339 lines
14 KiB
HTML
339 lines
14 KiB
HTML
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||
|
|
<html lang="en-us"><head><script src="/livereload.js?mindelay=10&v=2&port=1313&path=livereload" data-no-instant defer></script>
|
||
|
|
<title>A kind view of business - phil@bajsicki:~$</title>
|
||
|
|
<meta charset="utf-8">
|
||
|
|
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, viewport-fit=cover">
|
||
|
|
<meta name="description"
|
||
|
|
content="Scrolling LinkedIn today, I saw a post talking about the entitled attitude of
|
||
|
|
business owners when hiring(1)
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
(1)Sorry for not linking to it, I can’t morally support that platform.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
. ">
|
||
|
|
<link rel="canonical" href="http://localhost:1313/blog/a-kind-view-of-business/" />
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<link rel="icon" href="http://localhost:1313/images/logo_w.png" />
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/modern-normalize/1.1.0/modern-normalize.min.css" crossorigin="anonymous" referrerpolicy="no-referrer" />
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin />
|
||
|
|
<link rel="preload" as="style"
|
||
|
|
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Noto+Serif+SC|Noto+Emoji&display=swap" />
|
||
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet"
|
||
|
|
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Noto+Serif+SC|Noto+Emoji&display=swap"
|
||
|
|
media="print" onload="this.media='all'" />
|
||
|
|
<noscript>
|
||
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet"
|
||
|
|
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Noto+Serif+SC&display=swap" />
|
||
|
|
</noscript>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/hugo-tufte.min.css">
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/hugo-tufte-options.min.css">
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/hugo-tufte-override.css">
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</head>
|
||
|
|
<body>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<article id="main">
|
||
|
|
<header class="brand">
|
||
|
|
<h1>phil@bajsicki:~$</h1>
|
||
|
|
<p class="subtitle"></p>
|
||
|
|
<nav class="menu">
|
||
|
|
<ul>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/about/">About</a></li>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/blog/">Posts</a></li>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
</nav>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<hr />
|
||
|
|
</header>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<section>
|
||
|
|
<h1 class="content-title">A kind view of business</h1><span class="content-meta"><p class="date">2024-01-25</p><span>7 min read </span><a href="http://localhost:1313/tags/mindset">mindset</a> <a href="http://localhost:1313/tags/rant">rant</a> <a href="http://localhost:1313/categories/business">@business</a> </span></section>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<section><p>Scrolling LinkedIn today, I saw a post talking about the entitled attitude of
|
||
|
|
business owners when hiring<label for="sidenote-1" class="margin-toggle sidenote-number">(1)</label>
|
||
|
|
<input type="checkbox" id="sidenote-1" class="margin-toggle"/>
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote">
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote-number">(1)</span>Sorry for not linking to it, I can’t morally support that platform.
|
||
|
|
</span>
|
||
|
|
.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>The post’s point was that most businesses are not providing sufficient
|
||
|
|
compensation for the skills and effort they are asking for when hiring.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>And… I can’t help but agree. But I would also like to voice a bit of my
|
||
|
|
thoughts about the matter, because I feel like it needs a little bit more
|
||
|
|
context and explanation.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>A business has one goal: to make money.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>To maximize the amount of money a business or enterprise can bring in, a
|
||
|
|
business has to… stay in business.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>What follows from that is that the business has to be structured in a way that’s
|
||
|
|
resilient to adversity, but also allows for increasing its potential in several
|
||
|
|
ways:</p>
|
||
|
|
<ol>
|
||
|
|
<li>Sales/ Marketing</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Production/ Services</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Logistics/ Infrastructure</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>HR/ Legal</li>
|
||
|
|
</ol>
|
||
|
|
<p>The important part about these is, they’re all departments that are run by
|
||
|
|
<strong>humans</strong>.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Hiring an employee is no different from signing a service agreement. Your
|
||
|
|
employee agrees to perform certain actions for a certain amount of compensation.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>It is an adverse relationship, because while the owner of the business wants to
|
||
|
|
get the most out of the employee for the given price, the employee wants to get
|
||
|
|
the most compensation for the least amount of work.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>And this is an important point. Fundamentally, an employer is on equal grounds
|
||
|
|
with the employee at every point - the business can lay them off, and the
|
||
|
|
employee can quit.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>But… the employer can <em>actually</em> put themselves at a severe disadvantage, if
|
||
|
|
they neglect the real value skilled people can bring to their business.</p>
|
||
|
|
<ol>
|
||
|
|
<li>Institutional knowledge<label for="sidenote-2" class="margin-toggle sidenote-number">(2)</label>
|
||
|
|
<input type="checkbox" id="sidenote-2" class="margin-toggle"/>
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote">
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote-number">(2)</span>I.e. all the things about your business that only they know, such as the way your systems interact with each-other, side-effects certain actions may have, etc.
|
||
|
|
</span>
|
||
|
|
</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>A practical understanding of the systems and processes in place<label for="sidenote-3" class="margin-toggle sidenote-number">(3)</label>
|
||
|
|
<input type="checkbox" id="sidenote-3" class="margin-toggle"/>
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote">
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote-number">(3)</span>The ability to rapidly solve issues as they appear, while keeping the big picture in mind, so as not to break anything.
|
||
|
|
</span>
|
||
|
|
.</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>The mood and culture in the company that facilitates teamwork and collaboration<label for="sidenote-4" class="margin-toggle sidenote-number">(4)</label>
|
||
|
|
<input type="checkbox" id="sidenote-4" class="margin-toggle"/>
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote">
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote-number">(4)</span>Seeing people leave makes their friends sad, and that decreases their trust and emotional investment in the workplace
|
||
|
|
</span>
|
||
|
|
.</li>
|
||
|
|
</ol>
|
||
|
|
<p>If the business doesn’t understand just how valuable these contributions are,
|
||
|
|
and doesn’t compensate employees for their real contributions… churn starts.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Employees start realizing that their presence isn’t appreciated, and that their
|
||
|
|
contributions will be valued more highly elsewhere.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>In my experience, it’s rare that an employee quits because of a specific event
|
||
|
|
at work. In most cases, it’s the culture, attitude and mindset enforced top-down
|
||
|
|
by the business owner/ CEO/ management.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>And fundamentally, this is an incentives problem. People work better when they
|
||
|
|
see that their efforts are being rewarded.</p>
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
<p><em>“Why should I work hard, performing duties and tasks that would easily warrant
|
||
|
|
$40+/h,<!-- raw HTML omitted -->
|
||
|
|
when I’m only being paid $12/h?”</em></p>
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
<p>So then when employees are leaving, or being fired for bringing up issues<label for="sidenote-5" class="margin-toggle sidenote-number">(5)</label>
|
||
|
|
<input type="checkbox" id="sidenote-5" class="margin-toggle"/>
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote">
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote-number">(5)</span>Yes, there is a juicy story there, and the company in question isn’t in my resumé because of that.
|
||
|
|
</span>
|
||
|
|
, this not only creates an exodus (because employees
|
||
|
|
start questioning the value and stability of their employment), but also strips
|
||
|
|
the businses of established, knowledgable, skilled talent.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Which means new employees must be trained and brought up to speed. This is a
|
||
|
|
significant expense to the business, often far outweighing the cost of
|
||
|
|
compromising with existing employees, and giving them better working conditions.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>If you’re a micro-small business owner, you don’t have the leverage, the power
|
||
|
|
to compensate talent that bigger businesses have. You’re not in a position to
|
||
|
|
ask for a laundry list of skills that would put your applicants in the top 10%.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>As an applicant<label for="sidenote-6" class="margin-toggle sidenote-number">(6)</label>
|
||
|
|
<input type="checkbox" id="sidenote-6" class="margin-toggle"/>
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote">
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote-number">(6)</span>I am actively searching for a job as of this writing.
|
||
|
|
</span>
|
||
|
|
, when I see a
|
||
|
|
laundry list of very in-demand and valued skills for a position, such
|
||
|
|
as…<label for="sidenote-7" class="margin-toggle sidenote-number">(7)</label>
|
||
|
|
<input type="checkbox" id="sidenote-7" class="margin-toggle"/>
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote">
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote-number">(7)</span>This is pulled from the jobs page of a company I worked for.
|
||
|
|
</span>
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
<ul>
|
||
|
|
<li>Be a top-rated CRM specialist</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>Responsible for:
|
||
|
|
<ul>
|
||
|
|
<li>managing customer data</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>automating marketing campaigns</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>creating effective sales funnels</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>streamlining the CRM management process</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>ensure seamless automations</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>optimizing funnels</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>designing engaging landing pages</li>
|
||
|
|
<li>automating personalized email campaigns</li>
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
</li>
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
<p>[Follows a list of very undescriptive and vague “benefits”, such as
|
||
|
|
‘opportunities for rate increases’, ‘rates based on project requirements’,
|
||
|
|
‘we’re here to support you’ and such.]</p>
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
<p>Give me a guess… how much do you think this company is willing to pay for this
|
||
|
|
kind of skill-set?</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>For reference, Glassdoor gives a bracket of $59k to $100k. That translates to
|
||
|
|
about $28/h.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>The real pay for this position is about $10-11/h, not accounting for the ‘other
|
||
|
|
duties as assigned’ trick that American companies try to get away with.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>So this person may end up not only managing the CRM, but also working on
|
||
|
|
documentation, unrelated automations, project management, and a number of other
|
||
|
|
things that are outside of their skillset.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Of course, the position is paid hourly under the pretense of the employee (by
|
||
|
|
IRS standards) being a contractor. And so the business doesn’t offer any
|
||
|
|
insurance, worker’s comp, PTO, or anything of the sort, because it’s preying on
|
||
|
|
international hires being ‘invisible’ in the system, and for whom these
|
||
|
|
conditions are better than what they can get locally.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Many of them are amazing people. Kind, skilled, enthusiastic and very willing to
|
||
|
|
learn, because as it turns out - life is hard when you’re broke, so you do what
|
||
|
|
you have to do.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>And the same applies to American workers, too. Ironically, they have much fewer
|
||
|
|
protections than the rest of the world has, and so they’re getting exploited and
|
||
|
|
manipulated by their condition to settle for less than their labor is truly
|
||
|
|
worth.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>With the rising wave of awareness about these topics (as we see on Reddit, BlueSky,
|
||
|
|
Mastodon), businesses that want to find a point of stability from which they can
|
||
|
|
grow have to start accounting for the human element.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Most of us are not happy with human-on-human violence, or violence in general.
|
||
|
|
And violence isn’t limited to fists, knives or guns. It’s also the lack of
|
||
|
|
respect for each-other as members of the same species.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>The work an employee performs is what’s on sale. Trying to get a better price is
|
||
|
|
okay in my mind, but there are limits one shouldn’t cross, such as compensation
|
||
|
|
not meeting the needs of the employee.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Google can afford to take their employees all the way
|
||
|
|
through <!-- raw HTML omitted --><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs#Stages">the stages of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.</a><!-- raw HTML omitted --></p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Small businesses often can’t, but they should still strive to, because not doing
|
||
|
|
so automatically undermines workplace stability, and increases costs.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>It’s not rare to see one skilled, established employee be let go, only to be
|
||
|
|
replaced by two or three new hires, who not only cost more, but don’t have the
|
||
|
|
<em>institutional knowledge</em> necessary for them to be effective and efficient at the
|
||
|
|
job.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>So then, what can a small business do?</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Focus on maintaining few highly skilled employees who are <em>happy</em> and <em>fulfilled</em>
|
||
|
|
working for you. You can hire cheap and help newbies grow, but even then,
|
||
|
|
compensation has to follow the market, if you want to keep them long-term.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Because if you don’t, all those skills and knowledge go to your competition.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>If you’re a CEO/owner, and you’re looking for help to get the daily stuff out of
|
||
|
|
the way (communication, scheduling, task management, team coordination), get a
|
||
|
|
good assistant. They’re pricy, but you really get what you pay for.<label for="sidenote-8" class="margin-toggle sidenote-number">(8)</label>
|
||
|
|
<input type="checkbox" id="sidenote-8" class="margin-toggle"/>
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote">
|
||
|
|
<span class="sidenote-number">(8)</span>An
|
||
|
|
assistant with some technical skills can often handle the entire back-end of your business on their own (fulfillment and deliverables excluded), and as your business grows, they’ll be the perfect person to step into the COO position.
|
||
|
|
</span>
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>TL;DR: Be kind, and think a little bit about what each of your employees <em>needs</em>.
|
||
|
|
Creating internal tension in your business, between management and employees is
|
||
|
|
the perfect way to ruin long-term prospects, both for the business, and the
|
||
|
|
people it consists of.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>Thanks for reading my venty rant.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p><!-- raw HTML omitted --><a href="https://www.fsf.org/">Join the FSF!</a><!-- raw HTML omitted --></p></section>
|
||
|
|
<section><footer class="page-footer">
|
||
|
|
<hr />
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<div class="previous-post" style="display:inline-block;">
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a class="link-reverse" href="http://localhost:1313/blog/a-new-look/?ref=footer">« A new look: ox-tufte</a>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<div class="next-post", style="display:inline-block;float:right;">
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<a class="link-reverse" href="http://localhost:1313/blog/shiny-objects-and-learning/?ref=footer">Shiny objects, and learning »</a>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<ul class="page-footer-menu">
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<div class="copyright">
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
©2024 Phil Bajsicki
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</p>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</footer>
|
||
|
|
</section>
|
||
|
|
<section><nav class="menu">
|
||
|
|
<ul>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/about/">About</a></li>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/blog/">Posts</a></li>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
</nav>
|
||
|
|
</section>
|
||
|
|
</article>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</body>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</html>
|