A case could be made that they are creating a “hostile” work environment.
I have never read about it, but I believe there is something that is called “social lubricant” in a work environment.
That is the interaction with people (and customers) that are not directly productive. It is the sharing of information and allows bonding. People are more likely to go out of their way to help people they like (and the opposite is true).
I think bad things happen when a company concentrates on the bottom line and ignores everything else.
One good example I have seen (and read about) is the way they treat “dead wood”. That is the employee that has been there the longest and has seen all the changes and more importantly can remember how to “fix” the old stuff. I call this dead wood the CORPORATE MEMORY. With out it a company often has to re-invent the wheel since no one remembers how to keep the old one working.
In the end, an employee can help a company grow or they can destroy it (just by following the rules as they are written).
Hey, I resembled that remark. Though I failed miserably as a manager and implementer of change, there is value in knowing legacy systems and having knowledge of where the skeletons are buried.
A case could be made that they are creating a “hostile” work environment
IMO most, not all, want to stay busy as long as they understand the work and have everything needed to do it.
Before and even after the electronic access badges, I occasionally need a ring of security keys, But I wore it all day all the time. They said I could be heard a block away.
I do not need to find a flock of them discussing last nights game, the sound of keys did the trick.
Everyone knows who the slugs are.
When I was a trainee my mentor said, sometimes you get a fun guy, maybe not the best worker. Keep them to ‘break it up’ once in a while. And that worked well for me.
My right-hand man and a good friend enjoyed telling the newbies, how I was a deranged Viet vet, and he ran to Canada to be a fishing guide! And he wore an earring!
He actually had been a school teacher and an avid fisherman, the diamond was from his x’s wedding ring.
I’d tell them he was a recovering hippy and queer!
And we had fun until about the last five years when PC started to take over.
I’m laughing just recalling some of the crap we did.
A young technician once inquired about the earring, my bud gave him a big smile and a wink!
I gave him a nudge and said queer.
He refused to return alone to our building!!!
On the one hand, the company is paying you to work, not sit around. I don't like paying bums.
On the other hand, there is a shortage of qualified people with STEM and MBAs. Many companies are rushing to "open architecture" which is basically a return to the 19th century schoolhouse or sweatshop system where you sit in long rows with no privacy and the bosses facing you at the front. And as a result, these same companies can't retain employees for more than a year, and then can't refill the position, leaving the other suckers stuck with extra work and low morale.
Some retard CFOs went to a snake oil seminar and swallowed this latest fresh fad, their Six Sigma blackbelts from the previous seminar a decade ago now a mere aftertaste, came back, and talked the CEOs into adopting this new labor management scheme and the seminar folks collected untold millions. Idiots.