If there's one thing you learn after working for a big company — being a cog in a machine — is that people are expendable. And that's precisely what Reddit user Durncha just realized.
The man has been a manager at a store for years and had a great track record. Superb sales numbers, impressive employee retention; the corporate office was very happy with his results. But it hated the way Durncha achieved them. You see, he actually listened to his team and treated them like human beings.
The manager went to countless meetings where he was schooled for caring, and eventually got kicked out for it.
In the end, he made a post about everything he went through on the subreddit r/AntiWork, and it perfectly captures how cold and inhumane the system can be.
In the end, he made a post about everything he went through on the subreddit r/AntiWork, and it perfectly captures how cold and inhumane the system can be.
One Reddit user wanted to vent after getting fired from a company he dedicated years of his life to
Image credits: TheStandingDesk (not an actual photo)
So he made a post, describing the corporate BS he had to deal with
Image credits: Jake Nebov (not an actual photo)
Image credits: Dylan Gillis (not an actual photo)
You'd think that companies would have detailed strategies in place for taking the best possible care of their employees. But sadly, this post isn't a standalone case. Employee well-being was a low priority for many companies last year.
According to the 2021 Wellbeing Diagnostic Survey that was released just two days ago by Willis Towers Watson (WTW), although almost all companies had identified burnout as a threat to their workers:
- Less than half (48%) had employee well-being programs.
- Only 26% had adopted and articulated a worker well-being strategy with objectives and goals for each program;
- And only 14% had effectively communicated the strategy and value proposition behind their programs and delivered what they promised.
The survey, which was conducted in October, has a margin of error of +/- 5%.
The survey identified the top two actions respondents plan to take in 2022 or are considering for 2023 to improve the emotional, physical, social and financial wellbeing of workers.
Regina Ihrke, the senior director of health and benefits for WTW, told Forbes that, "Since the pandemic, we have definitely seen well-being have a whole new priority for employers that we expected to emerge pre-pandemic—but the pandemic really accelerated the need for more at a quicker pace."
"However, when we look at the priorities that employers will focus on from the survey, they are very focused on evolving benefits and programs in the four pillars, physical, emotional, financial and social with emotional and financial at the forefront of areas to prioritize," she said.
Maybe the Great Resignation and the challenges it brings to recruiting replacements will encourage employers to speed up the implementation of their well-being programs. Or at the very least, not to fire their star team leaders for microscopic wrongdoings.
People think the only losers in this story are the executives who just lost a valuable employee
After someone commented that a district manager monitoring a random store's active timesheet at precisely the right moment to notice a discrepancy, Durncha provided more information on what happened.
"The program is called Dayforce, and our area manager has a district Excel sheet that he logs all of his 8 stores regular pay, OT, double-time, sick time, vacation, holiday, etc."
"Every week he goes into the specific store's time clock screen to go and get that data from a report that is generated. During this time, the area manager checks for mistakes in the time clock (Someone forgetting to clock out for the day, someone missing their lunch, etc) and he emails the store manager a list of errors or mistakes."
While he was compiling this information for Durncha's store, he took note of the flagged late shift, and then when he refreshed later, he saw that it was gone.
"If you still don’t believe me after that explanation, then I apologize I don’t think there’s anything else I can do," the Redditor added.