Uncaring management

What happened to company loyalty and employee loyalty? In the early 20th century, many employees prided themselves on their company loyalty and longevity at organizations. With the advent of the “at-will” employee this became a thing of the past. Many employees found themselves the product of downsizing, supervisor animosity, and co-worker treachery resulting in unexpected terminations or lay-offs after giving many years of service to the organization. In addition, the employer did not exercise any compassion or sensitivity for disrupting the lives of its employees without notice. Employers expected the employee to give two-week notice if they were terminating their employment, however, they did not give the employee the same consideration.

The “at-will” clause in most employee contracts allows the employer to terminate the employee without prior notice for almost any reason and without compensation.
As managers and leaders, are these employers exercising “Caring management or leadership”? Employees have families and responsibilities that are severely disrupted by the loss of their income. Management shows no remorse for terminating the employee and often escorts the employee from the building thereby increasing their humility and causing irreparable mental anguish.

Organizations should be considerate of its employees and their values and feelings. The perception of an organization in its treatment of employees should be a factor when determining a career within the organization. Organizations that have a high turnover rate of employees need to evaluate how their employees perceive the organization and its culture. Employees that perceive the organization and its managers (leaders) as uncaring may have been the recipients of an atmosphere that demonstrated the lack of understanding of the organization in a stressful situation. The employee may have experienced a situation in which the manager mishandled the matter and did not show concern for the employee. This ultimately leads to discontent and low morale among employees as information concerning the matter is disseminated within the organization.
Management should find a balance between company loyalty and employee relations. How the employee perceives the organization will determine their loyalty to the organization. Organizations spend millions of dollars to train new employees. Some of this funding should be expended to train managers to have a more caring attitude toward their employees. This will improve the retention of valuable employees that the organizations has already vested time and training in. Often Managers do not realize they are alienating the employee or that they are exhibiting an uncaring attitude. Managers perceive their behavior as representation of the culture of the organization. They are often exhibiting the behavior they have been trained to use by Human Resources or upper-level management. If the management style is not changed the organization can become fragmented costing the organization more time and money as they continuously retrain new employees.