“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity“
Forget evil abusive bastards and distopian megacorporations (Hi Jeff!), I want to talk about most small and medium enterprise (SME) you will work for, work with or hear about.
And as someone whose day-to-day job is to manage their anguish, their frustrations, their fuck-up and their lack of vision, I can say that most of them are not in bad faith. They're just profondly inept, dangerously mismanaged and blissfully forgetful.
You've all seen those: a good business, well established and lucrative, but without any significant growth and a high turnover. The owners work too much, as do their employees. The employees are not very well paid and their salary is stagnant. There is no real long term strategy to pass-on the business to the next generations or employees. Actually, there's no real long term strategy at all. They try to cut as much expenses as possible, even on high-value added services like accounting, lawyer and technology.
Let me be clear. Those business enrage me. Every day of my practice is haunted by my desire to scream and pummel in their owner heads how tragic is the loss of opportunity. How much this ineptitude is not only ruining their legacy but also weakening their community and the next generation. Because it doesn't matter if you're left or right: stupid is stupid.
But the sad truth is that, most of the time, they're trapped in another time. A time where they started a very good job and were paid $ 7,00 an hour as a specialized mecanics without experience. A time where financing for business was easier. A time where you grew your money without management software for inventory and human ressources. A time where turnover cost wasn't in the tens and sometime hundreds of thousands.
And, yes. In that time they're trapped in, it's insane to see a young mechanic with little experience asking $ 36,00 an hour to work. Even if you're actually making a grand per day for his work. Even if the numbers show it's good. Even if you can't afford to lose that employee.
…
I guess that's a love letter to those between you that will take leadership in your communities, may it be through a union or founding/taking over a business. Because I guess change need to come from all places: good employees must be respected, good business need to grow and stupid businesses needs to be taken-down.
LTDR: Ranting from a lawyer being infuriated before business mismanagement resulting in failing, stagnating, toxic business. Be better.