I am putting my corporate hat on today, I am sorry to say this, but I truly hate how I look with that hat, as it reminds me of how I felt when I was working in the corporate world.  For some reason I never felt like myself there, firstly I hate routine, I don’t like to wake up early every day, I want a holiday every once in a while and I don’t like others poking their noses into my work.  I also never liked the lack of the human factor in companies, they deal with us as if we are from Mars, they treat us as if we are owned by them and they only increase our money when they feel like it.  So I said goodbye to the corporate world where politics plays a big part in the life of every person that works there.  There is a wee lie of course here, I did try to go back, but someone told someone who told me that I knew too much coupled with being a very straightforward person, so I will never be taken back.

Yesterday one person I know was fired instantly from his job after spending only  couple of weeks there.  The person was upset, but he couldn’t tell anyone, as no one wants to be exposed.  The rules of any company are clear, first you give a warning, then a second warning then a final warning then a dismissal.  But all of these warnings will only be given if the employee did a grave mistake.  Even then the mistake should be tolerated and the human hat should be put on, to distinguish between a genuine slack behavior or a genuine mistake that one didn’t know that it is a mistake.  To make things worse, this person was not hired to do the job he was doing when he was fired, and he was never been told that he shouldn’t do what he did.  He was not able to even defend himself, and say why he did what he did! also in the letter that he was given, it mentioned something like “gross misconduct”.  When I read the letter I asked him: “did you have a go at a girl or steal something?” he said that he didn’t shave as he had lots of pimples and couldn’t shave.  Voila, gross misconduct for not shaving?  how can that be a gross misconduct or a reason for instant dismissal?

If this person was in USA he will be able to sue the company, over here, he didn’t know his rights, as this was his first job.  Of course I cannot tell him this, so I told him to not worry, many jobs will present themselves to him, and maybe the person that fired him woke up on the wrong side of the bed, or had a fight with his wife.  I tried to console him, and told him few jokes till he laughed.

This is not something that we sneeze at or shrug off, I think companies should wake up to the fact that without the people’s work the company will not exist, unless of course they have robots that do all the jobs.  The Hawthorne effect is tremendous, we must apply what we learnt in business schools and never forget that even machines require gentle care and some times speaking to (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect)

I must leave you with this thought, if the reader is a CEO of a company, please ponder on the “Companies with a heart” concept else people will be weary like me and will go work for themselves.