Respect in the Workplace

Simple rule for employers - if you show respect to your employees, you can expect them to show respect to you. If you treat them like garbage, they will have no incentive to respect you or the company.

I have been fortunate that in most of my job experience, my employer has treated me in a respectful manner. For me, that means speaking politely, giving clear descriptions of what the expected duties are, noticing when I have done a good job, and paying the agreed amount on time. If there are things that need to be done differently, the employer explains what the problem is (not waiting to drop it into a bad performance review months later) and then allows the employee to resolve the problem.

I even stayed at a job that was seriously under-paying me because I felt that I was a vital part of the organization, I was treated amazingly by my boss and coworkers, and I was given the opportunity to contribute in ways that developed my resume to make it worthwhile.

What the employer has gotten from me in return is someone who feels loyal, and therefore acts in the best interest of the company by going out of my way to do the best possible job and looking for ways to help beyond my basic job description. It also means that I feel a responsibility to show up promptly, not goof off on company time, and speak politely to customers. It also means that when the time has come to leave a job (which I have always done for a specific life-event reason, never because I was seeking a better position), I went immediately to my employe to give them notice and made sure to complete projects and get things in order before my last day,

Now here's the more usual situation, which is what my husband is facing now:

Employer is short and sarcastic to the employees. Employee is left wondering what exactly is expected, because no matter what they do it turns out to be wrong. Employer never notices the positive, but never fails to notice the negative. Employer has in their head a list of what the person has done wrong but never mentions it until review time, so that the employee has no opportunity to improve. Bonuses (or even paychecks!) are not what was promised, are late or otherwise messed with.

And the resulting employee behavior:

Employee feels, at best, neutral to the job - and at worst, vindictive and out to get even with the company. Therefore, they do the minimum amount of work they can get away with, and maximize how much time they spend chatting or doing personal business. They certainly never see if they can go above and beyond their assignments because they know they will receive no credit for doing so. They don't worry about coming late, take off fake sick days, act rudely to customers. And when the time comes to leave a job because they found something better or just can't take the stress anymore, they quit - minimal if any notice, and certainly not concerned with making the tranition easier on the employer. (They may even enjoy the idea of leaving the employer with a screwed up workplace.)

My husband is intending to quit with no notice at the end of this week. After all, the company cut his bonuses with no notice, never instituted his pay raise that he was promised THREE MONTHS ago, and the 200 people laid off last month found out when they showed up to work and the news cameras were outside.