In the last few days, several tweets and LinkedIn status updates had links to articles that presented companies as entities that needed to be wooed and pampered. The articles were published by reputed (Indian and international) business publications with a large readership. One had suggestions on how to be a ‘great employee’. Apart from regurgitating the classic advice of going beyond expectations, taking on additional work, saying yes to all challenging tasks give to them, it also suggested that ‘great employees’ should grin and bear all the punches thrown at them without taking them personally.
Very uplifting thoughts - if you are the employer, rather than the employee!
[caption id=“attachment_271457” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Quitting blues. Reuters”]  [/caption]
Then there was another independent and unrelated article that took the premise further. It suggested that an employee leaving an organisation amounts to cheating. Employees who are ‘jilting’ their companies are indulging in ‘unethical’ practices that will make their employers ‘feel bad’ because of the ‘broken promises’.
Midway through the article, I had to re-check the title to ensure we were not talking about wives or girlfriends here and I hadn’t stumbled upon the agony aunt section of the publication. Nope, it was very much about companies, presented as gullible and sensitive partners.
Dj vu, I thought and started wondering where it was that I had seen or heard about powerful and oversized (but surprisingly sensitive) giants being tamed or taken for an emotional roller-coaster ride by pint-sized lesser mortals. Any King Kong fans out there?
The writer’s rationale was that an employer has recruited an employee in good faith and with the expectation that the relationship will last for at least one year. For whatever reasons, if the employee leaves, the organisation’s resource plans get messed up, all the investment in their training goes down the drain and it can also have an adverse impact on their clients.
I think (and hope) we are all on the same page about the fact that an employer-employee relationship must be approached in a professional manner. But what do you do if it starts turning into a one-way street?
Companies do spend a bomb recruiting the best possible talent from the market and they are justified in having expectations from the guys who they take on-board. Though not many may send out ‘How to be a great employee’ articles, companies do make their expectations clear in many ways.
The appointment letter sets out what the employee has been recruited for. The company policies make it clear what’s permissible and what’s not within the corporate framework. The appraisal process makes it clear what would be measured and how. The compensation structure makes it clear how the employee would be rewarded. The resignation policy makes it clear how many months you’d have to cool your heels in your cubicle before they’ll get a replacement.
What about the other side of the story? How do employees make it clear to their employers about what they’d expect from the company, what penalties would apply if promises are broken? How does an employee send a message to the company if the professional relationship doesn’t seem symbiotic any longer?
Well, not too many official avenues to get there. Some of the options are - one-on-one discussions with the boss, escalations to the HR team or the senior management.
The few formal options at your disposal may not be very effective. It’s pretty clear who the underdog is. What if your negotiation efforts fall flat? You quit.
It’s not the most pleasant option for either side, but life moves on. You get a new job, the employer gets a new replacement. Unless your exit created ripples in the organisation and got the attention of other employees who shared your cause, very little might change in the company you left. As long as the separation has happened according to mutually agreed terms and conditions, it’s all fair.
Considering so much time is spent in the office, it’s tough to keep emotions out of the event. You might feel sad (for leaving back a bunch of fantastic colleagues), or anxious (about whether the next job will be better or worse) or a sense of relief (for getting a chance to leave the baggage behind and start afresh). But guilt? Unlikely. And even before the separation formalities are over, the optimistic search for the ‘great employer’ and the ‘great employee’ has already begun.
Have you ever worked for an employer, where the lump in the throat you felt on the last day at work had nothing to do with the extra helping of paneer at lunch? What specifically was it about the company that made it great?
Sameer Kamat is the author of ‘Beyond The MBA Hype’ and the founder of mbacrystalball.com. He blogs at www.sameerkamat.com. You can connect with him on Twitter @kamatsameer