Companies Pay Lip Service to Employee Well-being, but Fail to Deliver
I read a lot of articles online these days about how Company X and Company Z value their employees so very much, about how they’re committed to providing the best working experience, enrichment opportunities, etc., etc., etc.
That’s really nice, and some of it may even be true.
My beef is that many of these proclamations are just a thin veneer over the organizations’ normal cultures and behaviors.
Now, I freely admit to being a bit on the cynical side, and my attitude is colored by my experiences. But my reality just isn’t as rosy as the marketing.
These days, you hear a lot about fair treatment in the workplace. We’ve just had a period where some high-profile male executives have finally got their comeuppance for their treatment of women. I applaud this, but I don’t really think it signals an overall change. In one top company that I’m familiar with, a few senior executives lost their jobs (although they did get very substantial separation packages, I’m told).
But these guys had been engaged in corrosive behavior for years – and, it was relatively well-known. If not for the watershed moment of the #MeToo movement, my guess is that they’d be there still.
Why do I think so? Because in that same organization, I know of another batch of guys who have been engaged in the same type of behavior, with HR and ER complaints against them that in some cases go back decades, who are still in place.
Moral of the story: if you’re one of the gang, you have to work pretty damned hard to get fired.
And although I would never deny that women have had an extra ration of unfairness placed upon them, I think the prevalence of simple supervisor bullying, favoritism, and general unequal treatment is relatively pervasive.
Why is this? I believe one reason is the weak worker protection rules in the US. Most states have “at-will” employment rules, which means workers are at the mercy of their organizations – they can be let go, at any time, with no reason at all.
Sure, if someone is fired without cause there will be a cost associated, but there are no mandated guidelines about what that looks like other than paying into unemployment programs and providing the ex-employee the ability to continue their insurance for a limited period via COBRA (which the employee typically pays for out of their own pocket).
Long-term workers who earn a high salary are being laid off and replaced with younger workers at lower wages (or contract laborers with no benefits). There also appears to be a trend to reduce severance packages for layoffs, which is especially painful when those long-term employees are often older workers who can’t easily find replacement jobs (yes, ageism is a very real thing).
There used to be strong unions that protected workers, but as the nature of jobs changed, more and more people work in areas where there is no union presence. And corporations have done a great job at battling unionization drives and funding legal battles against established unions.
I don’t have a ready-made solution to any of this. I guess step one is at the ballot box – we need to start voting in representatives who are not beholden to corporate interests, who will help advance measures that protect workers. And I strongly advocate for voting with your wallet – there are definitely some businesses that I will not patronize because of their documented behaviors.
At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to the efforts of the workers – their willingness to band together, to take the risks, and for some of them to suffer on behalf of principle until changes are made that benefit everyone.