Some Companies Aren't Fit to Work For

A job-search column in a big city daily recently threw some light on an unpleasant aspect of corporate behaviour.

The column quoted a man who has been searching for work for the past five years. After countless applications, interviews and follow-up meetings, his impression of modern corporate Canada could be summed up in a few words -- bad manners, arrogance and lack of respect for job applicants.

This man, a professional who had been downsized out of a middle management position, was not impressed with the professionalism of today's employer.

Sour grapes? Maybe. But this one man's story can be, and has been, repeated hundreds of times by job seekers who have been shocked to see the ugly underbelly of corporate culture.

The truth is that these business bullies have had it their own way for far too long.

When they advertise a job vacancy, they fully expect half the population to apply. They ask for the moon, pay next to nothing and fine-tune their expectations to the point of absurdity. They have the pick of the crop. They demand the right to cull the herd, snap up the prime beef and throw the stragglers to the wolves. Tough luck for stragglers.

Sure you've got a PhD in astrophysics; you're perfectly bilingual; you were widget salesman of the year for five years running; and you're willing to work around the clock for peanuts. But your computer skills are confined to MSWord, Excel and PageMaker. We want someone with WordPerfect, Lotus and Quark Express.

Sorry. Drop dead. Next.

Should you be lucky enough to get hired by one of these bozo firms, you'll be treated like an escapee from Devil's Island. You'll be monitored, corrected, humiliated and distrusted. You will never, ever be invited to use the skills for which you were hired. You will lanquish and shrivel.

That's if you're fortunate enough to stick with the company. Chances are you'll be thrown out on your ear during the next corporate bloodletting.

Respect for job applicants and employees? You've got to be kidding. Welcome to the global marketplace.

There's only one answer to these steroid-sucking bosses -- refuse to work for them. In fact, it's debatable whether anyone over the age of 35 should even consider taking a job with one of these mad dogs in suits. If we have to become a nation of shopkeepers to gain respect as human beings, then so be it. A nation of self-employed shopkeepers we should become. Our self-esteem requires it. Democracy demands it.

Our parents and grandparents invested a lot of sweat and blood so that we could be a generation of well-educated, self-reliant, independent people. They endured prairie winters in sod houses, gambled with fate in the stinking holds of trans-Atlantic ships, fought vicious wars to show that each human life has dignity and meaning.

That is the heart and soul of the democracy they bequeathed to us.

As human beings and as workers we deserve better than corporate Canada has been giving us. As talented, resourceful people, we can do better.

All we have to do is suck up our courage and take a chance on ourselves. Start your own business; do what you do best; make use of the skills and talents God gave you. Don't spend your life trembling in fear, wondering whether you'll get an interivew, will he/she like you, will you still have a job next week.

Just say no to the business bully-boys.