Over the years, I have noticed an ever growing disconnect between employers and their employees. With the struggling economy, employers are asking employees to do more and more with no raises in their paychecks or bonuses for a job well done. Employees leave, get terminated or are laid off and no replacement is allowed to be hired. The companies keep piling on the work along with the expectation that it gets done. It's the old saying, we can do more with less. Soon, that saying will turn to, we can do everything with no one. Of course, this only sits so long with the employees. At first, they are happy to take on the extra work because their expectation is there will be a financial carrot at the end of the stick. What they realize after a period of time is that the stick is 1000 miles long and it keeps growing. Consequently, the employees get the feeling that they are being taken advantage of and the widening of the disconnect gets larger. In their minds, they feel that they have willingly taken on a much larger workload and the employer should compensate them accordingly. In my opinion, a thought that makes a lot of sense. The company however has been negatively affected by the dismal economy and claims it does not have the money to give. They feel that their employees should be dedicated enough to them to take on the extra work to keep the everyday machine cranking. The company feels that their employees should be happy to have a job. This way of thinking is somewhat justified because of the double digit unemployment rate that our country is facing.
Of course, the employee now is not thinking this way. As I mentioned above, they were happy to take on the extra work, however after a period of time they start to become somewhat disappointed that no compensation has followed. They know that things are tight and they understand that they may not get any compensation right away. As time goes on and more work is shuttled their way, they now realize that they have to take on the additional load only because they need their job and maybe, just maybe they will be recognized in some way, shape or form. Possibly, they may be recognized with a gift card, a written note from upper management or the old pat on the back. They take on the work, but are not really happy about it.
As more time goes on and more duties flow their way, they become totally disgruntled. The feeling of totally being taken advantage of hits them like a cinder block over the head. Now the wheels of discontent are revving up into high gear. The employees now talk amongst themselves trying to find out what the others know and what are they going to do about this situation. They are all sick and tired of doing this work and not seeing the golden carrot. Dammit, they want more money, they want to be noticed. I also agree with this as well. But, what do they do? Nothing? No, nothing is not good enough! The employees start to think and act negatively toward the company they work for. They start taking shortcuts with their work, they start to call off sick more often and they start to look for new jobs. What else can they do? They feel if they voice their opinion to upper management they will get fired. They are stuck and that is a really awful, non productive way of thinking that breeds the ultimate discourse between employee and employer.
This mega-discourse has now hit it's peak. What were excellent employees have now become robots. They come to work, do only what they have to and go home at the end of the day. They distance themselves as far as possible from the company only participating when they really have to. Non work related events are out of the question. Staying extra time or coming in when needed on days off are out of the question. Christmas parties and company functions are not on the list of things to do. If someone is lucky enough to get a promotion and it is a rarity, they hate that person and wonder, "why not me". It's now them against the company.
On the other side, the company either does not care or may actually wonder why are our employees not happy? I would think the first of the two applies to most places. They see that work performance has slipped and maybe it's time to make some changes. This is very dangerous for the company and it's employees. The company thinks it may be time to get rid of some people who are not performing up to their expectations. Usually, they do just that! They target what were good employees and cut them loose. What they have failed to realize is that the mind set of even good employees has been ground to an all time low. Now the separation has reached its final phase. They cut loose people and guess what, the remaining people get more work. The worst case scenario. This just keeps the spiral of discontent flowing downward into the abyss of performance destruction. Employees are unhappy, the company is unhappy and the wedge between them is complete.
With today being Labor Day, we all (employee and employer) need to sit back and evaluate where we are and where we can go. The employers need to start recognizing their employees a little bit better. They need to realize that maybe they have a great workforce and they should compensate them in any way they can. It doesn't always have to be a monetary compensation. However, now and then it does. The employees need to be happy about having a job and they need to come to work everyday to perform to the best of their abilities. Don't view the company as your enemy, view it as a partnership. Maybe if both sides take this approach, we can achieve some success in this very difficult time.
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