Working and Business in America

I was having brunch with some friends the other day and each one of us complaining about the same problems at work. Over worked, under paid, not appreciated. I was more distressed than the rest and had decided to brush off my resume and begin the audacious task of looking for another job. When I retrieved my resume from the gallows of my computer I was shocked and dismayed of how many job changes I had made in my career. I was coming in with six changes in twenty years. I was barely averaging three years a job. What was worse was that two of those jobs, I had the same desk but worked for two and three different companies during my stay. I called a couple of my friends to inquire if their resume looked like mine. The answer was a resounding yes. This did make me feel better for a short while. But I began to think. If I have had six jobs so far and currently working on number seven. When I finally retired, how many companies will I had worked for. And a bigger question, were there enough companies to sustain me until I reached 72 ½. This was the most important question. The business world is becoming smaller and smaller - each company gobbling up the next. Eventually there will only be a hand full of companies controlling everything. I having had worked for all of them. And...this scared me!

So my next question was; what has happened to the work life in America? Why do Americans work 50 - 60 hour work weeks? and Why do Americans feel compelled to leave their jobs every two, four and six years? Our industrial counterparts do not work the long hours we work and tend to stay with their companies for a far much longer time period than us. Why is this? Americans are afraid to take a personal day, sick day or vacation time, which they have earned. Why is this? I believe most Americans are afraid that either their co-workers or superiors will maneuver them out of their office - to the unemployment line. Companies today are so concerned about that penny that they loose the dollar. They cringe when their employees ask for a raise more than the standard 3%. By the way; can anyone tell me how 3% keeps a person and their family, in pace with the rising costs of housing, fuel, utilities and food? I haven’t figured that one out yet and would love someone to explain it to me. Anyway, companies feel we should be grateful year after year with our 3% (if we get that) and fall closer and closer to the poverty line, while they become richer and richer.

So I digress…I believe that companies have lost focus on what makes them who they are. Not their product or service but their employees. Having managed large numbers of people myself, I have learned that it is better to work with what you know and who knows you than to start over again with the unknown. Companies forget how much time and real cost it takes to find, hire and train a new employee. An employee that you do not know is going to even work out. It is a gamble every time. And 9 times out of 10, it is a gamble that does not pay. It is better to give a little more to who you already have or move an employee to a position more suited for them, then to let them leave.

Anyway, I can remember my grandfather working for the same company all his life. One day he did not go to work, because ... well ... he died. The relationship between company and employee was an expected life time relationship. Even after his death, the company took care of his family. For those young people unfamiliar with this practice, that is called a pension.

So what happened? How did we go from there to here?

My mother and father were raised to go to school. Get an education. And go to work for a company. Then retire. Well they were on track with this directional path, but something happened. The companies were not taking care of them as they did in my grandfather’s day. So, like most employees of the late sixties and early seventies, they began to move from one company to the next. Earning more money with each move. If a company would not satisfactorily take care of them; ie. increase their wages acceptably, treat them correctly and with respect, they moved to the company that would. Now here’s the point! The company they left, always ended up replacing them with the wage they wanted. So why not just pay the increase to the existing person and skip all the loss. This is what I mean about companies chasing the pennies and losing the dollars. This practice has been perfected in my generation. At least my parents stuck it out for ten or fifteen years. My generation gives these companies two or three years to make it right or we’re gone!

Now, I’m not saying this failed relationship is their fault or our fault. I believe however; that each side has its part to play in this dysfunctional relationship. It’s like the age old question, what came first? The Chicken or the Egg. I believe the companies started it and the employees are finishing it. But how do we correct this? Well this is the million dollar question. I wrote this article, not because I had the answer. But in the hope that enough people both business owners, company leaders and employees would read it and contemplate the issue. If enough us want change, perhaps change will occur. My final thought is we do need change. Companies need to get back to taking care of their employees and in return employees need to take care of their companies. If we both did our part, maybe we would get back to those lifetime relationships or at least those relationships that last longer than the life-span of my underwear.