The balance of power in the workplace is starting to shift.
As the economy improves, the bosses who have been using fear of job loss to bully their workers — instead of treating them with respect — will increasingly find themselves behind the curve, as valuable employees bolt for better options.
Already, there have been worker shortages in several sectors. They include a variety of health care specialties, IT, accounting, trucking, HVAC and skilled maintenance mechanics with computer backgrounds. Those shortages will expand to other sectors as more industries pick up steam.
There’s a well-established principle in human relations, which includes bosses and workers: What goes around comes around.
This special section of the newspaper is dedicated to the good employers — those who have demonstrated strong leadership and established policies that recognize the importance of teamwork to be successful.
Survey after survey show that workers, more than anything, want to be appreciated and feel part of something meaningful. Bosses who seek employee input and avoid the “my way or the highway” school of management are much more likely to do better over the long run. Employee turnover declines and so does paying thousands of dollars in training costs per worker.
But the Great Recession and its aftermath blurred the vision of many employers. Cost-cutting became the name of the game, with many reasoning it was the only way to survive.
There’s a right way and wrong way to try to get more work out of fewer people.
The right way includes figuring out mutually beneficial solutions, recognizing that some workers may have to get laid off in the process. But everyone is called on to make sacrifices, including the occupant of the corner office. And the rationale during each step of the process is communicated to everyone.
The wrong way, by contrast, includes creating a hard-nosed dictatorship by making more and more unreasonable demands of the “grateful” survivors.
The problem for those bosses is that many of the survivors aren’t grateful. They feel trapped because there are few alternatives out there. Over the past few years, I’ve heard from employees who are just itching to jump ship when the job market turns.
It will. Global capitalism is a dynamic system. A glut of workers during one period of time generally leads to a shortage in another.
To be sure, the job market will not mend quickly. Getting a job if you’re unemployed is still tough. And jumping to another job if you have one is still not easy, given the competition and the abnormally high unemployment rate.
But the job market will continue to improve, albeit unevenly. More sectors will go from worker excesses to worker shortages. Even the housing sector in metro Atlanta — given up for dead a few years back — is starting to show signs of life.
Employees have memories, long ones. Bosses who have been good to them will lose far fewer valuable contributors when job options increase. But those who’ve been abusive will pay the price.
Employees are forgiving, too. The balance of power is just beginning to shift from one completely dominated by employers to a more even playing field. There’s still time for errant bosses to mend their ways and get it right. But it’s running short.
About the Author
