Employers--aren't they all the same?

Listening to employees day after day, one might be forgiven for believing that all employers are tarred with the same brush. Here is a story about two employees who reminded me of how organizations can and do treat their workers differently. Explaining to the first patient that their convalescence ought to be coming to an end, I had initiated an exploration of some avenues for a phased return to work. But why was this employee so reluctant to return to labour for the organization that had supported her sickness absence and would provide the means to put food on the table and allow ample paid annual leave for all manner of exotic holidays? What had spawned such disenchantment and antipathy? Had the milk of human kindness boiled over or just evaporated? It turned out that these metaphors were uncomfortably close to the truth. There had been cutbacks, spending constraints, rising costs and targets. Staff who had left had not been replaced. The directorate administrator had decreed that milk would no longer be provided for staff during tea or coffee breaks. To add some fibre to the overworked metaphor, it was simply the last straw when staff had to create a milk rota requiring the purchase and carriage of several litres of milk. My patient explained, ‘They want more and more and offer less and less in return. I don’t feel up to going back just yet’. A similar situation was illustrated by ‘Can He Fix It?’ Sir Gerry Robinson when the night shift staff in a nursing home had been reprimanded for having a slice of toast with their 3.0 a.m. break. Bitter disenchantment was the result. ‘We’re not even worth a slice of toast!’ Soon after, another employee came to see me. This time a worker who wanted to return to work before his convalescence period ended. ‘I feel quite well and really need to get back. We’re already a team member down due to maternity leave and I know my colleagues are putting in extra hours. It’s not right that I should be sitting at home when I could be sitting at work and sharing the load.’ So what made these two similar workers so different? The employer of the second patient overtly valued each employee. Free breakfast was provided before each morning shift. Free lunch was provided during the day shift and free supper during the late shift or for those working overtime. Free beverages and fruit were available always. The second employee reminded me of the wise words of another Knight of the Realm, Sir John Harvey-Jones, who said that you get the best out of people when you work with them. Just the other day, I discovered that the second patient worked for an employer that had been in the Sunday Times ‘100 Best Small Companies to Work For’ list for three years in a row. Now why was not I surprised by that? John Challenor e-mail: [email protected] 420 OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE