You’re Not Fired
October 20, 2005
Even though I am no longer in the hierarchy at work, I know all of the goings-on and dirty secrets that most people in my position don’t. The managers still talk to me about things that shouldn’t really leave the “inner circle”. Maybe old habits die hard. Whatever the reason, I’m not really complaining. I couldn’t imagine going back into the dark after having access to all the juicy tidbits of office gossip. For one, I’d be out one great resource of inspiration for this blog.
That being said, I was talking to one of the managers today about a particular co-worker. Twice in one week I’ve had to finish something he “couldn’t” do only to find out later that he could have done it… he just didn’t want to. It was too hard. Or it was going to take a lot of time. Waaaa, waaa. Several months ago I had a chat with him about leaving his work for other people to finish. It basically went something like this: “quit being lazy… do your damn job… and stop leaving your stuff for someone else to finish”. He’s dense. Apparently he didn’t get it.
We spent a good 20 minutes today exchanging things we’d seen ourselves or heard from other people about this person’s laziness. He doesn’t pull his weight and, when he does have to actually do something, he bitches about it. Now under normal circumstances, someone like this wouldn’t have a job. Some businesses would have gotten rid of dead weight a long time ago. Some businesses would have explained to the guy that if he didn’t start doing what he was getting paid to do, he wouldn’t get paid to do it anymore. But apparently this isn’t one of those companies.
Isn’t the primary goal of any company to make money? I mean… sure… they offer services to consumers. And while some people may kid themselves into thinking that these services are a company’s primary purpose… it’s not. Bottom line is… well… the bottom line of any company.
Most companies take certain measures to insure the bottom line is as healthy as possible. These measures include managing overhead, profit/loss optimization, and reinvestment of company assets. One thing that can weigh heavily on bottom line is payroll expense. Any company of any size has a hefty payroll. Payroll is usually one of, if not the, expense that is most under a company’s direct control. If you’re paying too many people to do work that fewer people could do… you get rid of some. If you’ve got more work than people to do it… you get more people. It’s basic math. And it’s common sense.
So what happens when you’ve got people that you’re paying to do a job… but they’re not doing it? You’ve got the work for them to do. You’ve got the money to pay them. But what you don’t have is actual work getting done. It should be simple enough: you replace them with someone who will do the work. However, it seems that simple answers aren’t enough any more.
Maybe it’s the after-effect of unionization. Maybe it’s the after-effect of a court system that’s all too happy to side with stupid people who should have known better. Or maybe it’s the after-effect of one too many pieces of red tape. Maybe it’s just bureaucracy defined. Whatever the reason may be, it’s hard to get rid of people these days… at least for large corporations. Small companies and single-owner businesses are a little more nimble when it comes to reacting to crappy employee performance.
Low-performing employees do more than cost companies money. They increase the workload of other employees. They contribute to lower performance for the company as a whole. And, in many cases, they get in the way. Trim the fat - that’s what they used to call it. A company, like an athlete, should be toned… slim… and able to quickly react to change. Crappy employees slow everything down. Not only do they serve their function slower, but they also slow down everyone else’s functioning while we wait on them to catch up.
In the end, paying sub-par employees hurts us all. When less work is being done, more money is spent to get caught up. When more money is spent to get caught up, bottom lines go up. And when bottom lines go up, consumer prices go up to compensate. Come on… corporations aren’t going to give you anything.
I’d love to see companies get back to the practice of trimming the fat. Get rid of the people who don’t pull their own weight and find someone else who does. Successful companies have successful employees. Crappy companies have crappy employees. It’s simple. A company is defined by it’s employees. Getting rid of the stragglers gets rid of straggle all around. I’m sorry if that means someone out there reading this would get trimmed. But let’s face it… you get what you give. If you give half-assedly, you get half-assedly treated in return.
Some of us have a work ethic. Those who don’t shouldn’t be allowed to hold the rest of us back.
Posted in Human Nature, Noteworthy, Rants
June 29th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
[...] I mentioned something in my last post about the courts. I think the exact words I used were “maybe it’s the after-effect of a court system that’s all too happy to side with stupid people who should have known better” (talking about employers who are afraid to fire cruddy employees). It got me thinking about frivolent law suits and the court system that seems to be ok with them. [...]
December 13th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
[...] But is it really a change in business or is it more a change in human nature? Generally speaking, a lot of people don’t care about their work as much as folks used to. They go to work to get a paycheck so they can have money to feed into the system. Employers don’t get rid of employees who don’t perform so substandard work becomes the norm. If people aren’t expected to care about their work, they won’t. It’s sad… but it’s also human nature. [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Well you see Derick, don’t you remember that in school they teach you teamwork? They’ll put the hardworking kids with the lazy ones and make them work on a project together. Of course the projects points directly affect your grades. So you, being the hardworking one will naturally finish your portion of the project and your partner’s portion if you want to get high marks. I would think the working environment is the same. The boss expects the hard workers to take up the slack of the low-performing ones, so they keep on telling you that the department has to stay alive or else everyone will lose their job. Sad but true. (sigh)
April 10th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
I was also the person in school that just wanted to do the group project by myself anyway. I don’t like my work being tied to other people because, frankly… I don’t trust other people’s work (especially school-aged people).