Dear “Top” Management,
I have been contemplating sending this to you for a year, however, after struggling day in and day out with not one cent and having lost everything I owned, been evicted, and now having to sleep on a couch at a friend’s house, lost 15kg, lost my animals, my friends, my family, my dignity, and been labeled as someone that has “Problems with her head”, been given a bad reference so that I am unable to find employment or accommodation, been targeted and bullied because the word “suicide” is not acceptable by the manager that said “You can tell us anything, we will help you where we can” then ran out. After all, the said manager must have been scared of the truth and what happens in reality. I have this to say:
Have you ever paid heed to why a young bright employee who joins your company with starry eyes and a spark to deliver the best, often loses their passion with reasons beyond the “Law of Diminishing Returns”? Why their solidarity for the company dwindles and why their spirits goes kaput that eventually results in either a brain drain or an uninterested stiffened workforce? Whose loss is it…? Why does the much-hyped “honeymoon phase” fade away so unceremoniously from a sense of excitement into a lull-period of demotivating air with uninspiring hours?
One may give the reasons as the nature and load of work, working culture or conditions, inter-personal or intra-personal relationships, remuneration, and even passage of time. But that’s not all; there is another side to it too.
An employee tenders effort to fulfill both individual and collective goals of the assigned job and any other task thrown at them and executed with positive results ( Safety files) and HR, therefore, rightfully termed as “human resource” — bringing in revenue and sometimes goodwill to the company. Now, like any other resource, the ‘human resource’ could either be utilized to the best, improved, upgraded, conserved and reinvigorated over-time. That or it could be exploited, mishandled, ravaged, and “used-and-thrown” as carelessly as possible.
While it may serve as an example in front of an open office — it surely doesn’t go down well either in terms of work ethics nor general humanity. The temporary push of ‘negative reinforcements’ may eke-out some iota of productivity but the person broils within because of apathy and insult.
The rise in expectations at the workplace viz-a-viz (face to face) the real challenge to keep motivations up, however, doesn’t work always. The general management rule – “come with solutions, not problems” – goes a long way in resolving work-related maladies and proves great in keeping the machinery focused and running. However, somewhere in the process of “demanding results”, many forget to add ‘that’ simple human touch of decent, civil behavior.
Heeding the excerpt from the book “Time Management – Make Every Second Count” (Bly, Roberts) – (sic) “Although, machines and chemicals don’t care whether you scream and degrade them, people do. Your staff and co-workers are not just engineers, administrators, blue-collar’s, and managers; they’re people, first and foremost… with families and friends, likes and dislikes… with feelings. Respect them as people and you’ll get their respect and loyalty in return. But treat them coldly and impersonally and they will lose the motivation to perform for you.”
Corny as it sounds, the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you” – is a sound, proven management principle. The next time you’re about to discipline a worker or voice your displeasure, ask yourself, “Would I like to be spoken to the way I’m thinking of speaking to him or her?"
I do understand that this letter may hardly make any difference to your perspectives as our viewpoints may not match; yet if we could even “agree to disagree”, imagine what a clear channel of communication could help the employees left at your company. The seeped in abrasive platitude behavior is worth paying attention to for bringing efficiency and mental peace, and for maintaining a cordial trustworthy workforce.
I survived my attempted suicide. I survived been “worked out” for the year following the attempt (bad reference feedback). I survived with the “PACKAGE” less the bull deduction you gave me that lasted two months during the COVID year and still lost everything. I survived your backstabbing and gossiping about me. I will survive getting back on my feet and making it my life mission to speak about my experience and how managers treat the blue-collar staff and not so favorites that work hard and get nothing in return except warnings, sarcasm, and judgment.
I wish you all well and trust you are financially stable, with a roof over your head, food on the table, family and friends that are not living with depression or fighting for their lives to survive.
Sincerely,
Ex-Employee Who survived!
