My current workplace is so absurd, but on the upside, it has taught me a lot about what's wrong with business (at least the people who decide to do business) and taught me about the sort of things that I don't want to do when I decide to start my design company and the other endeavors I have in mind.
Don't misunderstand me. I am very much a capitalist in the purest sense in the word. I honestly believe that while the capitalist system is a very flawed one, it is certainly better than the alternatives (take a closer look at socialism and communism to understand what I mean). I am also a firm believer that a company's primary function should be to generate a profit; if they can do other things like solve world hunger and save the environment then fine, but they should not do those things unless they will remain in the black afterward.
With that said, I have no qualms about company's doing whatever they choose to do at the expense of their consumers... after all, a company is only as successful as the people who consume their products. I always find it ironic when people complain about big business but happily march into Target/Wal-Mart to get shit for dirt cheap. Remember kids... that shit is dirt cheap for a good reason.
What I don't believe in however, is trying to increase your bottom line at the expense of your employees. Basically, when I say this, I am referring to the two people who are my (soon to be former) bosses. The sort of things that they have been doing recently in an effort to make more money have been so ridiculous and absurd, it's getting to the point now where it's just fucking hilarious. And the really funny thing is, it's not as if they are doing these things with the intent of making the store more money (during the summer, we averaged $23,000 a week. Can you imagine that? Making fucking $23,000 a week just by selling coffee? Even fucking $4 dollar coffee?) But their actions are solely for their own benefit.
During our last meeting, they gave us this rah rah speech about how the more money the store makes, the more money we make and all of that bullshit. Which, in Starbucks theory, is actually very true. The only thing is, the sort of topics we touched on during the meeting were all of the factors that go into the sort of bonus they will get at the end of the year. So basically, during that meeting, we weren't discussing things that would make the store more money... we were discussing what we as baristas needed to do to make our managers more money. Right...
In my mind, all of this is very backwards logic. If I wanted to get the most out of my employees, who would in turn put the most into their performance, which would in turn make my company (and as a result myself) more money wouldn't attempt to appeal to their self-interests rather than blantantly working to further my own?
But of course, such is the tragedy when you allow things like greed (or emotions such as love, or anger) govern your actions... those things cannot replace simple logic. It is unfortunate that this sort of thing is merely the nature of business... mostly because the majority of people who would approach business in an entirely different matter have little to no interest in business.
Thus... the cycle continues.
(S)carlett A. Diamond
Don't misunderstand me. I am very much a capitalist in the purest sense in the word. I honestly believe that while the capitalist system is a very flawed one, it is certainly better than the alternatives (take a closer look at socialism and communism to understand what I mean). I am also a firm believer that a company's primary function should be to generate a profit; if they can do other things like solve world hunger and save the environment then fine, but they should not do those things unless they will remain in the black afterward.
With that said, I have no qualms about company's doing whatever they choose to do at the expense of their consumers... after all, a company is only as successful as the people who consume their products. I always find it ironic when people complain about big business but happily march into Target/Wal-Mart to get shit for dirt cheap. Remember kids... that shit is dirt cheap for a good reason.
What I don't believe in however, is trying to increase your bottom line at the expense of your employees. Basically, when I say this, I am referring to the two people who are my (soon to be former) bosses. The sort of things that they have been doing recently in an effort to make more money have been so ridiculous and absurd, it's getting to the point now where it's just fucking hilarious. And the really funny thing is, it's not as if they are doing these things with the intent of making the store more money (during the summer, we averaged $23,000 a week. Can you imagine that? Making fucking $23,000 a week just by selling coffee? Even fucking $4 dollar coffee?) But their actions are solely for their own benefit.
During our last meeting, they gave us this rah rah speech about how the more money the store makes, the more money we make and all of that bullshit. Which, in Starbucks theory, is actually very true. The only thing is, the sort of topics we touched on during the meeting were all of the factors that go into the sort of bonus they will get at the end of the year. So basically, during that meeting, we weren't discussing things that would make the store more money... we were discussing what we as baristas needed to do to make our managers more money. Right...
In my mind, all of this is very backwards logic. If I wanted to get the most out of my employees, who would in turn put the most into their performance, which would in turn make my company (and as a result myself) more money wouldn't attempt to appeal to their self-interests rather than blantantly working to further my own?
But of course, such is the tragedy when you allow things like greed (or emotions such as love, or anger) govern your actions... those things cannot replace simple logic. It is unfortunate that this sort of thing is merely the nature of business... mostly because the majority of people who would approach business in an entirely different matter have little to no interest in business.
Thus... the cycle continues.
(S)carlett A. Diamond