Letter to the Unscrupulous Employer

Hello Boss,

I thought I would write you this letter because I’ve been pondering the term ‘employer of choice’. Somebody used it recently. It got me curious. I thought, ‘what does it mean to be an employer of choice?’

Would it mean that you would pay me the hours that I actually work? Would it mean that you would appreciate a little bit more often the many times I go above and beyond the call of my role? Would it mean you taking a little bit more interest in what I do, and not just the interest you take for the things I need to do better? And would it mean that you would take an active interest in my life and especially in my development? Would it also mean, finally, that you don’t envisage perfection from me as an expectation?

Instead, I feel a little taken for granted. And I feel that a little too often. Would I choose to work for you, and to give my absolute fullest effort, and for that to be considered normal and simply what is required? You seem to require more out of me for less these days. More is expected and less positive feedback is given. There is more happening now than ever before, and no matter what I do, no matter how hard I work, there is always more work to do. I never get anything finished, not properly. But you don’t seem to care.

Since I heard about the term ‘employer of choice’, as I look around, I find few examples, and then I’m reminded of the merits of that deplorable union movement that advanced the idea of employers of choice in the first place. Somehow, we’ve been lulled into a world that expects more and cares less.

Sorry if this is harsh and hard-to-take feedback. You probably live in a world that doesn’t seem to appreciate you, too. Sorry about that. There just doesn’t seem to be the care that there used to be. Perhaps it was the excesses of the 80s and 90s, when the world was falling in love with systems, and ‘continuous improvement’ and ‘excellence’ were buzzwords and terms we believed in. Oh, I remember those days alright. The business world had a love affair with excellence. Great work was our purpose, and with it, a sense of vivacious celebration. It just seems now that great work is what must happen, without the celebrations. The good thing about yesteryear was it seemed that there were more employers you could term ‘employers of choice’.

An employer of choice has superior conditions and the superlative culture; where what is said about the place is matched in reality; where there is time to do things, or more appropriately time to enjoy a job well done.

I wonder why there are so many workplace abuses; where people are starved of their need of support and they are exploited for everything they have. And yet there are so many employees who are prepared to rip and ravage, stay a year or two and then move on. Sometimes they might stay only for a short time because of how they are treated.

I wonder if in today’s world whether people truly know that the concept of an ‘employer of choice’ is possible. Many people may think it is a noble aspiration, but completely unrealistic. And yet there are those who to expect to work for an employer of choice.

I guess I am digressing. This was meant to be a letter to you, my boss, by way of honesty; the type of honesty I can’t really express, because it would probably get me fired. I guess that’s the difference between employers of choice and those who are not worth working for. But you and I both know I need this job.

You should be able to be honest about how you feel about your employment. But it’s rarely the reality. Where you can be honest, where your honesty is valued, you work for an employer of choice!

(This article is not a present self-portrait)

Photo by Sarah Cervantes on Unsplash