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Sounds like some of your work at places who don't have the right people running them.
In many cases, the "right" people left long ago and the company refused to offer the right wage/salary for the position. In other cases, I suspect the "right" people realized there is no point in boarding a sinking ship. I know management/office staff that left good paying positions because they couldn't stand the work environment as well.
At a previous employer of mine, the HR manager left due to the work environment. She got sick of the foul language, inappropriate/childish behavior, lewd gestures. I won't even get into some of the activities that took place in the restrooms... A professional worker working in an environment that was anything but professional. She was paid well enough for her job, but the environment was enough to force her to accept a lower paying position. The problem was, the company refused to pay enough to hire civil ground level workers. Remember, it was her job to deal with every little situation brought on by the workers. I actually left not to long after for pretty much the same reason. Just the same, I took a lower paying position. Now I work somewhere where people don't steal my lunch or take my belongings. As a bonus, I don't have to deal with hostile/dangerous individuals
I'm not sure exactly when this started, but the work environment at some companies is getting downright ghetto. If you ask me, it's another sign of America's perpetual race to the bottom. Enjoy the ride as we circle the toilet bowl...
The elimination of the human factor, yes I agree. Human resources is less human and more automated. It also seems many in management and below that are afraid to talk to one another. .
Worse still, H/R and management are not challenging themselves anymore when an employment opening arises. Even for the least challenging poisitions, response one is the same: Call a headhunter.
It is not just to cut the time spent analyzing candidates; it is largely they, unlike their predecessors in decades past, feel unqualified to decide. That latter issue is scary.
What else can they not do, that predecessors could?
This is why there is no mad rush to get rid of illegals, because they know those people will jump through hoops for the slave wages the unions fought so hard against a century ago.
Today's americans could not careless. You're paying garbage wages, no benefits and cutting hours, but yet you want people to act like they "love" working for you. Yeah, right.
In many cases, the "right" people left long ago and the company refused to offer the right wage/salary for the position. In other cases, I suspect the "right" people realized there is no point in boarding a sinking ship. I know management/office staff that left good paying positions because they couldn't stand the work environment as well.
At a previous employer of mine, the HR manager left due to the work environment. She got sick of the foul language, inappropriate/childish behavior, lewd gestures. I won't even get into some of the activities that took place in the restrooms... A professional worker working in an environment that was anything but professional. She was paid well enough for her job, but the environment was enough to force her to accept a lower paying position. The problem was, the company refused to pay enough to hire civil ground level workers. Remember, it was her job to deal with every little situation brought on by the workers. I actually left not to long after for pretty much the same reason. Just the same, I took a lower paying position. Now I work somewhere where people don't steal my lunch or take my belongings. As a bonus, I don't have to deal with hostile/dangerous individuals
I'm not sure exactly when this started, but the work environment at some companies is getting downright ghetto. If you ask me, it's another sign of America's perpetual race to the bottom. Enjoy the ride as we circle the toilet bowl...
For me personally the level of office environment has been correlated to the level of education on average in the office/department.
Worse still, H/R and management are not challenging themselves anymore when an employment opening arises. Even for the least challenging poisitions, response one is the same: Call a headhunter.
It is not just to cut the time spent analyzing candidates; it is largely they, unlike their predecessors in decades past, feel unqualified to decide. That latter issue is scary.
What else can they not do, that predecessors could?
You make a valid point. I have seen the disasters brought on by the overreliance on headhunters and staffing agencies.
Once again drawing back from my previous observations, a former employer was looking for ways to improve plant and process efficiency. The company was large enough (+100 employees) to attract the attention of qualified six sigma/black belt engineers. The task itself appeared to be too large in the eyes of management. They decided to consult a head hunter. The results were nothing short of disaster.
I will never know what the guy was paid, but the head engineer told me he was getting well over 100K. He basically spent all day walking around the facility, making rather insignificant changes, and generally twiddling his thumbs. After about 3 months of this, he decided to make some rather large changes to the layout of the machinery. By doing this, he was optimizing the sqft utilization. In doing so, each square foot utilized appeared to be generating more revenue. Basically, a way to show you're making more money on paper. Of course, this did absolutely nothing for the bottom line. It also screwed up the flow of work, delayed production during the procedure, and added unnecessary work for the staff/maintenance crew. This was the top notch engineer sent to us who looked brilliant on paper... On the bright side, he spent about two weeks creating an elaborate color coded scheme for part containers. Not sure I'd be paying +100K for something a monkey could do however.
These staffing agencies are also quite dependable if you are seeking drug addicts and alcoholics. I'm wondering if they use a breathalyzer test prior to interviewing to find the drunkest candidates. Perhaps they conduct their search starting at the local AA meetings.
Yeah, and I don't know if you guys have noticed, but many of the people who work in HR departments these days aren't exactly the cream of the crop themselves. Poor hiring decisions are inevitable.
I think part of it is the trickle-down effect. If upper-management behaves crudely and treats people like a faceless employee number instead of a sentient human being the workers will internalize that attitude, become embittered, and eventually act out.
There is no job security anymore. The days of being loyal to a company and getting loyalty back are gone. Everybody is expendable and replaceable so this breeds job insecurity, anxiety, and low self-esteem, all of which leads to poor on-the-job attitude and nasty or violent behavior.
When you're treated like dirt, you act like dirt. That's why Walmart has so many employee problems such as internal theft, because Corporate insists on treating their employees like criminals. So then they act like it.
I am so grateful and lucky I don't work in a toxic office environment like that.
You make a valid point. I have seen the disasters brought on by the overreliance on headhunters and staffing agencies.
Once again drawing back from my previous observations, a former employer was looking for ways to improve plant and process efficiency. The company was large enough (+100 employees) to attract the attention of qualified six sigma/black belt engineers. The task itself appeared to be too large in the eyes of management. They decided to consult a head hunter. The results were nothing short of disaster.
I will never know what the guy was paid, but the head engineer told me he was getting well over 100K. He basically spent all day walking around the facility, making rather insignificant changes, and generally twiddling his thumbs. After about 3 months of this, he decided to make some rather large changes to the layout of the machinery. By doing this, he was optimizing the sqft utilization. In doing so, each square foot utilized appeared to be generating more revenue. Basically, a way to show you're making more money on paper. Of course, this did absolutely nothing for the bottom line. It also screwed up the flow of work, delayed production during the procedure, and added unnecessary work for the staff/maintenance crew. This was the top notch engineer sent to us who looked brilliant on paper... On the bright side, he spent about two weeks creating an elaborate color coded scheme for part containers. Not sure I'd be paying +100K for something a monkey could do however.
These staffing agencies are also quite dependable if you are seeking drug addicts and alcoholics. I'm wondering if they use a breathalyzer test prior to interviewing to find the drunkest candidates. Perhaps they conduct their search starting at the local AA meetings.
Yeah, and I don't know if you guys have noticed, but many of the people who work in HR departments these days aren't exactly the cream of the crop themselves.
At every large company I've worked at, the HR departments have been full of pinheads.
HR is where people who are too stupid to get real careers at a company end up.
Last edited by statisticsnerd; 01-19-2013 at 10:40 PM..
I have noticed in recent years that workplaces are changing, as in, they have become more and more toxic. Could it be that many "street" people are being hired, bringing with them street mannerisms (like talking loud, bad attitudes, a tendency to start trouble, extreme nosiness, etc). Are these companies who hire them getting any breaks from the government, is that why they tolerate their presence?
Yes that is very true. The government can't just lock them up forever. That would be against the law. So they're trying to integrate them into society like normal people. They're funked up, troublemaking lowlifes as far as I'm concerned. Just have to learn to be ghetto with them and go by their rules otherwise they'll take you down with them and you'll be out of a job and/or in jail.
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