The newspaper “Business” asked me to provide a comment regarding lifetime employment. I wrote a text, which is presented below, but it was successfully cut down to the point where it became unclear what I actually wanted to say. I understand that the text needs to be edited. There are many not-so-businesslike analogies that could be omitted. The article with my comment can be found. Text for translation: here. I don’t take the potential positive or negative effects of such publications on myself seriously. I just feel sorry that readers didn’t get a perspective that is fundamentally different from the one presented in the article. Yes, the title of the post does not pertain to the journalists of the Business newspaper. Don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of respect for the people at the newspaper I work with. The essence of the title is that there is a difference in all aspects of a man’s relationship with a prostitute compared to his relationship with a fiancée.
It has turned out that our country is facing a catastrophic shortage of professionals. We lack skilled salespeople, managers, HR specialists, and marketers. We only have people with “work experience,” which, in the absence of any concrete benchmarks, is perceived as professionalism. This lack of professionalism is evident in many areas, including the undue importance placed on that very “work experience.” For instance, consider what a professional and a non-professional in the field of people management might say about managing individuals.
| Question | Not a professional. | Professional |
| What is the role? salaries? |
Salary – main incentive. People need to be motivated to work. The main the principle: “I pay you money, and you work.” Unfortunately, very It’s hard to find hardworking people. Everyone is lazy and careless. |
Salary – neither in In no case is it a motivator. Salaries are paid in other companies as well. Motivation is the primary task of a leader. It is the leader’s job to… to give employees an answer to the question “Why do I work for the company,” rather than just “why I come to work.” |
| Why do people they work for the company |
Because they are paid money. | The question is whether, Why did they even become hired workers? Nowadays, there are always options available. to become a freelancer and be an independent professional almost in of any specialty, while earning a lot of money for the same work. When working for someone else rather than for themselves, people seek stability and a way to achieve their goals, and they are willing to pay for it. If an employer does not provide either stability or a path to achieving a person’s goals, then they are not offering much. nothing. |
| What does it give? “White salary”? |
Nothing but extra taxes and a loss of flexibility in managing the team. A person comes to work to earn a certain amount of money. They don’t care about what is paid to the government in taxes and contributions to funds. And the employee’s pension is not the employer’s concern. | Official Proper documentation and fair wages are measures for fostering a sense of responsibility in employees. a sense of stability. The employee knows why they are working now and what they will receive upon retirement. The official salary is a tool for change. from “How to keep my job” to “How to achieve more.” The official salary also has its value in the market. It’s worth conducting a survey. 1000 people, suggesting options like “1300 and in black or 1000 and in…” “white” to understand this. |
| What is the role? training? |
Training is an undesirable and unavoidable expense for the company. It’s better to deal with ready professionals. Moreover, you train someone, and then they leave for another company because they are offered a better position or salary. It turns out that training leads to double expenses: first, you invest in their education, and then you have to pay more for their services. |
Constant growth, Recognition and success are the main motivators for an employee. A person is much more… It’s easier to motivate someone if you give them the opportunity to grow. In contrast, you can take an experienced person who is already a “full cup.” You can’t add anything to them, and they won’t have the same enthusiasm for work. you’ll wait. |
| Why do people don’t work as effectively as one would like? |
People are lazy. The carrot and the stick is the scientific method of squeezing out effort. If people are ineffective, it’s either because they are overindulged with rewards or they have too few consequences. | Every person acts according to their desires and aspirations. The leader’s job is to Aligning a person’s personal aspirations with the company’s goals will yield the best results. If an employee is not performing effectively, it is more likely a miscalculation on the part of the manager than a reflection of the employee’s personal qualities. After all, when we hired the person, everything was fine. Or the manager. Did I make a mistake already at the recruitment stage? |
| How much Is work experience important in recruiting? |
Very important. An experienced person can be thrown into the fray right away and deliver maximum results. | It matters in some way. In this regard, at the same time, a person who receives nothing from the company will not be present. I am ready to contribute something to the company. |
| How much Is work experience in a company important? |
As mentioned above, the ideal option is a team made up of members from different backgrounds. | Culture and The company’s values are one of the components of motivation. |
| What are career prospects for a specific employee within the company |
If this is a talented employee, then they might have a chance at a promotion. At the same time, if we need a new chief accountant, we are more likely to look for someone with experience rather than spend money on developing someone from the ground up. After all, employees are ungrateful. Once they acquire new knowledge and skills, they immediately find a place that pays more and switch jobs. |
Talented people need to be valued. If they can find better conditions in the market, it means that it’s not the employees chasing after higher pay, but rather we who are being greedy. Moreover, everyone has their own place in life. A company cannot afford the costs associated with hiring and training a new employee, as well as the additional measures required due to an unfilled vacancy. There are no unnecessary people. |
| What is he/she thinking about? worker, really? |
The worker thinks about how to do less and get more for it. | The worker thinks. about what he works for. What will be the result of his work? Who is he Will he be evaluated? What guarantees are there that he will receive recognition and not be fired in favor of some relative of the boss, who will take credit for his achievements, or due to a crisis? |
| How are you? How do you feel about employee layoffs? |
Termination is part of a broader motivational approach to managing people. If someone doesn’t want to work, they are let go. If someone is a nuisance, they are let go. There’s always another person who can fill that role. When people know they could be fired, they tend to work more efficiently. A herd always runs when it’s being chased by a predator. | Termination is a necessary measure. It should only be applied in cases of clear malicious intent. Termination does not motivate the employee being let go—they are no longer working. It also does not motivate the remaining employees—they start to expect that they will be fired as well. The threat of termination, or what is often referred to as a “final warning,” does not motivate the specific employee; they simply begin updating their resume. By abusing terminations, we end up with a herd that runs at the speed of the slowest bison. It only makes sense to run faster when it comes to food. |
| How I feel about “lifetime employment” | This is a dangerous thing that will demoralize and demotivate people. It is only important to those workers who find it hard to get a job—essentially, those who are unfit for work. By committing to lifetime employment, I am declaring a one-sided game—one that benefits me. An employee can quit whenever they want, but I won’t be able to fire them whenever I want. | Lifetime employment does not add to the challenges of managing people, as their loyalty, adequacy, and commitment are already ensured by a comprehensive set of personnel management measures. It is important to distinguish between the motivation to “get a job” and the motivation to “achieve success.” For those who prioritize “getting a job,” it doesn’t matter whether their employment is permanent or not. They are not concerned about future prospects. I have no intention of firing the people I searched for so long and invested so much in. At the same time, I know that the best way to earn someone’s trust is to show that you trust them yourself. |
There is a sound philosophical principle that has never let anyone down: to gain something, you must first give something. A harvest comes from sowing. If you don’t sow anything, you won’t reap anything. An unprofessional attitude towards employees, treating them as replaceable and unimportant resources, breeds mutual distrust between workers and employers. An unprofessional employer wants to get “everything for free.” They want to find a ready-made employee with similar experience, squeeze them dry like a sponge, and then discard them. At best, they might allow them to leave for another job.The departure of a talented individual from a company is an expected occurrence.
That’s why often talented individuals are not hired. They will leave anyway, people say. They won’t cling to their jobs and won’t be afraid to express their opinions. With this approach, the employee doesn’t connect their fate and life goals with the company and its objectives. They do only what is expected of them and nothing more – just putting in their time for the paycheck. Moreover, they understand the rules of corporate bureaucracy and don’t try to appear smarter than their boss. They fear taking initiative, proposing new ideas, or taking on new tasks, since they won’t be compensated for it and will only add to their problems.
A professional employer fully understands that people are not controllable and each acts according to their own goals and values. Success and recognition are important to people. They enjoy having control and taking responsibility. People strive for new experiences. This is what can be offered to them while incurring lower costs for managing human resources. As Napoleon said, “The most amazing thing I learned in war is that people are willing to die for ribbons.” The secret to maximum return and efficiency lies in aligning the personal goals and values of employees with those of the company. Employees should have no doubt that the company is inherently loyal and welcomes their initiative, desire for success, and wish to “make the world a better place.” This is the philosophy of a professional manager. In this case, words should not contradict actions. Lifetime job security is what supports that promise.
Moreover, this is not just a “gesture of goodwill.” It is an economically justified step. The last crisis showed that the costs of downsizing during a crisis, followed by the recruitment of new employees, can be very expensive for companies when only direct expenses are considered. When you factor in how many valuable employees have been recruited by competitors, the costs become simply unacceptable. It’s better to promise people the stability they desire and expect a return from them than to promise nothing and receive nothing in return.
It is also important to understand that any professional employer is very aware that the labor market is not an endless barrel filled with lazy mediocrities, but a specific limited volume where the number of required professionals is finite. It is essential, or rather vital, to have and maintain the image of the best possible employer.
Therefore, in response to the question of how applicable the practice of “lifetime employment” is in our country, it is worth noting that “lifetime employment” is just one of the visible signs of professionalism in people management. It does not work on its own and does not bring any benefits without a radical overhaul of the approach to human resource management. It is impossible to implement “lifetime employment” in Ukrainian companies now and expect any positive effect. The people in the workplaces are not the right ones, lacking the right motivation and expectations. They are managed by the wrong people and according to the wrong principles.
The behavior of an unprofessional employer leads to the hiring of disloyal, unmotivated, and unprofessional individuals. These are people who will jump to another company at the first opportunity. They are individuals who cannot be forced to work and who do not share the company’s values. They lack enthusiasm. An unprofessional employer may be completely right when he points to his team and exclaims, “Just look at these lazy, stupid sheep, looking for ways to cheat me out of my money.” Of course, he has done everything to attract such people to his company. He will sit and dream about the possibility of attracting “self-motivated” individuals, who are indeed a rarity. It’s very difficult to find a wife on the side of a highway and expect that such a girl will offer love, attachment, and mutual pleasure, rather than just a talented (or not so talented) simulation of it.
You need to start from the beginning, not from the end. You should begin with the motives. It makes no sense to offer a “stamp in the passport” as a motivator for the women in a brothel, especially since clients won’t go for that either. Guarantees are important for decent women with serious intentions. If a man doesn’t provide any guarantees, then he ends up attracting a corresponding crowd with whom you can’t build a family, can’t spend more than a day together, and can’t leave in charge of household matters.