Bad management can cause death

Week ago there was news about an employee working for a call center company ended his own life jumping from his offices’ window to fall dead. The media covered this accident as a trend news. But I want to look for a bigger picture here to understand what we can learn out of this sad tragedy.

As was said, the employee take that action under sever pressure from his manager threatening him on his performance alarming he is going to be fired.

No judge from my side on what happened but my heart is really broken know there was a man facing such level of pressure. God bless his soul.

Again I will not judge the details of the case as it shall be investigated with great focus from authorities and human rights organizations. But I will list some facts that everyone, either business owner or manager or employee shall keep in mind as long as he can take a breath.

1- Employee is human and has all the human rights exactly like you. No exceptions.

2- Employment is not charity. Employee is a supplier that you are willing to pay him for his services. For his service he offer his profile and agree with you about many aspects including scope, responsibility and authority and both of you agree about how much his service will cost you. This is what agreed to be called salary or compensation plan in mature organizations. You can call it whatever you want as the concept will be the same. The fact is it is supply and demand rule.

3- As employer you can terminate the employee contract anytime as long as you commit to rules and obligations. But remember that this authority is not exclusive for you and the other party; employee; can terminate the contract as well. This is a difference between employee who is supplier and a slave. Shocking word but a fact to remember it with no exception.

4- If you; employer and employee; deal as counterparts in an environment that both contribute to each other success, make sure that respect is the ruling attitude.

5- Being manager does not mean you are just giving orders. If you believe in that please let me tell you you are far away, not from being a manager; but from being awake. Wake-up and start to do your job. You are a manager because you are accountable and responsible for the success of both parties in the contract who are the employer as well as the employee. If you see it this way you will understand that you are managing employee to ensure his success in getting his good-well by achieving organization agreed targets. Take a moment and you will realize you are not of absolute power. You are authorized& accountable to achieve employee-employer contract. If so it is a fact not being said that both parties hired you. Live with it you are employee.

Articles can be written here about proper approach for effective feedback and development plans and setting challenging targets. But it is not my intention here. But I believe on the criticality of the listed pins here to be culture by heart for anyone.

Mostafa Khater