Paying Your Dues vs Being Taken Advantage Of
Is there an employee shortage right now? Yes. There might even be an employee crisis.
Across the country, employers are struggling to fill positions that, until recently, they had a stack of resumes to choose from. For example, we were at the beach this past weekend, and one restaurant said the employee shortage caused them to cut their days of operation to Thursday through Sunday…during the peak summer season!
In our coaching, we hear a continual concern surrounding a lack of people wanting to work. Additionally, our clients express concern about prospective employees asking for too much money and not wanting to work hard. On the other hand, most of the workforce are demanding higher pay and better advancement opportunities.
Employers say employees have to “pay their dues” and employees say they are being taken advantage of for cheap labor. So, which is it? Perhaps, the answer lies in knowing the difference.
Paying Your Dues:
Entering a job at a lower salary commiserate with talent and experience with the opportunity for advancement.
Working diligently at one position and pay with the opportunity for advancement.
Learning one skillset with the opportunity to apply it at some future position.
Understanding a clear path for promotion.
Taking Advantage of an Employee:
Lack of clarity surrounding job advancement and pay increases.
Promotion and pay increases not rewarded to those who earn them.
Low starting salary not based upon any discernable metric.
Indifference to employees whose salary is less than co-workers who make more.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but the intention is to highlight the difference between the two. When a company offers a clear path and clear communication towards promotion and pay increase, no advantage is being taken, however, when the opportunities are either denied, not communicated, or perpetually stalled, abuse is definitely taking place.
The key, as business owners, is to examine our procedures, keep in continual communication with our employees, and seek at every moment to provide environments for growth for every employee in our companies.
The issues at hand are more complicated than this article, but hopefully, these thoughts are a good place for conversation starters…and maybe even change.
Gordon Duncan
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