Expecting employees to “care about the business”

I’m increasingly hearing management at work complaining that not enough people “care about the business”.
But unless you’re a shareholder or the owner, why would you?
I can understand people taking pride in their work, that’s different. But as long as their job is safe, why would you expect any of the rank and file workforce to give a shit about the business itself, especially if they work for a multinational corporate giant? Unless they are working towards a tasty bonus or promotion, surely most people just want to hoy their coat on at 4.30 and escape, not stay back to get a job out cos it’s “for the benefit of the business”.

I imagine it depends on what you do for a living too. Those working a process/ repetitive work, like say in a biscuit factory would have less reason to care (I’m not saying some don’t) compared to let’s say folk who work at NASA.
 


I try to align my needs and wants with that of the company. They want me to finish my last job of the day, most days this means finishing a little late. By doing this, it means my following day runs a bit smoother but more importantly, I get paid a bit more. Win win.
 
I’m increasingly hearing management at work complaining that not enough people “care about the business”.
But unless you’re a shareholder or the owner, why would you?
I can understand people taking pride in their work, that’s different. But as long as their job is safe, why would you expect any of the rank and file workforce to give a shit about the business itself, especially if they work for a multinational corporate giant? Unless they are working towards a tasty bonus or promotion, surely most people just want to hoy their coat on at 4.30 and escape, not stay back to get a job out cos it’s “for the benefit of the business”.

Its up the the management to create an environment and culture that lends to employees giving a shit about the business. Essentially they give a genuine shit about the employees and the employees therefore give a shit back.

The best companies all have employees who are proud to work there and once you get that going, the rest is easy.
 
It works both ways...

I always go that bit further but on the knowledge that I take time back when it suits me. This approach means I don’t miss any important milestones with my daughters etc.

I do care about the prosperity of the business, I don’t care if someone has to tell a client that a job will run over because of piss poor PM.
 
When I started my current job. I did care. Was in early, worked through lunch, sometimes stayed back.

Turned when I asked for something minimal and they said no. When someone else, not me, pointed out the extra effort I put in I got the response 'well that's his choice'

These days I'm in a minute before my shift starts, my lunch hour is an hour, I take the two breaks I'm allowed and I leave exactly when I finish and don't give the place a second thought.

The likelihood is that if I left today they'd replace me tomorrow. However as they're finding out now, with the better staff leaving as soon as another opportunity arises and having to hire and re-train those perhaps a little less qualified the departments suffering and this is evident in their bottom line...
 
I’m sorry but anyone who thinks a company cares about their employees is deluded.

I’ve seen it time and tine again, if trading is tough, your deemed surplus to requirements or your face doesn’t fit you’ll be getting your P45.

The notion it’s hard to get rid of people isn’t true either. I worked at a company where there was a change in leadership (younger management team) and over a period of a year or so got rid of pretty much everyone in a senior-ish role over 50. Some of them had been at the company over 20 years and been key to growing it and were unceremoniously binned.

Look after yourself 100%.
 
I’m sorry but anyone who thinks a company cares about their employees is deluded.

I’ve seen it time and tine again, if trading is tough, your deemed surplus to requirements or your face doesn’t fit you’ll be getting your P45.

The notion it’s hard to get rid of people isn’t true either. I worked at a company where there was a change in leadership (younger management team) and over a period of a year or so got rid of pretty much everyone in a senior-ish role over 50. Some of them had been at the company over 20 years and been key to growing it and were unceremoniously binned.

Look after yourself 100%.
There is a also a big portion of this.

But I don’t subscribe to the idea that I should do a shit job pot work to rule just because they’d get rid of me if the going got tough.

Often tough commercial decisions need to be made and I get that, doesn’t mean I don’t care or don’t do my best for the company.

This attitude also reflects well on you when searching for other roles and is part of a healthy outlook on life in general, it translates over to your personal life too.

Anyway, off for a run in works time.
 
Tricky one that has many answers and a lot covered already.
I’ve been on both sides , employed for 25yrs working for both small and large firms . The best were German or American owned and worst Korean. Miles apart in the way they treat staff and it showed in employee attitude .However I’ve seen co employees treat the good companies like utter shit so it does work both ways .
Now I employ a lot of staff I can see that divide between who’s good and who will be nothing but trouble no matter what you pay/give them. Give them a nice birthday present one year and the next they get all narky cos you didn’t give them owt .
Summary is there’s good and bad companies and employees out there
The hard part is working them out
 
Tricky one that has many answers and a lot covered already.
I’ve been on both sides , employed for 25yrs working for both small and large firms . The best were German or American owned and worst Korean. Miles apart in the way they treat staff and it showed in employee attitude .However I’ve seen co employees treat the good companies like utter shit so it does work both ways .
Now I employ a lot of staff I can see that divide between who’s good and who will be nothing but trouble no matter what you pay/give them. Give them a nice birthday present one year and the next they get all narky cos you didn’t give them owt .
Summary is there’s good and bad companies and employees out there
The hard part is working them out

Good post. Before I started out alone old gaffer used to give everyone xmas wage 10 days or so early with a treat in.
Had a horrific year one year n couldnt afford to do either = fecking hell on.
Morons on either side of the fence I guess.
 
As long as you’re fulfilling your contract terms and not stirring up trouble, your job is reasonably safe no matter now much you care.


I’m only on floors at the minute. Need more experience before I get to handle the spatula.

That is all well and good when things are going well with big order books etc, when things aren’t as good then there is no such thing as reasonably safe.
 
Days of staying at one company are pretty much finished, there's no loyalty downward so there should be none upwards either.. Look for how they treat their most replaceable staff members - the folks on zero hours contracts or absolute legal minimum wage/holiday/pension. If you think someone somewhere see's those guys as numbers on a spreadsheet then looks at other people any differently you're deluded.
 
I’m increasingly hearing management at work complaining that not enough people “care about the business”.
But unless you’re a shareholder or the owner, why would you?
I can understand people taking pride in their work, that’s different. But as long as their job is safe, why would you expect any of the rank and file workforce to give a shit about the business itself, especially if they work for a multinational corporate giant? Unless they are working towards a tasty bonus or promotion, surely most people just want to hoy their coat on at 4.30 and escape, not stay back to get a job out cos it’s “for the benefit of the business”.
Unless they’re incentivised by profit share or bonuses why would they.
 
I think it was Unipress next to Nissan that actually expected it's managers to work 12 to 15 hours a week unpaid. Any manager that headed home before 7 to 7.30 pm unless there was a family emergency had poor continued prospects with the company.

Most jobs, I've never been pressed to stay much past my finish time unless there was an emergency. I used to put in extra time to begin with where I knew I had to for my own targets, but as soon as you realise it's taken for granted you'll stay late or your home life is suffering (and in my case my health), it's time to bring things to an end.

I've also found doing a one-off favour can lead to a task becoming an expected regular unwritten duty. You've done it once so you'll do it again. And that trap can be a nasty one if things go wrong and there's no-one else to do the task (say if the original person has left).

I’ve seen this in the past at my workplace where “goodwill” can be abused by management.
Fortunately that mindset seems to have changed as various gaffers have come and gone.
I’ve always gone above what is required when I can do so out of personal pride , but if they want me to work overtime then I won’t do it for free.
 
Places like Germany and France have the right idea, nobody gets made redundant... You sit on ‘the bench’ until a suitable role or suitable training is provided. This could be a week, a month or a year.

Means employees are much less dispensable and they show a lot more loyalty.

On the flip side, nightmare to hire the right person and get rid of the crap.

There is a also a big portion of this.

But I don’t subscribe to the idea that I should do a shit job pot work to rule just because they’d get rid of me if the going got tough.

Often tough commercial decisions need to be made and I get that, doesn’t mean I don’t care or don’t do my best for the company.

This attitude also reflects well on you when searching for other roles and is part of a healthy outlook on life in general, it translates over to your personal life too.

Anyway, off for a run in works time.
Just got my 5k PB, on works time. Nice little start to the day.

All set for the Pier to Pier on sunday.
 
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From the first day at work many years ago I always went with a sense of gratitude to the people/company that hired me above other potential employees. Even when they turned out to be poor employers I gave it my all but made plans to leave and left on good terms even tho I wanted to maybe rip their heads off.
A lot of folk seem to go into a job with the attitude of they should be grateful to have me .
 

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