Sooo thankful for where I work

I guess I should consider myself fortunate. I work for a company that invests into its employees. Our parent company values associate satisfaction, guest satisfaction (I work in a hotel) as well as making money. They focus on training and ensuring every employee has a quarterly review for feedback and discussion purposes. They really want to know how people are doing. Management is supportive of its leaders and associates. People are approachable. I may think this because I am in management but I’ve seen many hourly associates meeting with our HR manager or talking to other managers.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not all roses. I do not live in a perfect world. There is conflict between people and departments at times. Processes break down and things don’t run how they should.  Sometimes I’m extremely frustrated with my work.

But there are times when I realize I take a lot of things for granted. I realize this when I hear of other people’s work experiences and I am APPALLED by what some employers get away with: not permitting employees to take holidays, giving people unrealistic expectations with limited training and then freaking out on them when they make a mistake, having double standards among employees – what is ok for one is not ok for another, allowing managers to use manipulation and power plays to exercise their dominance. It’s just plain stupid! How does it benefit a company to treat their employees like crap?!

I was telling my co-workers of an incident that happened to someone I know – the person’s boss actually crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it at the person (over a personal voice mail message that didn’t list a phone number)! My co-workers laughed! They tried to imagine our boss doing the same thing and the thought was so ridiculous they laughed.

Sometimes I wonder whether I live in a bubble. How much of these shinanigans go on with employers and bosses and managers? I’m sure there are places that are better than mine in terms of how they treat their employees but I am realizing that there are places a lot WORSE than mine, too. The good thing is, having the work experience that I have had, I know I wouldn’t put up with stuff like that from an employer. Either I’d quit or I’d go to Labour Relations and report them. The sad thing is that there are probably lots of people out there that don’t know that things could be better or that what their employers are doing is actually illegal.

So I will be thankful today for my place of employment.