Something I wish more employers considered is that not everyone may be as replaceable as they may think. A common trend has been happening for decades; some employers hire people then over time begin to treat them more and more like slaves. This mindset can easily come about once an entrepreneur obtains a particular level of wealth. Once this happens, he or she then often becomes all too focused on the success of their business.
Suddenly it’s all about doing what’s best for their company and everything quickly boiling down to metrics, statistics, dollars and cents. The end result can be a lost touch of both reality and humanity. And at some point employers can begin to think that everything and everyone is easily replaceable. But not all employees are replaceable.
Don’t undermine the “little people”
It’s very easy to call particular shots when you feel on top of the world; it’s also very easy for forget that it’s the people who support you and your company at the bottom that keep you in the position that you are in today.
Oftentimes, it’s also not necessarily the efforts of present employees that sustains a company’s success; it is as a result of those who worked there before. A forward thinking employer recognizes exactly what is keeping it’s company functioning on a healthy level; they know that the primary goal is to consistently find ways to build on this. The unfortunate part about this is that most focus only on the financial aspect.
John: the employee
Let’s say John asks his boss for a raise. John is given an excuse as to why he cannot receive an raise, yet John has been doing excellent work. John then admits that he would really like to stay but he got another job offer that pays more; he then says that he needs the money to satisfy increased living expenses.
The boss then responds, “OK, hear what. Let me talk it over with the board and I will let you know if we can afford it.” John cordially agrees and patiently waits on a response. A day later the boss returns and gives John the news that the company can only afford to pay him $500 extra per month. The new job offer John received will pay him $2000 more.
John politely declines and upon realizing that no further offers would be made to him he hands in his resignation letter. The boss then wishes John all the best in his endeavors and John eventually leaves the company.
John may be worth more than you think
The company quickly finds a replacement for John. The new employee takes over. Several months the new employee is doing a good job. But the rest of the workers suddenly start staying home from work more frequently. And the ones who show up seem more agitated while sitting at their desks. What gives?
The new guy is efficiently doing the same work that John used to do yet something else seems different. A week later another employee hands in her resignation letter. When asked why she’s resigning she reveals that she’s looking for better opportunities and no longer feels motivated to do her job.
Some Employers only see the surface
What many employers do not consider when someone resigns is the ripple effect it can potentially have on everything else. In theory, everyone can eventually be replaced but not always as quickly and easily as employers may think.
This highly depends of various factors such as the level and type of work an employee is doing, their skill set, their social skills, respectability and ability to relate to others. Because many employers focus so much on only the financial aspect they fail to contemplate the things that seem much less important. The problem with this is that it is often the most important elements they ignore.
The problem with new hires
The reality of the situation is that John, while being a good worker, was also a “people person.” When workers felt depressed or bored with work, John secretly cheered them up. And John did this because it was part of his natural personality; he was not a manager nor was it part of his portfolio so he was never paid for it.
Essentially in an indirect manner John had taken up the role of a counselor or hr manager on top of his regular duties he already performed so well. So now that John is gone, the slack he had been covering all along is now gone with it. With workers feeling as though something valuable is missing, their work ethics decrease, followed by their emotional stability and ultimately productivity levels.
So what is an employer to do? Simply just fire everyone who refuse to buckle up and rehire a new team? Quite frankly, some employers will quickly hand out the pink slips to everyone due to their restrictive and capitalist thinking. Yet they will hire a new batch of employees and experience a new mishmash of problems.
More fishes in the sea?
An easy way to consider the above situation is to compare it with being in a relationship with someone you were married to and loved for all your life; then one day they decide to just leave you. You can act all you want that they can just move on and it won’t affect you but it would. You can try to replace them overnight. And you can also pretend that in the long run everything will be alright.
But no matter how many people you sleep with, nothing feels the same as it did with the one you loved. This is essentially what many employers do. Believe that there is always more fish in the see without pinpointing the overall quality of the fishes that can be caught.
What they take for granted
There are many skills that employers take for granted. These include mentoring, peace making, team building, empathy and the ability to make others laugh. To someone just focused on finance and the bottom line, these skills should not be that hard to find. On their own the skills may be a dime a dozens (just like the millions of fishes in the sea). But each great employee usually comes with a irreplaceable combination of abilities that are not missed much until it’s gone.
Until more employers stop treating their employees with their personalities and skill sets as though they are things that can be purchased on special at Walmart, more companies will continue to suffer in the long run.
The most interesting thing about this is that they may even think that this is okay because it still means they would not take a hit financially … at least not until enough great employees eventually leave and one day the company suddenly finds itself bankrupt.
