Why Nobody Wants to Work for You

“Are you stupid? So you are cleaning my office now? What is your problem? Can’t you see that I have guests? Toka hapa (walk out!)” The CEO shouted at the cleaning lady almost slapping her, in my presence. I cringed at the possible thought of that “successful” guy being my boss.

For a second I was wondering if I had gone to the wrong organization. I mean, everything on the company’s website was lovely and interesting: talk of happy photos, well-outlined objectives that explained how homely the company is, and believe it or not, that the company prides itself in good employee relations! Did the company hire a copywriter to lie? haha!

You see, it was at 8:45 am, I had already made my way to the property management firm, very excited about the new work opportunity. Now I believed, sorry, was convinced that my star was shining bright. I had gotten to the company 30 minutes before the interview time anticipating just how my fortune was about to change. Few days prior, the company had made a very promising job advert, pledging to pay Ksh 80,000 for an admin assistant. Tell me, which recent jobless graduate would not jump at that opportunity? Show me one!!

I recoiled in my seat and exclaimed, “Excuse me, sir, I will be back in a second.” And trust me, I walked out, blocked the company’s number and never went back. Albeit sorry for the helpless employees who have to endure the maltreatment to earn a living.

That whole episode got me questioning, is it that companies do not understand how a work environment can impact an employee’s output? It puzzles me how one would build such a good company yet have very high staff turnover rates. Don’t you think there is a big problem?

Despite being an employee who is an accountant, secretary, finance manager or whatever, every human being has an innate desire to be respected, acknowledged, loved and appreciated. Paying your employees a good salary is splendid but it is not sufficient to make them stay. Whatever happens in the office has a ripple effect on the conversations at home, in society and to your company’s success. A frustrated worker is likely to turn up late for work, be mean to others for self-defense, fall sick often, under-perform and quit.

Surely, the cost of being good to your employees is lower than constantly hiring competent staff, even for your reputation. Remember, nowadays consumers are more conscious of how companies treat their employees and that informs their purchasing decisions. It doesn’t matter how many motivational speakers you invite in your big firms hoping that perhaps, it will push your staff to great heights. No, you are the problem so why don’t you choose to change? Forget excessive image-enhancing CSR, can you choose to be kind and polite to your workers today? 

Yours,

Joan.