Hands up if you have heard one of the following utterances or similar from an employer. ‘Someone with your experience should be able to do that task without any problems.’ ‘We expect staff members with your level of experience to be flexible and handle any changes to your work situation.’ ‘No-one else has had any problems with such and such situation.’ ‘We are disappointed that you had such and such problem.’ ‘We are concerned that a pattern is developing of such and such problem in your performance.’
I am paraphrasing anecdotal examples from my own and colleagues’ experiences over a number of years and from many employers that seen to be replicated again and again.
Perhaps it is a particularly prevalent communication style in my line of work but I suspect it is more widespread. I don’t know about you but I find these comments and those like them incredibly disheartening, demoralising and demeaning. If they are intended to motivate and encourage staff members then they have the opposite effect on me and many others I have spoken to over the years.
I am not saying that constructive criticism is not a valuable and important tool when work is not up to standard or when improvement in performance is necessary. However, we are not all the same. We respond to different motivators and triggers.
What works brilliantly for some people will fail dismally for others. Good employers who want to have a optimally productive workplace need to realise this reality if they genuinely desire to motivate everyone in their workforce. We are not robots.
So true Alex. There is that attitude coming from employers. Especially corporate ones I am sure. What is going on I believe is the whole automation of the workforce. I believe employers see the end of the human employee with machines sure to follow so feel quite comfortable making these statements. I am sure this will come back to bite them as employees start join unions and fight back. I feel we could see the rise of union membership again….
So true Alex. There is that attitude coming from employers. Especially corporate ones I am sure. What is going on I believe is the whole automation of the workforce. I believe employers see the end of the human employee with machines sure to follow so feel quite comfortable making these statements. I am sure this will come back to bite them as employees start join unions and fight back. I feel we could see the rise of union membership again….
Corporates use performance as an excuse to remove staff I have seen it done before. They bring in a performance improvement plan. That no one can live up to and people either resign or are eventually let go.
100% TO ALEX AND JONO
WE ARE NOW SEEING THE JONKEY AFFECT CREEPING INTO OUR WORK CULTURE WHERE THEREB IS NO LOYALTY GIVEN WORKERS SO THE RISE IN WORKPLACE HARMONYN WILL SUFFER ALL THE TIME AS ALL WORKPLACES MISTREAT WORKERS RIGHTS.
All rip shit and bust culture now.
And, of course, robots will never tell it like it really is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syjp9lsWBhc
That kind of language involves a form of aggression and power abuse, masked in industry-acceptable/corporate language. It reminds me of David Graeber’s term, “bullshit jobs”.
You’re quite right – the thing is, human-beings are _not_ robots, and are not built to work under corporate capitalism’s clone monoculture. Human-beings aren’t supposed to grind for 18 hours a day, with the occasional ten minute break. Our bodies are organisms with peaks and troughs of energy levels, that require regular movement, change, rest, contact with nature, solitude, human contact, love, and so on.
It’s part of corporate capitalism’s make-up to exploit human-beings, their greed and their basic human needs, by turning human-beings into cogs in their machines, working for their profits. And if you’re not deemed a suitable cog, then there are plenty of other more suitable cogs that can replace you!
It’s a toxic monoculture, that really does only one thing well: destroys life.
Unfortunately, it will likely get a lot worse in the coming few decades, at least until more of the privileged classes further wake up, and take action, or something else very significant changes. And yet, ecological collapse is, really, in our midst – happening right now. It’s long past the time that we have the luxury to continue with this kind of business as usual. And yet, what choice do workers and change-makers have? It’s homelessness or slavery; starvation or brutality. Support co-ops, the small-scale, and locally-based, and of course unions IMHO – and advocate sane things as part of your way of life. The only way things will ever change, is when individual people change.
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