Bear

What does enduring hardship get us?

Everyone of a certain age remembers an time when people respected each others work-life balance. As an employee (and more so now that I’m working for myself) I’ve always been the first to come in early and stay late in order to get the job done. If I needed to re-arrange my weekend, I’d be happy to do it. The only thing I asked in return is respect. About 10 years ago, I noticed things changing.

At first, organizations respected a work-life balance by only asking employees to change their plans, or stay late, in emergencies. They’d usually apologize for asking, and often incentivised the request by ordering dinner or something. After a while, they stopped incentivising employees. A little while later, they'd stop apologizing. Recently, they’ve stopped asking altogether. They expect if work needs to be done, you’ll stay until it’s done. I’ve actually run into organizations that resent employees who can’t change their plans at the last minute. What’s happened?

Whatever the Market Will Bear.

There are a ton of great employers who truly respect and appreciate their talent. They understand that it’s their employees who are their greatest assets; and they treat them as such. However, the above story isn’t a unique experience. I’ve witnessed dozens of organizations who’ve slowly stopped respecting their employees. You’ll be able to spot these organizations by the flood of talent leaving, and the flood of incompetence coming in. How did this start? It started when organizations began treating human beings like commodities; applying ‘whatever the market will bear’ thinking to human resourcing.

Organizations implementing this type of thinking are on a race to the bottom. The general idea is to mitigate the costs of doing business. Wherever possible, every expense that can’t be differed will be eliminated. Instead of rewarding employees who go above-and-beyond; many of these organizations merely punish employees who don’t meet expectations. If these organizations are still operating, what does this say about our society?

Many people perceive overcoming hardships as a challenge. We hear about the hardships of others, and think it’s unfair to complain about something as minor as working through the night without recognition. If we’re willing to bare hardships imposed on us, by the organizations employing us, we’re complicit with organizations perpetuating the problem. It’s easy to understand the issue though. There are thousands of competent individuals who are unemployed, under employed, or aspire to something different. Some of these individuals are willing to work for free, in order to gain experience.

Whatever is Best for the Group

Humans may be resources, but we aren’t commodities. The flip-side of ‘whatever the market will bear’ is thinking about ‘whatever is best for the group’. Like the hierarchy of biological classification, our lives are made up of groups, groups-of-groups, groups-of-groups-of-groups, etc. Our objective shouldn’t be to exploit a market as much as possible, until the market is forced to react. We should be working to improve our market, share our knowledge, and establish respect.

I think the onus is on our organizations to shift their thinking toward ‘what’s best for the group’. As a freelancer, I try to work with organizations that respect their employees; and avoid repeat work with organizations that don’t respect their employees. But in the end, even if the quality of work suffers, no organization is even likely to notice that someone like me has chosen not work with them. There are 100 other people willing to take the organizations money, and kiss their ring. If the organizations leadership isn’t pushing the organization to the top; it’s possible for it to be falling to the bottom. Organizational leadership NEEDS to make HR & resource management part of their purview.

Employees have had a trusting relationship with employers for centuries. We trust our employers will treat us right because their business runs on backs of their employees. We endure what our employers ask of us because we trust them, and because we believe it’s in our best interest. A mother missing her sons birthday because a last minute pitch came in, can justify the extra work by thinking about the job security a new client will give her; maybe even the extra money she’ll make if she gets a promotion from landing a new account. We believe we’re stronger because of the challenges we overcome, when, in fact, we’re weakening the group.

We need to be more discerning about what challenges we bare, and which challenges are merely fools-errands.