Sunday, February 12, 2017

Dysfunctional Demands

Today's society has gone down a very crooked and crazy path. Morals are thrown out the window while caution and care are things of the past. We rush through life. We blame others for the shortcomings we face.
In the business world, its all about money. Push until they collapse, is the business motto I think my own employer should embrace. Better yet, maybe companies should compile personnel requirements outside of work. Here's what I mean....
I work for a sales company. 8-5, Monday - Friday. Sales is all about money. The more, the merrier. For the owners at least. Doesn't matter how much I bring in to the company as I'm only an administrative assistant to one of their Million Dollar Producers.
That life doesn't compliment the personal side of my life. I have 4 kids. Oldest one is 8 years old. His school expects me to read to him every night, do several pages of homework every night, have him read to me, while also getting him to bed by 7:30 PM so he won't be too tired for school the next day. Normally, I get home a little before or right at 6 PM. I have an hour and a half to do the  following:
Reading (most nights my fiancé has their homework done before I get home)
Serve dinner (same as above, my fiancé tries to have dinner made by the time I get home)
Cleanup the dinner mess
Brush teeth and get everyone bathed
Make their lunches/snacks for school the next day (they have to tell me what they want)
And a final bedtime story.
This is not how it should be. And then I still get notes from the school that my oldest is failing first grade. That I'm not helping him enough. I need to read more and work harder with him at his homework. I'm sorry that the teacher isn't getting these done enough with him while she has him for 8 hours a day, but I also don't have enough time to cram more into him. Besides, by time I get home, he's dead tired and ready to eat and sleep. That's why its a fight to finish his homework.
I know I'm not the only parent out there with these issues. More studies are being done that show how this is a failing system. Kids aren't getting time with their parents. If they are like my kids, they probably watch their parents run errands or clean house on the weekends since they had no time during the week to. Studies also show that business people these days are burnt out from 8 hour days at work by the time they reach Wednesday. They also quit at an alarming rate because of the demands from their workplace. Taking time off is considered a hardship on the company and is frowned upon. My employer doesn't allow you to call in on the first, 15th, or last Friday of the month. My supervisor even told me that I needed to avoid taking off Mondays and Fridays. Understandable for business reasons, but it adds stress of trying to fit outside life into those guidelines. Job burn out causes people to stress more, have higher likeliness of illness, depression, and ultimately throwing in the towel. Some companies are seeing that lessening the workweek, say a 4 day workweek, has increased their productivity and overall happiness of their employees. Less vacation and sick days are taken. People have that day to take care of doctors appointments, take longer weekend trips, and spend time with loved ones. Amazon is one of those companies. I loved working my 10 hour days 4 days a week. If it weren't for my back problems, I'd still be there. The environment was great. They pushed everyone to care for themselves and well-being in order to, not care for the company, but to care for those they provide a paycheck for. Amazon leaders told their employees to watch themselves and do all they could to stay healthy. Not so that they would not miss work so much and cause hardship on the company. They did so while reminding everyone that if we missed time, we lose pay. We lose pay, we lose out on providing for our families. That is what companies are failing to do these days. Forget about telling your employees that they are a burden if they miss a day. Your employees don't care about that. Especially when you rake in millions-billions every year regardless. Remind me that my family is depending on me. Tell me that my paycheck is important to keep us afloat. That's what I need to hear to push myself. Give me one more day during the week to take care of those needs I otherwise have to avoid... and you have yourself a happier woman who is willing to drive herself to exhaustion to make it work.

So here is what I suggest. Companies should reevaluate the demands and amount of time they make people work each week. OR only hire single individuals, with no children, no outside life, and a love of money. Because people like me just don't fall into the guidelines of success they write otherwise.

1 comment:

  1. Also don't forget about the bad schooling situations in America. Teachers complain about not enough money all the time and yet feel the need to work for free. what? See the more homework, the more they have to check. This is usually done at home on their time. And yes, they care not about teaching the kids. They just say it's the parents job. Fine, then I can homeschool. Why do I need to pay you if I am doing your job? I had this same issue with my first child when she was in school. Notes everyday saying you need to teach her this and that. So I get in the car, drive down, and in person, ask what do YOU do all day? Why do you get paid to do nothing? She didn't like that so the notes kept coming and I visited the principle and asked him the same questions. No answer and the notes stopped. Then a threat to fail the child. I went back and asked all how they aren't capable of doing their job in a 40 hour a week job. My husband does or no pay. She passed. In America today what's bad is good and what's good is bad. How did we fall so short of reality??? I am sad for my kids and grandchildren to grow up in this kind of environment because it is depressing. Government pay millions on studies to find out why our suicide rate is so high. Well just think about it. Look into our countries history. Study it and the answer is their.

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