Dealing with Today's Employer

This article is not so much legal advice, as it is a survey of my observations about employers and employees over the last 10 years. I have been practising law since 1988, except for a few years, and since then have seen through the eyes of my clients, a dramatic change in corporate culture and environment. Perhaps sharing my observations might be instructive.

Firstly, over the last five years in particular, there has been a sharp increase in my practice of cases involving workplace harassment and stress-leave caused by it. It appears that the corporate culture in a lot of companies has become increasingly oppressive. As companies are mandated to report higher more profit, more and more pressure is put on the employees. Many employees are forced to produce and do additional work within the same time frames and often, for the same amount of salary. With the advent of high tech gadgets, some employers not only control their employee's time, but think they own the employee. It is not unheard of for employees with Blackberries and laptops to be corresponding with their offices while on vacations, on weekends and well into the night. In my view, this is absurd but regrettably, common.

From my observations, there seems to be two broad types of employees: those who take most things personally and those who don't. The employees who take things personally are generally very sensitive individuals who put a lot of effort into their work, for the common good of the company. They want to do well, please their supervisors and contribute to the overall success of their employer. They seem to need to feel part of a team. When these people lose their jobs whether with or without just cause, they often experience a lot of bitterness and anger. A common refrain that I hear is "But I worked so hard and cared so much about the company, how could they do this to me?"

At the other end of the spectrum are those people who view their jobs as a means to an end. They work hard enough to get the job done. They care about the success of the company but don't wrap their self-esteem and well-being around their work. These people tend to view a termination of employment in pragmatic terms, seeing it as a business decision and just something else to deal with. They handle a termination of employment much more easily than the first type of person we looked at.

If I could give one piece advice to the sensitive types, it would be this. Your job is not you and if you believe that it is, then your perspective is simply wrong. A job is a job at which you should do your best within your for the sake of the common good. But it is not who you are and does not define your worth in this world. And it certainly is not worth becoming ill over.

Given that the same work environment can affect people differently, it follows that an employee ought to know about him or herself what he or she can handle and deal with at the workplace. Finding the right job means not only matching your skills to the particular position, but also fitting your personality and temperament to the company and the work environment. If you don't want pressure and stress, then don't seek out positions at a workplace where that is the daily existence.

If you have been experiencing workplace harassment, please contact me for legal advice.