Comments on: Employees Are People, Not Resources

By: When Will IT Be A First Class Citizen?

When Will IT Be A First Class Citizen? — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:01:53 +0000

[...] is a lot of disfunction in business today. People are seen as resources due to a focus on bottom lines, a focus taught in business school. There are abusive managers who [...]

By: Customers Are People, Not Invoices

Customers Are People, Not Invoices — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:49:34 +0000

[...] following up on a previous video post about how employees are people, not resources. I wanted to do another post about how customers are people and not [...]

By: Robert Dempsey

Robert Dempsey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:19:48 +0000

Hey Marc let me know if this helps: http://blog.adsdevshop.com/2009/11/10/will-your...

By: Robert Dempsey

Robert Dempsey — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:15:59 +0000

Thanks for your comments Marc and your experience. I'll try to come up with some questions that can at least help someone figure out if the company cares or not, and I'll look for your comments there too. See you next weekend. I'll be wearing a bright red backpack that looks like a jetpack

By: marcgravez

marcgravez — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:20:27 +0000

You're welcome. I'm pretty sure your list won't include "Is this a good
place to work?" I don't think its possible to guarantee anything, but I
think you can improve the odds. It may even be less a matter of asking
questions than being careful to "listen between the lines." I'll look
forward to what you can come up with. I know someone named Rod Colon who may
have some insight on this issue.

Sometimes you just don't know. I'm a technical communicator currently doing
a short-term contract at a TD Bank "back office" in Mt Laurel, NJ. I never
would have considered a bank to be good place to work, but the people I'm
working with there are terrific. The NJ part of TD Bank is the former
Commerce Bank, which quite unconventionally sought to be "America's most
convenient bank."

They have an internal slogan "One to say yes, but two say no." When an
employee is not sure whether they can say "yes" to a customer, they must
"bump it up" to a supervisor. If nothing else, this certainly increases
manager involvement in day-to-day customer issues.

I hate when a company representative insists that I must follow some stupid
rule because "its our policy." The TD Intranet home page has a button (from
Commerce of course) called "Kill a stupid rule," which the people there say
was a big part of Commerce. No one is sure yet how the merger will turn out
in the end.

I look forward to meeting you at BarCamp Philly next Saturday.

Marc

By: Robert Dempsey

Robert Dempsey — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:40:25 +0000

That's a great point Marc. I'll talk with folks and come up with a list of questions that you can ask of your interviewers to help you determine this so you don't end up working for someone that doesn't care about you. Thanks for the comment.

By: marcgravez

marcgravez — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:28:47 +0000

DRdjan, I hope that the management of your company doesn't pay attention to Websites like this one In this economy its still better to be working than not. I wish you luck leaving on your own terms.

The advice we *really* need is how to determine whether a company really cares about its employees during the interview process. Every company says they care about their employees. In other words, they “talk the talk.” But in my experience, very few actually “walk the walk.”

By: Srdjan Pejic

Srdjan Pejic — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:22:42 +0000

Thanks, I'm looking elsewhere to continue my career. What I will do is send this video to the numerous directors, vice presidents and the CEO on my way out. Maybe having this opinion come from a third party might do something to raise awareness.

By: Robert Dempsey

Robert Dempsey — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:16:38 +0000

That's a horrible state of affairs, and in my opinion, a horrible way of treating people and not a type of place I would want to work or a company with which I would want to do business. The obviously don't get it, at all. Good luck with your situation.

By: batasrki

batasrki — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:01:08 +0000

I couldn't agree more. The only thing I'd add is that there are levels of that view. My current company has taken this to a level that is quite sophisticated, I have to say. The executives have come up with a system that not only treats employees as resources, objects in my view, but also one that treats employees on a certain level as interchangeable components. The individual skill and specialism is completely diminished, and since all employees are now interchangeable, pluggable parts, their opinion does not matter.

It's quite demoralizing, actually.