Poor Pitiful You!

This month I wish to digress from my normal answering your questions format, to ask and then answer some questions I’ll put to you.

Let me ask you ; What do you "owe" your employer and what does your employer "owe" you? When you say you want your job, or your life to be "fun" just what do you mean? When you declare you want "job security" or a "secure relationship" with another person, what is it you want? When you tell someone that your life, or job pressures or stress are "just too much to bear" what are you really saying?

This article is triggered by a phone call I just received. A manufacturing manager called to tell me he had been with his present company about 10 years and that they decided to close his entire division. He wanted to know if I could help him find a firm looking for a capable manager where he could have "long term, secure" employment and where it would be "fun" to work and where he would be paid well for his talent. He went on to tell me that in a way, he was glad that he was out of work because the pressure to produce had created unbearable "stress."

I immediately told him my consultancy did not include job placements and asked if he had contacted those firms whose business it was? He assured me he had. I then asked what exactly did he mean by "long term, secure, fun, stress, pressure?" He then told me something startling. He said, "Gene, we are now in a society where top company management continually look at their subordinate managers and if they can find someone better to do the job they hire them and replace you."

He went on to say that, "companies are pushing their people so hard to produce that one search firm told me that even the best managers can longer expect to be employed more then 4 years and that today’s average manager now will have 6 to 8 job changes in their lifetime." He indicated he couldn’t live with that scenario. I repeated back to him what he was asking for. "You want a secure, minimal stress job, low pressure, high pay, where it would be fun to work, right?" "Right" he replied. I wished him well in his quest and ended the conversation.

After hanging up, I reflected on his call and began to realize that in recent years I’ve been getting more and more calls of that nature. They come not only from managers, but from supervisors, employees and even business owners who believe other people or other companies somehow have it better than they do.

So, let me share my opinions regarding security, fun, stress and pressure with the understanding that I won’t apologize if, in your opinion, I go off on some tangents. Before I begin, I know quite well that there are many people who work very hard, give more than their fair share and due to today’s competitive business climate they still end up with the short end. I’m not speaking to those, or about those people.

I see more businesses get into trouble because they allow themselves to be staffed with some people who believe the business "owes" them something and as a result they do no more than they feel they are paid to do. They, (like the manager who called me) are becoming decadent, standing in front of a stove saying, "give me heat" without the willingness to go out any longer and chop wood. Too many people today and there numbers are growing, want on-the-job welfare and retirement. It doesn’t work that way in the real world and anyone who believes that it does might as well believe in tooth fairies. You get out of life – or your job – exactly what you put in, always in direct proportion, "what you sow, you reap." Life says, "you want more, do more!"

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