It’s been done with all manner of products, from cameras to computers, but are we becoming a country of disposable employees? Maybe so. Simply stated, many employers, it seems, only hire people up to the barest necessity to cover the job. With no intention of investing in training, or anything else. They know the employee will, more sooner than later, move on to some other “fill the warm body” requirement job.
Is it the company’s fault? When I had my business I left many vacancies just that, vacant, rather than go through the hassle of filling the position. This attitude by employers is understandable. They have been burned. No need for a fork. And, many feel all they need to do is just be as good as, not better than, their competition.
Let me slip in a personal example. As a manufacturer’s representative, companies I represented had internal customer service people to field reps calls. One company had three of them. Two were useless, one was great. So the good one got all the calls. Did the company work with the two sorry ones to help make them better. Nope! They met with the good one and told her to tone it down. I am not kidding.
But, the employee has been burned also. How many have poured their heart and soul into a job, with no acknowledgement, or more money for this effort?
Probably the biggest employee detriment has come from an all out assault for years by certain groups, in order to buy votes, telling them how bad they should feel. How they deserve more without working for it. Literally planting discourse.
We really have a chicken and egg syndrome. Who put out the first grease on the slope of working life? The companies or workers. We can debate that one.
However, I believe what has let the slide continue, and actually speed up, is the electronics industry. They introduced the concept of “issues to be worked out, or patches coming, or got bugs but we know it” product release. Henry Ford would have never done such a thing.
My daughter bought an iPod when they first came out. A major innovation at that time. Apple is great at glitz and marketing. And, getting people to want the “new thing.” I remember just a few weeks after it came out. A Google search of iPod problems produced millions of sites. There was the battery problem we all know about. And, the trouble with the mechanical hard drive. In a matter of months the first models became obsolete. My daughter was hopping mad and not alone.
And, the iPhone has followed the same path. Big, new money, bad service and, “Oh, by the way look at our new iPhonet,” says Apple.
This whole disposal attitude has transferred to attitudes about employees. Don’t think so, go see the movie Wall-E. Just give me a spork.
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