Trust – And Our Inevitable Brave New World
David Danto
Top 50 Collaboration Industry Thought Leader, Evangelist and now Analyst - Engaged with UC, AV, Multimedia, Video, and AI... A general technology influencer, storyteller and force-multiplier.
(The following opinions and observations are purely my own.?They belong to no employer or organization.?Feel free to read if you want to know what my personal opinions are.)
Business life will never be the same.?Trust is irrevocably broken.
I have already written a number of articles during the pandemic explaining that it’s difficult to realize how profound a change you’re living through while you’re living through it.?It often takes some time and distance to really grasp how big a thing has happened.
After discussing our current reality with other professionals at the many conferences and events I’ve recently attended, and thinking about it for a while, I was able to disconnect from my day-to-day perceptions and take a thirty-thousand foot view of life, work, work-life, and humanity.?That exercise helped me see that here in the US – and likely in most western cultures – the trust that existed between employers and employees in broken, and it will likely never be repaired.?It is the proverbial Brave New World.
Let’s step-back and review how we got here.
Most of the firms that have experienced these RIFs (reductions in force) and/or layoffs are NOT struggling.?(Again, most, not all.)?They are profitable, paying executives significant compensation, and still investing millions if not billions in new technology and projects.?They are simply resetting the size of their organizations in a way that will please Wall Street investors.?
Interestingly, all available data shows that layoffs and RIFs always cost firms more money in the long run.?That being the case, why are so many firms doing it??There are a few reasons:
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The cynical view of all these layoffs can be paraphrased as, ‘So you grunts think you can work from home and slack-off all day and then just resign??Ha, we’ll show you who really has the power.’
The long-term problem with all of this is that trust has been broken.?Irrevocably broken.?It’s now a brave new world.
Yes, perhaps in the short term the power has shifted back to some employers.?But at what cost?
Some of the firms that had tremendously loyal and invested cultures – ones with proud and cute internal names – cultures that they were very proud of – have dropped a bomb on them, obliterating them.?Ironically and hypocritically, many of these are the very same firms that decried that remote working would prevent them from nurturing their desired company culture.?Apparently, these firms are only concerned about company culture when the argument meets their tacit desires to regain power from employees.?They have no qualms about destroying these valuable and beloved cultures when it meets their desires.
The employees that remain at these firms will never see them the same way.?Knowing one can be cut-off from teammates and company systems in the middle of the night with no notice, warning or explanation has a chilling and devastating effect not only on those employees leaving but also on those employees staying.?Trust is broken.?‘Company culture’ is seen as the hypocrisy that it is.
I can’t begin to tell you how many emails and posts I’ve seen and conversations I’ve had with employees and ex-employees who explain that they will never again allow misplaced loyalty to affect their career choices.?Loyalty as a factor in a choice of employer is just as destroyed as the culture factor.
The inevitable results of all of this will be a trajectory that moves us much further toward a nearly complete gig economy.?Employees who have valuable ideas will prefer to sell them to the highest bidder rather than sharing them with employers.?People who can become entrepreneurs will do so.?NDAs and non-compete clauses will slowly dissolve as potential employees will no longer trust firms.?(Already courts and governments are beginning to dissolve these in limited but growing circumstances.)?Having a great manager that values your contributions and speaks-up to defend you against staff cutbacks is now quite visibly not even a factor in company decisions.?
As I said, trust has been broken.?Irrevocably broken.?It’s now a brave new world.
In the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley wrote, “... Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.” Congratulations to today's company leaders (the equivalent of his ‘Controller’) for showing most men and women just the opposite – that there in fact is a life past ingesting the Soma, as the pandemic and deceptive employers have allowed everyone to learn what we have been “conditioned to believe” about employers and company culture is actually no longer true.
All posts or opinions are my own and do not necessarily represent those of any organization of which I am part.
2 年Noelle Akins, BCC
Sr. Director, Product Marketing at KORE | Sales Enablement, Positioning & Messaging, Market Education
2 年How does today compare to the dotcom crisis, or the financial crisis?
Nailed it! There is no longer any trust between employer and employee in Corporate America. https://www.resultist.com/blog/only-half-of-americans-trust-business-what-to-do-about-it
This is so spot on - unfortunately.
Director Product Insights and Reporting @ Reputation | Product Management | Business Development | 20+ Patents | MBA
2 年Very much agree, this is unfortunately the era we are in now David Danto. True believers in a corporation's vision, mission and culture will become an anomaly, not the norm.