Managers - Part XXIII - What Do You Expect of People?

A lot of attention lately has been given to workers walking out of jobs because they have had enough. Enough of abusive customers, enough of managers who don't support them, and enough of poor working conditions. I completely understand. Entry-level workers have been told for years that if they didn't like an aspect of their jobs they should just quit, so that's what many of done. The center of gravity in the employer-employee relationship has shifted in many situations to favor the employee. 

I have long said that while no job is perfect, every job is a balance between the good things about it and the bad. Where the fulcrum lies is going to differ depending on an individual's priorities. For some, a big paycheck might outweigh abusive customers, for others quality of life balance or a flexible schedule might be more important. When the bad outweighs the good, that's when an employee is going to quit. That's entirely appropriate - an employee has to decide what's best for the individual; everyone has to weigh for themselves what they are willing to do. 

As a manager in several different industries for most of my life, I hired (and fired) a lot of people. One of the things that I had to deal with in that role, was people who, for one reason or another, did not understand what the job was and expected the very nature of the job to conform to their expectations. For example, if you were hired to work on a road construction crew, it would not be reasonable to be upset that you had to work outside. The nature of the job is outside work. It would be reasonable to complain if you were not allowed rest or meal breaks, were not provided with protective equipment, or were not paid on time. But you can't work a road construction job inside an air conditioned office. One of my early management positions was as a district manager for a local newspaper circulation department. Delivering newspapers is not an easy job. Firstly, newspaper carriers are considered independent contractors, not employees. (This may have changed in recent years, but it was the case when I was in the business) What this means is that you don't have days off, you can't call in sick and you have to find your own substitute if you get sick or your car breaks down. You don't get snow days; you are out working in the dark in all kinds of weather and on all the holidays. This was all explained in detail to every person that we contracted to deliver papers, yet we would still get carriers attempting to "call in sick", or who quit suddenly when the first snowstorm of winter hit. It may have been a terrible job, but it was the job that you agreed to when you signed up. 

Much of my management career was spent in various roles in retail grocery stores. While not as grueling as a job delivering newspapers, if you worked in a grocery store you weren't an independent contractor, but an employee, with all of an employee's legal protections. There were many things that retail employees put up with that are not intrinsic to the job, but can be found in many retail environments. Varying schedules, and abusive customers are two top problems. The companies for whom I worked were obsessed with "making labor". A budget was set for payroll expenses for each store and each department within each store that was based on a percentage of gross sales. Dividing that dollar amount by the average wage told you how many hours you could schedule. Problems arose when sales were inconsistent - for example if the sales at the beginning of the month were regularly much higher than at the end of the month, or holiday sales were much higher than average. An employee might find herself scheduled for 40 hours one week, 28 hours another week and 15 on a slow week. As a manager I did my best to try to keep schedules and hours somewhat consistent for my employees.

The biggest disconnect between the needs of the company and the expectations of employees was holiday schedules. Like in my newspaper days, we made sure that we explained our expectations to new employees. One very important expectation was that during certain holidays we were much busier than normal and that we couldn't grant vacation time off during these holidays. That didn't mean that there were no days off. Everyone still got their two days off a week, but you couldn't expect to take off from December 20 through January 5 - those were extremely busy times and we needed all hands on deck. There was also the issue of fairness: everyone wanted July 4th off, wanted Christmas Eve off, but someone had to be there. But every year we still received requests for extended vacations. People were naturally disappointed when they couldn't have the time off that they wanted, but that was the job. 

It might be argued that some of these expectations, independent contractor status of newspaper carriers or no holidays off for retail workers shouldn't be part of the job. And that's where the free market comes in. Many industries, food service and retail in particular, are having trouble filling positions and have had to change the way that they do business. Some have responded with higher pay scales. But if the problem is working conditions and not pay, they will still have trouble filling positions. If enough people stay away from grocery store, or other retail, jobs due to expectations like working all holidays, eventually some of these companies might start closing on holidays. Or perhaps some other creative solution. Agreeing to certain job conditions, like working holidays, but then complaining or quitting when asked to work holidays, is dishonest. Ask questions, find out exactly what the job requirements are; if the employer deviates, stand your ground. If the job conditions don't meet your requirements, go somewhere else, which is more efficient and less stressful than taking a job where you know that you'll eventually quit because you'll be asked to do what they said you would be asked to do.