeks (Exempt) but end up with enough work to keep 3 people too busy and the expectation that they owe the company their personal time beyond the 8 hours actually paid for.
When a corporation loses sight of at least pretending to care about its employees, they run afoul. In this age where a job cannot be counted on, it becomes ever more important to treat employees fairly while they are employed, with the highest of ethics, to mitigate lawsuits. A neighbor commented during a recent conversation that nowadays, Corporations don't act appropriately until they get sued. This would be why there are so many class action lawsuits the last 15+ years and ramping up. It doesn't have to be that way. Workers, by accepting the paycheck, it is legally incumbent upon you to work your level best and to treat your work as if you owned the company, meaning doing the right thing every day. Corporations, treat your employees right, work load balance appropriately when you see someone drowning in work. Assure your team takes their PTO, mentor, coach and counsel and document and write up employees with issues as is necessary. Corporations, know that when we worker-bees see peers who lose their parents and are forced into giving up their bereavement time, it makes all of us that see this, spitting nails angry. We want acknowledgement for being good employees and we hold the Corporation accountable for removal of dead weight non performers. Yes, all of us are tracking and documenting too, and we'd all prefer not to have to lawyer up to get a real work and life balance, to actually get back our private time! We just want to be treated well at work please and allowed to go home.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-unreasonably-long.fb48?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=14608049
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