Difficult Work Environments – Live with it, or leave it – but just don’t stay and complain about it
I had a very close relationship with my late father, founder of Crandall Associates.
Hal wouldn’t have characterized me as the “nicest” one of the Crandall siblings, but he respected the way I conducted my life. It’s not that I’m not nice; there are people in my life that have been surprised at my random acts of generosity (when a casual friend’s ex-husband died unexpectedly, I offered to pay her next month’s mortgage payment)…when my children’s friends were young and came down with an illness like chicken pox that kept them out of commission for more than a day or two I always delivered a “recovery box” filled with little toys, books and food treats to help make the time pass more enjoyably.
So please know this about me; I’m not an animal.
But when Hal was creating an end of life directive, he chose me to “pull the plug” if it came to that, because “he knew I’d do it.”
I don’t know if that is something a daughter should be particularly proud of, but I do know he had me pegged.
So why do I tell you this?
I just read an interesting piece in the Sunday New York Times about the “meanies” at employers like HubSpot and Amazon who are too hard on their employees. I think I’m actually quite nice to my employees. There has never been a year when they did not receive holiday bonuses, birthday gift cards, the occasional flowers on their desks for no reason, gifts from my travels when I return from a trip (and often gifts sent while I am still on the trip)…you get the picture.
I try to make working for me a pleasant experience. But at the end of the day, it’s not my job to make your job enjoyable. Employment is a business arrangement. We each get something out of it. And at any time, if boss or employee doesn’t feel the exchange is equitable, they are free to end the transaction. Certainly, I would hope there would be a discussion or more to see if things can be worked out in a mutually satisfying way! But I am perplexed by intelligent people who seem to forget that they have free will. If you don’t like working at Amazon, for Pete’s sake, don’t work there!! And if you enjoy the prestige of having Amazon on your resume, then along with your paycheck you have to accept the culture they have created. Or just leave. But please don’t whine about it.
The author is even horrified by the concept of creating a metric called VORP; “value over replacement player”. May I ask what is wrong with that? If the purpose of business is to make money – and do so as efficiently as possible – (that is why business exists, isn’t it?) than what smart business owner wouldn’t evaluate the team he has versus the team he could create to make business more profitable and efficient? Why is that wrong? I don’t delude myself that I have any staff that would not weigh the value of working at Crandall Associates against another opportunity that might present itself to them.
So here’s the article in it’s entirety; I’d be interested to hear any comments: Click here.
In Articles