Good Employees - Bad Companies

Trying to find an employer that is right for you can be just as difficult as it is for an employer to find an employee that is right for them.

See if this sounds familiar. You get an interview for a front-end position, or receptionist / database manager type job. They appear to be a good company. You present all that is important to you in a job and they say all the right things in the interview. You agree on a starting wage, a review date and all the details on the job description. It is established you will be working a 37.5 hour work week which suits your schedule and allows you time for other outside interests.

From day one they are blown away by your work ethic, your ability to pick up new tasks quickly, your incredible demeanour with staff and clients and you are told regularly how great you are. You find the work load heavy but you enjoy being busy as it makes the time go faster. Soon you notice the work load demands are beginning to exceed the number of hours in a day and head office is pressuring people to put in longer hours to complete these tasks. No overtime is offered but you are told you can book time off in lieu of extra hours worked. Unfortunately the work load is such that it leaves no time to book off since if you were to take time off, work would go undone and begin to pile up. Unreasonable deadlines begin to come into play and the picture perfect job you envisioned during the interview is turning into a vision of master and slave.

Your raise review date passes and you are not called in, however they continue to rave about your performance. One month after your review date you are presented with an opportunity to work for a different employer for more money. So you approach your current manager, tell him you enjoy working here and would rather stay, but feel it would be fair if you were paid a higher salary. The amount you ask for is less than what the other company is offering but relative to what you believe the job is worth based on your assessment of the position now that you have been in it for four months. He says he will go to corporate and see what he can do.

He comes back and presents you with an offer that is well below what you requested. You gently explain to him, in the most deplomatic way possible, why what he is offering is not a fair offer. He then says he might be able to ask for more if you are willing to work more hours. It is right at that moment the light clicks on and you realize you are NOT in the Land of Integrity.

Companies that pay employees for a 37.5 hour week but pressure them into a 45 and 50 hour work week, for the exact same money, are despicable. They also need a lesson on values and employee retention programming. If you find yourself in a situation like this, run from that employer as fast as you can. There are way too many good employers out there, who look after their staff, for any worker to put up with that kind of treatment.

It doesn’t matter what type of work you do you should consider yourself a professional in your field. We have professional housekeepers, professional database managers, professional sanitary engineers, professional street sweepers, professional cashiers and the list goes on and on. Good employers recognize the value in hiring a professional to do the job they need done and treat their workers as professionals. Companies that guilt or pressure staff into long hours for no reward or make them feel as if they did them a favour by giving them the job in the first place, do not deserve one drop of sweat off the back of any employee.

By the way, the person in this story did the right thing. She walked in the next day and gave them her notice.

Your comments are welcome - Glen Slingerland Skills 101 / Job Development