Not Really Breaking News: Employers Are Assholes

A few weeks ago, I received a press release titled, Recession Causing Perception Disconnect Between Employers and their Workforce According to New Study from Monster.com and Human Capital Institute.

There is a dramatic difference in how employers and workers are experiencing the recession — and the study shows that employers are vastly overrating the morale of their employees. If you can believe it, 84 percent of those companies surveyed indicated a belief that their workforce is content to simply to have a job.

I’m not good at math, but those 84% of employers can suck it. Hard.

Corporate arrogance isn’t unique to this recession, but I do applaud Monster and HCI for bringing awareness to the gap in perception between the workforce and its employers. As the economy improves and the chances of a publicly funded healthcare option becomes realistic, workers will move from hapless chumps to empowered consumers of work.

If I were a business owner, I would start asking, “What happens to the 84% of companies who take their workforce for granted?”

The answer? They can go fuck themselves.

Smart companies will start changing strategies right now and start investing in employees, focusing on improving the hiring process, and sharing profitability (and risk) equitably in the workforce.

The free market can work for employees and job seekers. Who needs unions when you have social media, viral marketing, and word of mouth employment branding campaigns? The days of six workers for every job will come to an end and companies will be forced to hire and treat their employees differently — or die.