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Monday, May 24, 2010

When Best Practices are Ignored

Your manager isn't following the handbook and guidelines set out by official company policy. What will happen if you complain?

11 comments:

Doug DeJulio said...

I am wondering, if an organization has an ombudsman, might they be able to play a part in this sort of situation? In my experience, a lot of folks working in an organization with an ombudsman don't understand what the role is for or have any idea how to interact with them.

Suzanne Lucas said...

Doug,

That is an excellent point. I hadn't thought of that.

Mike said...

Where the heck have we gone as a nation? Before the recession we worked a longer work week than anyone else int eh first world while being paid less on average in wages and benefits.

Now that times are tough we're expected to work even more unpaid overtime because "its the new normal"? Look EHRL, I understand the context you're giving your advice in, but isn't there something wrong with the culture of American business when we're expected to give up more and more of our lives for less and less money?

Somehow nations like Germany and Great Britain and Canada are somehow able to keep much lower average workweeks while maintaining better wages (per capita GDA vs. median household income).

Why is it that American workers are always expected to give more for less to our superiors when "it's the new normal". I've never walked into a grocery store and expected a discount on food because "it's the new normal".

Why is it that we are so willing just to put up with it?

bilalmujtabakhan said...

Thank you very much for pinpointing the chronicle tension.
Just tell me the answer of the simple question
that if an organization dont want to implement the practices then why they spent money on this useless thing for them.Is that all for fashion or is there something different.

fposte said...

Mike, while I don't generally disagree with your point, I'll note that if you're an exempt employee, there's no presumptive 40-hour week. I'm not saying that's a good thing, just that people tend not to realize that that's a legal requirement for a certain group, not an across-the-board standard.

Mike said...

fposte -

I do understand the legal issues here, but I want to be clear that I'm not making my argument from a legal basis. Rather, I'm appealing to a moral argument that we as employees shouldn't have to sacrifice our lives and the lives of our friends and families for ever reducing pay and benefits.

Frankly, it's my belief that the exempt employee rules are being pushed farther and farther each year. The intent of such rules was to classify employees whose job doesn't fit the traditional nine to five position. Now it's being used by employers to extract more work from employees for no extra cost.

I just don't understand how as a nation that puts "family values" above all else we're all ready and willing to put in a few more hours at the office for nothing in return. It's morally wrong, and we should start standing up for ourselves and our families.

Film Co. Lawyer said...

And that's why I'm a huge proponent of working for yourself. Why put in tons of hours a week for some company or total jerk who doesn't appreciate it? Who won't bother to promote you or even give you a bonus for your extra efforts? Law firms treat their associates this way & they work about 60+ hours.

At least if you work for yourself or as a freelance, YOU make the schedule & YOU get to be your own boss. If you can't start a business, be a freelancer.

That's another thing: if you're going to work a ton of hours, why not just get more education so you can at least make more money to be abused? At least then, you might eventually get some leadership role. I had a close relative die suddenly at 21 (right before I got accepted to law school) so I have very strong feelings about the value of family & friends vs. a job, especially one you have no passion for.

Mike said...

Film Co. Lawyer -

You do make some great points about the upsides of working for yourself, but you aren't implying that everyone should become a company of one, are you?

Improving one's education is certainly an option, but that assumes that one has the time to actually attend courses in the first place!

Though these are great individual suggestions, I have a feeling a better long term answer would be to adopt some of the protections seen in Europe for employees. When one starts getting written up for following the rules, there's really something wrong. Simply requiring cause to fire someone would go a long way to help make things more fair.

fposte said...

I think separating health care from work would go even farther. When people don't need to stay in a bad job just to make sure their children get basic shots, their work decisions are a lot freer.

AMIT said...

If we complain we might lose the job.

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bilalmujtabakhan said...

The main HR practices according to the international laws and regulations,are the followings
Compensation,promotion and percieved employee performance.
Its researched that in those insitutes where clear path and succession planning is defined to the employees,there is significant growth in the performance as compare to those employess those dont know about the career planning and succession planning.

http://www.phpbbtoplist.com/Businesses/Human_Resources/Workforce_Management/Employee_Manuals_And_Policies/7657.html