What is wrong with big companies these days?
They screw up, fail to deliver on their strategies (or pursue dodgy strategies in the first place) and then run to the government asking for £m bailouts, playing the “thousands will be laid off otherwise” card.
I would love to see how that would work for the thousands of small business owners who screw up their own businesses because of bad management and poor strategic planning.
I have full sympathy with anyone whose job is currently on the line – but I think and hope it should teach every single employee a lesson – which is this:
Don’t think that just because you’re “only a secretary” or “only an employee”, the success of the company you work for is completely out of your hands and not your responsibility at all.
Big corporates have shown their incompetence…they can no longer afford not to listen to the people who drive their business – the employees (and their customers – but that’s another post). If you’re an employee, you very likely have a 101 ideas on how things can be improved, on how things should be done. It is your responsibility to stand up and share this – and to fight for the improvements that you know need to be made.
If you don’t, then no-one else will – and if you don’t and your company is struggling, then ultimately it is your job that’s on the line.
I don’t write this lightly – I used to go head-to-head with my managers & senior management regularly highlighting things that were crap, unfair or just didn’t work. On some occasions, it worked and on others it didn’t. In the end, I quit because of the way things were being done and I couldn’t change them. That’s a bit extreme – but at least I tried. Do you?