Charlie’s #1 objective is to lower labor costs. In order to accomplish that objective, he has engaged in a 5-year campaign to diminish employee power. “Powerful” is not a trait Charlie wants in his employees. It is counterintuitive for an honorable leader whose goal is to build a healthy long-lasting company, but not for a dishonorable leader who prospers greatly from cutting the cost of labor.
Independence, knowledge and money are powerful. To keep labor costs low - he needs employees to be dependent, subservient, and ignorant. Workers won’t ask for more money if they’re demoralized, run-down, and feel alone.
What has he done to diminish your power? Off the top of my head:
- Immediately took away the concept of Team Members (Teams/tribes have power.)
- Decimated established teams with Spans and Layers
- Open seating keeps you off-balance with the lack of privacy and personal space to keep your belongings. Distractions and noise make it more difficult to do your job
- Reduced/eliminated employee access to critical information which is now tightly managed by a small group of leader (Knowledge is power)
- Key decisions are now made by a small group at the top of the hierarchy, with less autonomy for most employees (Independence is power)
- The C-Suite’s compensation and wealth have skyrocketed while most employees are seeing minuscule pay increases (Money is power)
- Micromanaging, monitoring and surveillance
- Creating a fear-based environment with the constant threat of replacing us with cheap labor in third-world countries. Requiring employees to train their replacements. And all the while….
- Lack of transparency around when it will be your time to go
- Soliciting your input through surveys and then ignoring it
- Generalizing job descriptions. You are easily replaceable by any of the other hundreds in the bank with the same bs job description. (Business Execution Consultant anyone?)
What’s my point? It is time to go.. It has been time to go for a long time now. I know it is not easy logistically to look for another job when your energy is sapped, your creativity has been stunted, and your perspectives have been manipulated. It’s hard to envision a better future for yourself and put in the work to make it happen when you’re already busy and exhausted, but you have to. We have to.