Many people believe that corporate greed tends to overshadow the needs of their employees. Employees feel like they are in essence just a number in the corporation. Companies are required to either generate a profit or at the minimum break even if they want to stay in business. Publicly held corporations need to demonstrate to stockholders both a profit and growth. Too many times, this greed takes too much precedent. Bonuses become a priority and the worker bees get very little in return,
Example of Corporate Greed
I have gone to the same dental hygienist to have my teeth cleaned. In fact, I have been going to her for several years. I’ve developed a trust with this hygienist as she knows my issues. She has always taken great care of me. Just recently, I had an appointment for my teeth to be cleaned. Normally, she schedules my next appointment at the end of my visit. Well, this time she didn’t. She informed me she was leaving this clinic where she worked for a number of years. She will be starting at another clinic literally across the street.
I asked her why she was leaving. I was quite surprised by her answer. She indicated that her job is getting more and more stressful and the dental group has made things more difficult. Now, she only gets paid when she has a patient in her dental chair. The clinic doesn’t pay her for mandatory meetings. Plus the business does not provide any benefits. She doesn’t know how to market her services to get more patients. Unfortunately, she is starting to get headaches due to the stress of the position.
Some might be thinking this could be isolated to her tolerance regarding the requirements of the job. I found this not to be true. They had 6 hygienists and with her going, they have lost 3 successful hygienists. The other 2 left for the same exact reason.
Company Cost Makes the Decision
Here is another example. A lady boarded a shuttle bus on a Monday morning between a hotel and a huge medical software company. She was scheduled for a few days of training. On the previous day, she drove for about a 4 hour between home and the hotel. She drove a day early to insure she would be there in time for the early Monday start. I learned in talking with her that she didn’t feel too well. I asked her if it just came on? She told me that it started in the latter part of the previous week. So I asked why didn’t she just postpone the training?
To my surprise, she actually talked to her superior and asked about re-scheduling the training. Her supervisor did not want to re-schedule because they would lose 20% on the travel and training reservations made for her. Apparently, they never asked her if she could possibly handle the travel and training because of the cost implications. Unfortunately, the supervisor made cost the deciding factor on the final decision. We mutually agreed that the days of taking care of the employee are slowly deteriorating.
I have listed small isolated examples of corporate greed, which I am sure many of you can relate to. However, there are major corporate greed schemes that make the news. Here is an article that lists some major corporate greed schemes that we might have inadvertently helped them.
I’m slowly starting to believe that teamwork is only important to the employer when it benefits the company more than the employee.
Please feel free to share your story with us when you feel you are “Just A Number”.
“Only important when it benefits the company more than the employee” – spot on way to describe it. When “real life” happens, such as getting sick (in this example) or a death in the family or something similarly incapacitating, you need to take time for yourself, which doesn’t help a company. Then you become more of a number than an employee with a life outside of your work deadlines.