Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
I used to sing that song to my little sisters and later to my own kids. Now, few will delve so deep into this rhyme of Mother Goose, but I think its fairly indicative of how far you can go with employees. I have seen an attitude in corporate America which must be stopped and it’s getting a bit worse lately.
It’s the attitude that “you’re lucky to have a job at all”. Because of all the headlines, all the unrest, all the scary cable channel layoff news, suddenly middle managers and corporate higher ups are implying that “any job” is a good job. Budgets are cut, people are fired and the remaining folks are tapped for “more opportunity” (opportunity=unpaid additional responsibility) and anyone left standing is deemed “lucky”.
Really? Did your company change? Become more profitable? Start offering better benefits or change company culture? Was there additional training for brutal managers or a new onboarding system implemented to pair seasoned employees with new hires? Are you finally getting rid of problem employees under the guise of layoffs even though Sue in Accounting told you that guy was bad news years ago? Hmmmm, NO? Then unless you were already an awesome place to work, YOU’RE NOT NOW!
I hear it from employees, friends, business owners and consultants, there’s some sort of smug superiorty starting to taint the air in the survivor camp. And it’s making for some not so best practices. It’s during times like this that companies start treating employees and their emissaries (that’s YOU recruiters and HR Pros) as dispensable.
Well, one thing they might want to consider is that the human capital sphere may not tolerate a stripping down of the workforce. This is a space where just a few months ago people were relishing their cohorts jump from the coporate ship into the brightly colored dingy of self-employment. Where people don’t seek out great benefits and assume that they will be working on-site. What happens when the economy is back?
As it stands now, loyal employees who have stayed the course with their bosses, hoping for their next big break, clinging to their desk job to ensure they get their diabetes medication, doing more work and staying more hours for a fraction of their former pay. Eventually, they are going to wake up and realize that this is ridiculous! These vapid employers are teetering on the edge of a very high wall and pretty soon that fragile balance (already in peril) will break.
And All the King’s Horses and All the King’s Men won’t be able to to put that workforce back together again.
Maybe that’s a good thing. . . .
Really good post Maren! I agree that when we come out of this recession/depression/scary time, there’s likely going to be a huge backlash from many employees against their current employers. We were already seeing more of a free agent mentality before times got scary, and once things start to soften a bit, I believe that people are going to leave in droves. They won’t forget how they were treated by their employers. I understand “it’s business”, but sometimes very little energy and creativity is put into figuring out how to keep people vs. cutting people when times get tough. I once worked for a company where we cut out all outsourced services – temps, security, lawn maintenance, janitorial, etc. and placed our own employees in those jobs vs laying them off. While those jobs weren’t their dream jobs, they NEVER forgot the loyalty from the company. That type of mutual loyalty then got us through tough times when heavy overtime was required, union organizing attempts, when competitors built a facility nearby, etc. True loyalty is a two-way street! (Congrats on this post being on Brazen Careerist as well!)
Thanks Jennifer. You said what I wanted to say but way clearer and without the convoluted fairy tale reference! You’re absolutely right. I love “True Loyalty is a two way street!” I swear that so many employers just don’t see this. It boggles the mind.
And once again, you are my press agent. How do you always see these things before I do? oh yeah, it’s because I woke up at 10 today!
a very good article.
I too have noticed since about 2002 this smug superiority complex.
It started when the Human Resources Depts took over the selection and interviewing process and made it where you had to have a piece of paper to get a job
Virgil
http://www.KeepAmericaAtWork.com
Picture = Big Ouch. Is that Humptey’s Brain on Bailout Drugs?
Hey Mar,
Since you’re my advice/resume go to sister I thought I would shoot you a quick question about my job. Obviously I could just call you up but I thought that other peeps might benefit from this Q&A, so I’m posting on your super cool blog. Here goes. As previously mentioned in a comment to your “I’m too texy for this post” I have a co-worker that I worked very closely with, get fired recently. I am now taking over all of “our” responsiblities on my own. I have always been happy with my pay here being sufficient for the job I do, until recently. As I am now souly in charge of payroll, I saw the last check that was issued for my former co-worker. It turns out she was making literally twice what I make, with the same amout of responsibility. She has her associates degress but it would be safe to assume that I have more credit hours than she with the same amout of experience. In short, I have two questions: 1) Am I being greedy by wanting more money when I was previously happy with what I was making? I can’t help but think that it would be immoral of me to expect more when my job really isn’t hard at all (I mean, you see how often I’m on Twitter) and 2) If not, what is the best way to go about asking for a raise? Thanks for the help in advance.