Unsure if this belongs here but thought I would share.
Context – We have a meeting which my manager delivers to the team, basically the company are asking everyone to be more punctual as part of a shrinkage report, the time they pay us for but which we are not working is too high (so they say). Our activity is monitored, mouse movement, which systems you are on for how long, how much work you do and how quickly its done, the overall quality and more are all monitored and more importantly, managed.
This meeting appeals (guilting) to us as colleagues directly to come back from breaks sharply and on time as the knock on effect, as they argue, causes more work for our colleagues. If you are not there to do your work someone else has to do so.
This is where it begins. I raised the fact that weeks before (when they were asking me to do more work) the company said it isn't more work its same as everyone else as you can only do one bit of work at time, same as everyone else ( I refused to do it but they argued it to the end). I brought this up and my manager dismissed it offhand. Manager is a nice person but a real company man.
Little bit of back and forth and we get to the crux. I say I think its in poor taste, to be asking more of colleague when in the last couple of years our pay has been cut (pay rise does not meet inflation), we lost our bonus and in the same time the company has been a huge success and the CEO gave themselves a RECORD BREAKING bonus. Team agreed. Bad timing for this sort of meeting, simply in poor taste.
Managers are effectively a first among equals for their teams with miniscule increase in their wages. Mines says something to the effect of “How much I am paid doesn't affect how hard I work so I don't feel it should for you”.
This isn't corporate level, this is a manager, an overseer who does practically the same job with essentially the same pay as myself and my colleagues. How does one even begin to get that blinkered by a company that is slashing their benefits, (many people are leaving for other, more competitive jobs which they are aware of and I hear in the rumour mill, it has launched pay negotiations early this year as a result).
My question is simply this, how the hell does one become so blinkered, so enamoured with a company that they can't be honest with themselves? My workplace has many benefits and many faults, Its okay to want better in a decent workplace, its not black and white. Your good company (if that's how you see it) can still do wrong. Baffles me is all. Especially when the manager, other than their infatuation with the company line (which there is no real need for) is a nice person.