I had a good question come up with a prior article I wrote titled, ‘Pizza parties do not equate to employee compensation.’ During the discussion involving that article, it was commented on the difficulty for the workforce to work in a culture and climate that is truly OK. Going on to question, at what point is it time to walk away from that climate?
“At what point is it time to walk away…” is a good question. However, for a great majority, they cannot walk away. Many are confined to their jobs based on circumstances. Some reasons can be due to the individual, but others reasons can be external factors.
Many articles are out there to help boost confidence for the individual as well as resources to expand education. However, I will list some external factors that can hinder one’s ability to walk away.
- Geographically
- The inability of one to move out of their local surroundings can limit one’s job potential. Typically, this may be for the individual youth getting into the workforce, with little chance to leave their home area. For the worker having a family to tend to, can make it more difficult to move away. However, if one does move away, resources can be limited through friends or needs in an unknown environment.
- Insurance
- Depending on the local job insurance, you may be confined to the company offering the better insurance. With rising healthcare costs (inflation in everything today), the worker may have a family member in need of medical assistance. I did a podcast episode on this subject, providing the history of insurance. Insurance in America Today, Episode 54.
- Your career
- Depending on your personal work experience, you can be limited to the company’s needs. There is a high emphasis on personal job growth, education, and quality experience, along with heuristic qualities (how well you get along with others). Today, just because you may have all these qualities, it still does not guarantee an ability to score that perfect job elsewhere. An interesting article found on LinkedIn titled, “Why is it so hard to find a job in 2023?” answers this question based on the world getting smaller, with the pool of possible candidates getting larger. The article reminded me of the book ‘The World is flat’ by Thomas L. Friedman, written in 2005. Friedman discusses we are not fighting for the job with our immediate neighbor in America, but rather the world as technology advances. Nearly 20 years later, technology has only increased that difficulty.
The toxic, limiting, poor climate in one’s work is draining, to say the least. Who makes up the culture and environment? It is the people put into managerial roles, and those you must work with day-to-day.
The hierarchy of the workplace consists of upper management, middle management, and the worker.
Upper management sets the culture and attitude of the company as a whole. These are the decision makers involving the company’s direction and overall environment.
The worker may have little power involving a positive change in a poor environment.
Middle management has some power involving the culture’s atmosphere for those who are boots on the ground. This is why I focused the prior article on middle management, as they are truly the key factor between upper management and the worker. Personally, I put a lot of weight on middle management. While they cannot make the decisions for the company’s direction, as upper management, they can and should help the workforce environment.
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