A Cancer in American Business
After years in management and noticing the trend in most local businesses, it has become evident that American businesses are plagued by a silent cancer. It is a decline and in some cases a complete loss of work ethics of it's employees.
Having a good work ethic is not taught in schools, nor is it promoted with free seminars open to the public. Our knowledge of work ethic usually comes from within our families. Handed down from the generation before. With the increases in divorce and family breakups it only seems natural, that with it comes collateral losses.
One of those collateral losses is in the work
ethic. We have migrated to an "it's all about me" work ethic. Many
young people accustomed to being provided for never receive this work ethic
knowledge until later in life when they develop it on their own.
Inside work groups there are producers and consumers. The producers achieve
results, and drive towards business and personal goals. These are the people who
end up with their own businesses or working in top levels of management. Then
there are the "it's all about me consumers". These are the people who
show up for work and cost more money to employ than you make from hiring them.
The consumer type employees look for reasons not to show up for work, not for reasons to be there. They look for reasons to sue their employer instead or looking to defend them. They break equipment, lose tools and engage in employer theft. They end up with wage garnishments on their checks creating an additional burden for their employer. I use the general rule that if an employee has a wage garnishment against him/her for any reason then this is simply a symptom of a larger issue with that employee and employers should be on alert until they are satisfied otherwise.
In the hiring process you have a tendency to believe that someone who is married with children and bills to pay should make the better employees because of their responsibilities. This is not always the case. Many are job jumpers who are not loyal to anyone but themselves.
Laws are created to protect the employees and very little to protect the employers. In addition their are the burdens of regulations to follow, licenses and permits to obtain, taxes to pay, insurances to be had and minimum wages that must be paid and the list continues. Some employees do not recognize these burdens and create and additional burden by showing up for work each day without to goal of producing results.
Loyalty to employer is a rare commodity. For some reason many workers have not made the connection between their success and the success of their employer. Take for example the person working at a gas station. They do not intend to be a gas station attendant all their lives so they go through each day doing their job in a half-ass fashion just waiting for a better job to come along. They don't care about customers service because after all they are just doing this job temporarily. They do not make the connection that each customer who pulls up for service may be their next employer. They do not make the connection that one day they may own their own business and this customer may one day be THEIR customer. Nobody knows what the future holds and when your young this person you were rude to may end up as one of your in-laws.
With today's pattern of downsizing, outsourcing and restructuring workers have to prove themselves. They have to stand out in a positive way someway, and when it comes to personal issues, they must fly below radar. Small privately owned businesses are in most need of honest, ethical hard working employees. Large Corporations can often turn a profit with a certain percentage of its employee base that falls into the consumer category. Small businesses can go belly up with only 1 employee dragging it down. The lower wages paid by some start up businesses is an obstacle to grabbing the best of the best. But it's not impossible.
You hear it all too often where an employee of a small business is stealing from it's employer. Many workers do not realize that the "consumer" type co-workers that have no loyalty to their work or employer complicates their lives and puts their livelihoods in jeopardy. Co-workers tend to turn a blind eye to poor performance of their coworkers, and even theft, because so and so is a nice person, that is just having difficulties. They reason away their own jobs for the sake of someone who is nothing more than a con-artist.
I have worked for Corporations for the most
part since 1978. I worked only a couple of years for a local privately owned
business and by far I would have to say that job was the best I ever had. My
employer treated the employees with respect and recognition. It was hardest work
I had ever done but in return, I turned up the heat on loyalty and effort. I
worked to keep costs down and to produce results. I took great pride in
producing higher results than may peers. It was the oil bust of the 80's and I
was laid off based on a small business mindset. I was single. I could have
screamed discrimination but my loyalty prevented me from doing so. My work ethic
stood in my way. Some time later everyone was laid off. I was later hired back
because some orders came in that needed to be filled and they needed them out in
a hurry. Myself along with another guy were the only persons hired back.
A business closing loomed on the horizon but we did the absolute best we could
with the false hopes that somehow, we could turn it around. My commitment to the
success of the business never faltered.
In the corporate environment people feel like they get screwed but if they look closely they will realize that policies are made to deal with these "employment consumers" and everybody has to pay the price for them. People are late and sometimes they don't show up for work. Sometimes they have personal issues that need to be attended to because we all have to juggle our personal lives and work. The burden to business is when they are not producing anything to compensate for their personal issues or their misgivings.
Our school systems dabble in all sorts of social issues often becoming surrogate parents to some degree. I think we need to begin instilling into our young the importance of a strong work ethic and the importance of dedication and commitment to work. Perhaps it can be merged into existing courses but by the time they exit high school the school and the parents need to be in sync in regards to the importance of a good work ethic.
The next time your spending your money at a local business and things aren't going well, try and recognize the problem. Sometimes employees hands are tied by some corporate policy or corporate decision. I'm not talking about those instances. Instead notice the smaller things and you'll notice that it comes from an "it's all about me" work ethic.