Tuesday, August 30, 2022

What is an Employee These Days?

 One of my first jobs was a paper-carrier for S.I. Newhouse and the Staten Island Advance. It was the early to mid 1950s and you were told exactly what to do. Namely get to the paper drop location before 4PM and deliver all papers no later than 6PM. In addition you collected $0.3 per customer per week for the paper and you paid SI and his folks $0.25 per customer per week. Collections were your problem. I had 120 customers so for my 2.5 hour per day times six days, 15 hours, I could collect $5.00. That was $0.33 per hour. Fail to comply meant you were terminated. I started when I was 11 and worked until 14. Paid my way thru High School. No Government debt relief then.

In those days, and through the 1990s one was employed to perform a task and if you disliked you work, the company, the boss, the office etc you quit. I did that a few times. Starting in the 2000s a new generation of employee started to emerge. One who felt their opinion was just as valuable if not more so than the company or boss or customer. They felt they were supreme and that anyone who differed would be opposed without consequences. I see this now everywhere.

The NY Times discusses terminated employees at Google. Google fired several employees and the Times seems to feel this is anathema. In fact it is Google's own fault. They created this over the top environment where any opinion is as good as any other. This strategy can backfire and it has. The result is predictable, terminations.