Back in August I did this post, Hard work does not pay off
In short I said, working late, is not the same as working hard.
If you think working late will solely elevate your career, you are wrong, it could have the opposite effect, if you become a star in your role, you may become a safe set of hands that’s risky/hard to replace.
I also mention that an employment contract, is just that, a contract. It’s not a love letter or company charity, a company has a need, if you fill that need, you are hired and paid.
If your position is no longer required, you will either be redeployed or made redundant, that’s how it is.
This year has been brutal with layoffs especially in technology, according to posts online, the tech industry has at least let go of 50k staff members, with some hard working employees even being let go by Zoom calls, some of the reasons for redundancies was due to companies increasing headcount during the covid boom and now with the markets levelling out and inflation set to rise, they are reducing headcount.
These employees who were let go, were likely hard working staffs but due to circumstances out of their control, they are being let go, with the remaining staff possibly being overworked to compensate for this.
They could have been extremely loyal to the company, they could have given up a lot of their work life balance in the hope of helping the company achieve its goals (and PDR’s targets), only to be let go at the drop of a hat.
What’s that got to do with the title?
Elon Musk decided to buy Twitter, the public is taking note of his leadership, according to reports, he wants all employees back in the office and wants them to work longer hours, with no mention of overtime payments.
The usual virtue signalling lot has come to his defence with the expected outcry of ‘lazy’ employees or ‘people not wanting to work anymore’ etc.
Not only do actions like this paint a picture that the twitter employees were lazy, it cements the false ideology that working late = working hard, which is NOT true!
I read recently that a senior manager at Vice, once joked that the company’s hiring strategy had a “22 Rule”: “Hire 22-year-olds, pay them $22,000, and work them 22 hours a day.”
In China they have what they call 9-9-6 culture, which is start at 9am finish at 9pm for 6 days a week, a culture which China is trying to regulate, but again what’s this got to do with the title?
At Space X, they say 60 hour work weeks are considered part time; Amazon have burned through so many employees that it’s executives were showing concern, ESG has become nothing more than blurb to write on company websites and investors are about profits only, this leaves no one really fighting for the employees, in the UK a leaked audio shows a former prime minister stating workers are lazy, chuck in Kim and Molly and it’s clear, there is real resent towards people fighting for work/life balance, a company would rather spend money hiring lobbyists to suppress employee progression, than accept the world they know HAS changed.
This has played right into the hands of unions, people in the lower middle class are fatigued from hearing those who cannot relate, preach ‘were doing enough and you need to do more’.
In the US at least, many are turning to unions to try and get the support they are looking for.
Links:
China steps in to regulate brutal ‘996’ work culture – BBC News
Twitter Managers Told Staff to Work 12-Hour Shifts, 7 Days a Week: CNBC (businessinsider.com)
Vice Media Was Built on a Bluff (nymag.com)
Amazon Execs Worry About Turnover, Running Out of Workers: Report (businessinsider.com)
Leaked audio reveals Liz Truss said British workers needed ‘more graft’ | Liz Truss | The Guardian
Brainthrough 