What Employment Legislation Tells You About Jobs and Markets?
After seeing a completely accidental video of public shaming on Instagram, where employees of a bank were, without any notice, hint, or anything else, greeted with boxes of their belongings 10 meters in front of the entrance, with their termination being communicated in this way, as well as reading a news story about HR sending a “anonymous” survey under the guise of checking well-being and stress levels, only to then email those who indicated they were under stress that they were fired, as someone who has never allowed myself to be an instrument of management for the most unethical and humiliating practices toward people, I would like to open the eyes of the workforce to how they can recognize the early signs of an unhealthy culture and practices, and how they can potentially protect themselves preventively or leave such a workplace and seek something different.
Bill Gates once said, “Life is not fair, deal with it.” Unfortunately, this is true, and there is a certain amount of unfairness that each of us must experience and endure. It strengthens us and gives us insight for the next time, as well as an awareness of the difference between right and wrong. Fortunately, even in cultures with “effective immediately” heartless separation policies, where this is accepted as a rule that is neither questioned nor re-evaluated, awareness of the unethical nature of such practices is beginning to emerge, and there is a demand for something more than what has been seen before. While such measures and events cannot, by their nature, be beautified, they can at least be softened.
From experience, I consider the following three points important:
Do you work in a capitalist or socialist (any other) societal system? This inevitably defines or influences the values in the business climate and, consequently, how people are treated in the workplace.
Is there a policy or procedure for terminations, with clear reasons outlined, even in cultures where this is not necessarily dictated by the applicable legal framework?
What are the applicable legal frameworks regarding employment, rights, and restrictions? Ideally, a lawyer should explain this and provide insights from experience about what actually happens in practice, what gets abused, etc.
Here’s an overview of green and red flags, or behaviors that should make you reflect:
Green flags:
- ☐ Clear communication
- ☐ Fair process
- ☐ Severance and benefits
- ☐ Confidential and respectful
- ☐ Offer of support
Red flags:
- ☐ Lack of transparency
- ☐ No due process
- ☐ Excessive use of contract termination
- ☐ Failure to provide severance or support
- ☐ Public humiliation
Of course, terminations are not the only thing that reveal unethical practices. Every other aspect can also be telling, such as job ads that demand exceeding targets for a salary that merely meets targets, for example. However, since we started with the burning topic of recent years downsizing measures and workforce reductions in the name of efficiency the most important high level points of this aspect have been covered. The background or logic behind such approaches lies in authoritarianism. Arbitrary power quickly goes to extremes when there are no boundaries, and it’s easy to resort to the rule of solving anyone’s position at any time, for any reason. Unpleasant matters should be resolved quickly and quietly, without raising too much of a fuss, preventing the other side from having the right to respond, question, or fight back. All other narratives just burden the desired profitability as well as the leaders themselves.
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