Companies Must Take Care of Their Employees
This is a topic that I get the most feedbacks from day to day. Most of them are positive but when it gets to the other side of the equation, it gets hideous, sometimes even vulgar. It’s okay, we need equilibrium in life, and opposing opinions fire up ideas on contrast.
I have mentioned fragments of my careers over the years and I can speak with certainty that the very vast majority of people working in the lowest hierarchy are not getting enough instructions, trainings and even benefits to live an average life. The burden is even bigger if there are children living under the same roof.
We all as human beings are pursuing the same thing – happiness. There is no standardized indicator to measure such an abstractive yet wonderful thing, but I’m hundred percent sure that attaining and maintaining happiness start with empathy, sympathy and desire to help other people.
When were you genuinely happy last time? I’m not talking about external factors that make you happy like having a pedicure or getting the newest seasonal coffee. I’m talking about establishing good deeds like purchasing a coupon for pedicure for you mom or paying a coffee for a complete stranger. But nonethelss, it’s Christmas time…soon enough, so please do something nice.
Hurting people hurt people. On the contrary helping people help people. Helping people is not a divine act because regardless the help the helper is getting an ego boost from being helpful, and therefore feeling totally great about him- or herself. But let’s not make such an awesome deed to sound bad.
And let’s get back to the business, shall we?
How Should We See Our Job As?
You can be a software engineer, a carpenter, a housekeeper, a journalist, a lawyer, a surfing coach or even managing a major company but there’s one fact that unites us – we need to work for a living. You can have active or passive incomes, but you still have to work, and a typical working day consists of 4 to 12 hours of your life daily. Meaning at least 4 hours every day is spent for incomes.
So, shouldn’t your company treat you better?
I’m sure there are numbers of enterprises that provide exquisite livelihoods for their employees, but these are the minorities. As an average guy has worked for 15 companies from 10 industries from a little guy to an administrative hierarchy, I can point out that the cultures of some of the companies need to be immensely reconstructed.
People sitting on the thrones should take a week or a month off to work with grassroots to have a better understanding of the field in order to have an ability to make polished decisions. I’m certain you have heard of ancient stories in which kings and emperors have joined vital combats. The idea was not to physically intervene to win the war but to skyrocket the army morale as motivation. The same goes with today’s working culture – employees want to be treated as a valuable, respected and meaningful individual, and witnessing their employers being willing join the team and partaking the production provides a feeling of battling on the same side or being a participant of the family. No one would like to go work if his or her contribution has not been appreciated nor taken into account.
Employers must pay attention and respect their employees’ time, the other way around as well. Sure, employers can set rules and regulations for being present for the certain amount of hours, but if the time is falsely set and workload incorrectly arranged then the entire concept of working 8 hours a day equals to a total waste of time – wasting the employees’ time i.e. life.
Time spent is life spent. Please, pay attention to appreciate your time.
Hidden Irony in Empathetic Leadership
The way how movies present leadership is quite reflective to the real life. Fortunately the great leadership that authentically leads toward availing results is far from the aforementioned strategy. The only ways to earn respect from hired ones are solicitude and proper training. The first one is for the employees’ mental health and the latter, lucrative results.
I have witnessed endless amounts of situations in which a production line or service turned stagnant due to the trainer’s or supervisor’s inability in educating their subordinates. This types of situtations happen all the time regardless of industries but the biggest lost is not the wasted time of the company but the unnecessary drowning of willpower and motivation of the employees. I’m speaking from my personal experience because I have worked in a routinized job before and nothing hurts productivity and progressivity more than unsuccessful training.
Companies don’t have to provide every requested benefit but working for the clock is very very obsolete and disrespectful. Leaders should ask themselves with raw honesty that do they crave for desired results or do they anticipate their employees to be present in the scheduled hours.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of jobs that require preset schedules but when one’s career has advanced to a certain point, say - a service manager or project manager, his or her paycheck should not be measured by the hours but rather, outcomes. A leader meticulously doing check ups on the subordinates’ working hours instead of efforts or accomplishments, is an incompetent leader.
Whether you are making a living by billing hours for yourself or drudging for someone else, please keep in mind that time is insurmountably important. Make an effort of endeavoring to work smarter every day because creating memories with your loved ones is immensely more crucial than making money.
Thanks for reading my article. See you next time!
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2019 Davie Chen