It seems like everywhere I go "management" is browbeating employees into doing whatever it takes to increase sales. Valuable real estate on sales floors are being crammed with "budget" items to encourage purchasing while aesthetics and comfort are sacrificed. I myself have held positions where I was "encouraged" to offer sales suggestions; for EVERY customer I was to offer "complementary" sales items. I've watched my coworkers be bullied into bullying customers to sign up for credit cards. Everyone is so focused on profit that people on both ends, consumers and employees, are abused.
The blatant selfishness amazes me. How did we come to this? How did it get so bad? I guess it's a vicious cycle. Before I started my own business and ventured into contract work, I always wished that my coworkers would rally against the bullies; I am a peace lover and deem it pertinent to respect authority, however when employers force you to work harder for little to no money and/or benefits I believe that it wouldn't continue if someone stood up and said "no".
Unfortunately many workers are scared that the least "discrepancy" will warrant termination. So the workforce silently suffers as the level of abuse dished out by upper management increases. What's even more appalling is that as hours, pay, and benefits are cut upper management and investors continue to make a profit. What's worse is that the workforce ties itself to the plow so that the world seems to rest on the job and a little money is better than no money at all. Right? NEWSFLASH: when you settle for less than you deserve, you end up with less than you settled for.
We are settling. People decided that profit was more important than people and we the people are agreeing. By suffering in silence we are saying that it's ok. By continuing to profit while business fails we are saying it's okay. When you decide to look out for yourself you decide to fail. Profit is not more important than people. When we value people over profit profit increases; when we value profit over people profit eventually decreases.
The only person I can control is myself so I plan to go out and value some people. Will you join me?
The blatant selfishness amazes me. How did we come to this? How did it get so bad? I guess it's a vicious cycle. Before I started my own business and ventured into contract work, I always wished that my coworkers would rally against the bullies; I am a peace lover and deem it pertinent to respect authority, however when employers force you to work harder for little to no money and/or benefits I believe that it wouldn't continue if someone stood up and said "no".
Unfortunately many workers are scared that the least "discrepancy" will warrant termination. So the workforce silently suffers as the level of abuse dished out by upper management increases. What's even more appalling is that as hours, pay, and benefits are cut upper management and investors continue to make a profit. What's worse is that the workforce ties itself to the plow so that the world seems to rest on the job and a little money is better than no money at all. Right? NEWSFLASH: when you settle for less than you deserve, you end up with less than you settled for.
We are settling. People decided that profit was more important than people and we the people are agreeing. By suffering in silence we are saying that it's ok. By continuing to profit while business fails we are saying it's okay. When you decide to look out for yourself you decide to fail. Profit is not more important than people. When we value people over profit profit increases; when we value profit over people profit eventually decreases.
The only person I can control is myself so I plan to go out and value some people. Will you join me?
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