The times when the company was promoted as a family is long over. Now, after COVID and the hybrid or fully remote models of working, leaders see another issue, or at least most of them call it so, arising. Before the pandemic, people did not act as with the family business thing. Many of the traditionally used phrases or approaches need to be revised. Many people are with company physically, but at the same time, their mind is somewhere else. It is not rare to hear leaders trying to get all their employees’ attention. At the same time, employees have turned against the old order. Many of them just come, insist, and if not happening, move forward.
While this is common within the cultures that see the person as a number on the balance sheet, many other countries and cultures suffer from that deficit of intention and commitment. While living in the old model, many companies still believe they play a significant role in their employees’ lives. At the same time, employees have grown techniques like” quiet quitting,” “invisible sabotaging,” etc.
Between the new normal, where everyone is not ready for compromises, and the still strengthened behavior of the largest and somehow more bureaucratic companies, employees have to learn a valuable lesson – what not to do as an employee of a potential employer.
In a world where being enough for yourself is a demonstrated and valued behavior, showing that you are attached to something, someone, or a company may be perceived as a weakness. And while still here, there are three things employees must learn to refrain from performing as part of an employer.
Offer loyalty to the company.
Gone are the days when employees start with a company and finish their career path within the same company. That whole life learning and dedication strategy may have worked in the 20th century, but today, people live in a fast-paced, excentric, unpleasant, aggressive environment. Being loyal to a company may be good initially and look like a standard human value, but let’s be honest – our relationship is more transactional. There is no win-win approach that the old habits have produced. Now, we seek to improve and move forward. Because constantly moving forward may quickly turn us from strugglers to winners. Whatever can help us move forward is good, and what stops or delays us has to be left behind. Even if this is the largest and most prominent name of a company. Look at Google, Amazon, and Tesla. They are technological miracles but constantly fighting for talent and cannot keep some of their most prominent people.
Expect loyalty from the company.
Nowadays, companies are transactional structures. No matter the values promoted, or pictures painted of contented living people reaching nirvana in the company, there is always a good bucket of stress on the side. Companies fight to survive in a hostile environment where everyone else is fighting for their place under the sun. If you are not flexible and constantly change structures and processes, you will die as a company. That often includes cutting projects, moving funds from one place to another, dismissing or demoting people, etc. You only must name it, and there it is. A company may have established a culture of belonging, but do not expect that culture to be there to protect you. It is a culture of convenience value for both sides – the company, who rushes to make the change and stay relevant, and you, who are trying to change your status. So, loyalty is a glue only if an interest is on the table. When the company does not get balance within the relationship built with employees, it just moves from caring to defensive and, at the same time, offensive action plans to protect itself from extinction. And in this beautiful moment, the employee sees the natural face of the company, “loyalty.”
Making empty threats in your path
Now, let’s face it. The world is changing so rapidly that most of the knowledge relevant today will be out of reasonability in less than several years. Making a clear and long path that can lead an employee to the corner office is not the case anymore. If an employee follows up on that development plan, they often end up being screwed up and missing opportunities. And that creates emptiness, feelings of dishonesty, and guilt toward themselves. After reaching that state of remarkable insignificance, employees become hostile and start yelling at everything and everyone. And this turns them from “valuable contributors” to “negative stoppers.” This is where emotions take over logic, and employees make stupid decisions like those to confront their leaders directly, talk negatively toward the company, insult others, and reposition themselves into the corner of “not wanted disturbers.” That may easily lead people to lose their jobs without having the time to find a suitable prolongation of their path for development. And when that happens, people often lose more than they have ever thought. The only guilt here is the emotional instability of the person wanting a quick change without balancing the pros and cons of this change.
“Asking” for a just salary raise in your current job
Nothing is more humiliating than begging someone who gives you alms for your effort and work. Valued employees are often offered a generous increase and perks that help them progress within their winning paths. But another group hopes to get that rise and live with it until the next one. Starting with an ask for a rise is to start on the weak side of your negotiation and development path. This makes your boss look more substantial than you and uses their bargaining power to humiliate you. And many employees are in this situation to receive a small number of unsatisfactory benefits. Getting that rise can be easy, but most employees must learn how to work toward it. The strategy of asking for an upgrade must be correct because most employees need help explaining their work’s actual market value, how their salary compares to similar roles or people in the same or other organizations, etc.
Undoubtedly, value must be put into negotiating a salary increase, but it must be done differently. It does not have to step on a weak and vulnerable leg but go through a pat where the employee knows what they can build within the organization with their capabilities and use it to sell the future value to be created from them, not compared to others, but to how they stand as individuals at the moment and how will their place look different in the future reality.
Asking(Begging) for help while unprepared and weak
Our world feeds the strongest of the day with others’ fear, insecurity, and weakness. Our society has not changed much from the Dark Ages, but slavery is now modern and looks different. Just like the slaves in the Dark Ages, asking for help can easily be a weapon to strike employees’ weaknesses and control them eventually. Although anyone needs help to finish their priorities, how the employee constructs the line for help attachments dramatically impacts how they position themselves, among others.
Asking for help does not have to be disturbing, but it needs preparation done correctly. Suppose an employee has a problem with one of their coworkers. The incidents list should be shorter than the employee can manage. The physical reaction to weakness may be to get to their line manager or the leadership body and compel and pledge for help. This makes the employee look insecure, weak, and untrustworthy.
Now, look at the same situation in a separate way. An employee with problems with a coworker has documented most of the incidents, including all their reactions and those of the other side. Has used company framework for values and sustainable culture at the workplace as a piece of evidence that active actions have been taken and comes to their supervisor or a representative of HR department or the leadership body not to ask, but to discuss how to get a winning solution from this unpleasant situation with the help of the higher level layer in the company.
Who will get the more reliable support – the first or the second employee?
People often mistakenly ask for help by begging for compassion. And this is when an employee turns from a valued contributor to a heavy rock in the machine.
Leaders do not want to waste their time going after every employee but focus on those who create value with the least effort because working with these employees as a group is a prerequisite for sustainable success now and in the future.
IN CONCLUSION:
Being a leader is becoming much more complicated these days. And being a value-receiving employee is even much harder. However, the power to change is not in the hands of the companies or the leaders but the employees. Learning the most adaptable behavior and how to turn weaknesses into strengths builders can transform employees from weak contributors to high-value achievers in no time. Now, where are you as an employee today, or if you are a leader – where are your employees on the path of not being loyal and weak but being more vital and achievers?
Can you answer the question?
Whether your answer is YES or NO is a good starting point for a tremendous change.
The Human place 