Corporate suicide: Self destructing on the job
In the job market, often the employee commits hara kiri by failing to realise the values his employer holds dear.
The whole world, including Pakistan, has been experiencing a job recession for the last few years. It is not only frustrating for employees but also for organisations as well. The recent economic crunch has triggered downsizing at all levels. Downsizing, rightsizing, removal of fat and other such terms have actually caused joblessness. A by-product of this is job insecurity which keeps many employees wide awake at night. Jobs are more demanding now and people have to work really hard to get promoted and for few even survival is a difficult task.
Organisations are concerned with productivity and output of their resources. Multinationals are taking more interest in a business model which uses minimum cost and gives maximum revenue. Outsourcing is one example of this cost-effectiveness. In the age of recession, organisations are very careful in hiring people and try to minimise mistakes as the hiring process also has a heavy cost involved in terms of resources and time. Management tends to hire right people only and they do not fire their valuable resources unless they have no choice. Firing an employee is the last option for any organisation.
There are actually two reasons why an employee may be laid off. One is performance and the other is values. Organisations do not give a second thought to firing those employees who do not respect their values. However they always give a second or third chance to those who do not perform according to the organisation’s needs and employee’s job description.
To avoid any chance of getting fired because of violating the firm’s core values, every employee must get detailed information about the values of the organisation he/she is going to join. Most have a habit of advertising their core values on their websites as well and guide new employees on their orientation. Employees must respect these values to avoid any unexpected and unpleasant moment. Such actions not only cause joblessness but disrespect the employee as well which may hurt their future in the entire industry.
As it is discussed earlier, that organisations are very conscious about hiring and firing people and firing employees is never their priority. But in this, the onus is then on the organisation to ensure they provide clear guidelines, job description and that what is expected from the employee in his specific role. And in the same vein, organisations should and usually do keep a strong check on employees’ performance which eventually determines whether an employee should continue with the same salary, should be given any increment, incentive or promotion at the end of the year. Only those who consistently perform badly get fired or asked to resign. The tradition of issuing warning letters before firing an employee shows that organisations want to give an opportunity to their employees to perform well before saying a final good bye.
Those who are unable to perform according to their job description have few traits which should be avoided by the employees who are concerned about their future and should follow them as their own values.
One of these traits is falling in love with your job. This is one of the major reasons of not performing well and thinking that they cannot be replaced as they are too good to be fired. They feel that they have a long list of achievements which can save their career and the organisation cannot afford to fire such a valuable resource.
This psyche takes years to grow in an employee. People work hard to find a job and even harder to be visible in early days. This hard work earns them some remarkable achievements. The confidence boosting achievements give them satisfaction initially and then a feel of being a pillar of the organisation. They fall in love with their job after their outstanding performance. It leads them to go beyond their job and they keep repeating something which they have been doing for years even if the need of the job is changed. They do not learn new techniques and do not pass on their experience to their junior. This lack of professionalism can cause joblessness for them. Warning letters for such experienced employees normally do not serve the purpose.
This is just one undesirable element in an employee. There are many others which we will look at in the concluding part of this article.
the writer works as a training specialist in mobilink pakistan
Published in The Express Tribune, March 14th, 2011.