What is an employer’s responsibility? The primary responsibility is to provide a safe working environment where employees are paid a fair wage, supply access to healthcare insurance, create a safe workspace without discrimination, nurture their careers, take ample time off to relax, have a life and refresh, and give them opportunities to grow. It is also the responsibility of the employee to adhere to company policies and fulfill their job duties. Why do many not do this?
This is something I am passionate about. I have witnessed too many companies that treat their employees like shit. I have never understood that because the employees are the key to every company’s success. Diversity is a main pillar that creates environments with different thinking styles. The data is there.
Our job is to run a profitable business while ensuring everyone is paid a wage that gives people a life when they do not have to worry about healthcare, rent, or food because they are paid appropriately. It’s our responsibility to keep our employees happy.
Some never want to grow in their careers, while others have higher hopes. I would be thrilled if someone eventually left Gotham to open their own store or move up the career ladder if we do not have that available. Nothing would make me happier.
I am reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, who went undercover as a journalist to investigate the impact of the 1996 welfare act on the working poor. The minimum wage forces many of these workers to have 2 to 3 jobs to make rent, put food on the table and put gas in the car. It is impossible to have any upward mobility in these jobs. What is fascinating is many of the workers are resigned to this if the employers treat them meh because they have been knocked down so many times they have become numb to reality. The book is brilliant and insanely well-written, I highly recommend reading it and although written awhile ago, not much has changed.
Back to an employer’s responsibility. At Gotham, doing the right thing by our employees is the pillar of our company. We even run a monthly education program so our employees can learn about all aspects of the business. We all know how much money publicly traded companies make, such as Amazon, Walmart, and other household brands whose employees are not truly being taken care of.
This is from the book. When someone works for less pay than she can live on … she has made a great sacrifice for you … The “working poor” … are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone.
Will this ever change? I think about doing the right thing by Gotham employees daily, and I wish more employers did the right thing.
