Profit At All Costs?

In many company's, there are employees who you know are not pulling their weight. It may be an unproductive assembly line worker, a salesperson who's not making quota, or simply an employee who can't handle the tasks they were given. My posting today uses these types of employees as a basis for asking the question...What is the goal of business?

Throughout my whole career, starting right from college, I was taught that a business does not exist for the benefit of the employee. The business exists to make a profit and provide a return to the shareholders. Many of my classes revolved around teaching operational efficiency in order to maximize profits. Much of these teaching touched on process improvement, line-balancing, and some lean concepts. What was underlying, but never really discussed was that in order to do many of these tasks, it involved automating or losing employees.

Let's go back to the 3 employees listed above. In most cases each of these employees has some good assets on their side. They may show up to work everyday, they may have been with the company for a long time, or they may truly be trying hard, but not succeeding. Based on my teachings and my beliefs up until this point, none of this should matter. The fact that they are not succeeding and can be replaced by a more 'competent' employee makes it an easy decision. But the reality of the matter is this decision is not always made. Why not?

I think the answer lies in the fact that today's business owner's simply can't win no matter what decisions they make. No longer does the owner make a decision and the rest will follow. Today it's all about teamwork, getting buy-in, and employees having a say. If owner X fires somebody with a family, he/she is heartless and greedy. Owner Y makes a decision to change a process and the complains start to flow about 'why don't we just do it the way it was before?' This has forced the owner to ultimately change...for the better.

These decisions still need to be made from time-to-time, but I think it has provided a conscience to the process. Yes, we can get rid of the under-performing salesperson, but if we are making a profit, what's the value in losing the friendship and loyalty for a few more bucks?

I've started to go through a change in my perceptions and it's probably based on the fact that I've put some years into my career. When I started out I needed all the money I could find, so it shaped my perception of business. When I was in college, it was still pushed that the business exists to make a profit. I would often be angered by decisions at work because they just didn't make sense from a profit/loss standpoint. Now that I'm a little more established, I'm starting to truly appreciate the gentleman that I work for and question what I truly believe the 'Goal' is. I still want more money, I still want nice things, but how much is enough?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts....

Is Being Competent a Curse?

I've read many articles and blogs relating to the Curse of the Competent. One states that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level incompetence" (Peter Principal). Others point take the approach that the competent employees need to do a better job of making others competent (Rog42). My view is much simpler...Work is much easier and less stressful if you're an average or underachieving employee.

More Work
There's usually at least one extremely competent person at any successful company. This person generally has an entrepreneurial outlook and is well-versed in several aspects of the business. This person is usually identified quickly when hired. They're able to look at their job duties and make immediate changes to make it more operationally efficient. This leads to the employee finishing his/her job duties much faster than their predecessor. This is where the curse kicks in. This employee generally gets bored, but is still looking to make a good impression. He/She starts to ask questions about other areas of the business and starts to offer suggestions on how things can be changed. This employee now has added a job duty as they become the idea 'expert'. This will inevitably lead to being asked for opinions on several other company issues, which lead to being involved in more and more issues not directly related to what you were hired to do.

Backlash
Unfortunately in today's business climate, competent employees are not always viewed as assets. Many managers will start to view this employee as a threat. This can lead to more tenured employees trying to discredit ideas, not work with the employee, or outright attempt to play the political game and turn other employees against them. The employee also has to start playing the 'game' by defending him/herself. All of these outcomes are detrimants to a productive 'team' environment that is supposed to be working to make the company better.

Fishbowl
Because the employee is more 'front and center', their decisions are more visible. This opens the employee up to constant questioning and second-guessing. It also takes the employee out of the safety zone in which an error can quickly discredit the rest of thier ideas. The positive of this is it forces the employee to be sure of his thoughts prior to presenting.

Emotions
Another big part of the Curse is still having to understand the business environment and that it cannot be changed overnight, if at all. This is the point where the employee realizes that not all his/her ideas are going to be exercised upon whether or not they were good ideas. He starts to look at other employees who are skating by doing the minimum and begins to develop a dislike for them for not having the same drive. This is the point where the employee has to make a decision...Does he/she accept that 'it is what it is?", continue to push the envelope for change, or look for other employment?

Overview
The question of competence being a curse is truly up to the employee. There are many employees who are highly competent that choose to simply do their job. There is NOTHING wrong with this. Those who choose to make themselves more visible do it because they have the drive to be heard or be in control. What needs to be done from a manager/owners standpoint is to understand all the variables that are happening (more work/backlash/fishbowl/emotions). Whether you are an owner, competent employee, or incompetent employee, everybody must remember that we go to work to make the business better.

Please give your feedback/examples on the matter.