You Gotta Be Kidding

March 18, 2010

I was stunned. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised after all of the cost cutting and efficiency changes I’ve seen corporations make over the years. Still—this blatant? This matter of fact? I found her comment hard to believe.

I’ve been attending Human Resource events off-and-on for 20+ years, partly to understand the world many of my clients live in and also to learn about where the world-of-work, at least from a corporate perspective, is headed in the future. I attended an executive roundtable sponsored by a prominent consulting firm earlier today. The question posed by an audience member to the panel of Human Resource executives from major corporations seemed like a simple opportunity for someone on the panel to respond with some sort of typical corporate spin. “With job satisfaction levels at all time lows, according to a recent Conference Board survey, how concerned are you that as the economy begins to recover you will lose a lot of people, particularly your best and brightest?” Of course, this is obviously true. Many people are terribly unhappy in their jobs, but people are staying put today because they think, “Hey, at least I’ve got a job.” But given an opportunity to change jobs, as when the economy improves, and given the rampant unhappiness in many corporate environments, many will undoubtedly bolt for perceived greener pastures.

I expected to hear the panelists respond to the question by saying that they were indeed concerned about a possible talent drain and that they were working hard to put actions in place to retain their companies’ talent. But to my surprise, one of the panelists, a professional-looking woman from one of the world’s best-known organizations, said something much different. And her succinct answer, delivered in an eerily confident manner, was simultaneously articulate and at the same time as emotionless as a slaughterhouse worker’s perfunctory dismissal of the daily inventory of livestock. “Sure, and this may sound bad, we know they’re going to leave, but we believe if we can exploit as much value out of them as we can for 2 or 3 years then fine; we’ll just replace them when they leave. We’ll pay retention bonuses to the ones we really want to keep.” Really? Is this an accepted approach? Surely another panelist will take her to task I thought. But no. There was just silence accompanied by a few nods and then more panelists’ comments about why there is little concern about future troubles related to losing people. The panelists apparently base their predictions on the fact that turnover is so low today.

Is it any wonder that many people feel disconnected from their work? How silly for corporate business leaders to bemoan the fact that people don’t seem to care about their jobs the way they once did. Why should they care if the social contract between worker and many employers is as mercenary as some of these panelists’ responses suggest? I’m afraid that many corporations have become so soulless, so numbers-driven, that they’re truly unhealthy places to spend one’s life energies and that the resulting lack of employee concern for their employer does not bode well for these companies’ long-term survival. For those working in such an environment, this is a great time to ask, “What is it that I really want to do with my time and my energy? What gets me excited and energized to dream about doing with my life?” Perhaps this is the best time ever to listen to your heart’s response to these questions. Then face your fears and just go do it.