I've got a friend who's been working a temporary job at a big bank. I get two versions of this job from her whenever she has a chance to talk.
- It's a fun team to be part of, with rewards and competitions all over the place. The one who closes the most loans this month gets a free turkey! The sooner we reach our goal, the sooner we get to wear jeans! Everybody's worked so hard, we're giving out free ice cream cones this afternoon!
- Her work space is about as far from ergonomic as it can get, and no opportunity to make it better suited to her body. This led to horrendous pain in her neck and shoulders the first week, pain in her lower back radiating down her legs the second week. At last she seemed to 'adjust', and the pains faded away, but she wondered what she might be doing to her body in the long term, by adjusting to her workspace instead of adjusting her workspace.
I suppose every job is like that. You learn to do what's expected of you so that you fit in. If you're lucky, you get rewarded for good work with a little more than just a paycheck. But sometimes it seems to me that those 'fun rewards' are just a gimmick to get you to think your workplace is a caring place to be. Upon further study, it doesn't cost the company anything to let the workers wear jeans, or to have a competition to see which team collects the most food for the food bank. Even a few dozen ice cream cones is chump change for a bank as big as this one. How about a reward that would actually mean something, like NOT raising the employees' insurance premium?
Not only companies have a bottom line. Families do, too.
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