SQUEAK!

When does efficiency become inefficient? What kind of price have we put on supporting the worker? The word itself indicates that it is all about doing the best with what is available in the least amount of time. What it doesn't say is that there are far to many companies expecting high levels of efficiency without cultivating it by helping workers maintain health, acquire skills, through encouragement and getting adequate rest. It is foolish for any size company to treat their workers as if they are replaceable parts in a machine.


There is a popular show out now called 'Undercover Boss'. It is an attempt by the media to touch on the sympathies of the largest part of their audience, the average working man. Time and again you hear the upper level executive state that he was 'surprised' by how hard the work was and how well people got it done anyway. Hip hip hooray for the working man who only achieves this out of fear that he won't be able to feed his family. I wonder though, how many of those executives keep up their new found knowledge and work to bring back the support so many companies have dropped in the name of efficiency (and the dollar). Gone are the days when you retired from a company after giving a lifetime of hard work and they handed you a pension and a gold watch. Now, you are lucky if the company hasn't squandered the retirement money that you worked so hard to save while you worked for them.

This problem arose because many companies make 'efficiency' a motto, and expect the company to keep squeezing out higher efficiency from the employees. They push the upper management to make the changes, but don't ask or research the impact to the lower levels. The management searches diligently looking for that one more spot they can get credit for making more efficient. But there comes a time when the practice reaches a point of saturation. Efficiency has been obtained, but because they are pushed to find more ways, they make themselves inefficient through forced failure and the process begins all over again. Workers get frustrated and leave, looking for somewhere where they don't have to put up with micro-management in such ways as having to raise your hand to go to the bathroom at work. (I know of two companies off the top of my head who do that.) It is kind of like tightening a screw until the ridges are stripped and no longer able to hold the screw in place.
If all that wasted energy was actually turned toward improving the company environment and quality of products, imagine what an amazing corporation it would be in which to work. I'm not saying all complaining would cease, but I am saying that high employee turnover, high health costs due to stress and poor support, product complaints and the divisions put into place to deal with them would simply disappear along with the costs involved in repair. But then again, I'm just a cog in the wheel, and no one listens unless it squeaks....hmmm. SQUEAK!

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