What is wrong with companies today? My answer to that question would be that a large part of what is wrong with companies today is reflective of what is wrong with society as a whole today, i.e., we have become too impersonal.

I am 58 years old, a Baby Boomer, and I have seen a tremendous change in the work environment over the 33 years that I have been employed in my current job.

When I was hired in 1974, the company was privately held and was fairly small, consisting of four small paper mills located in four different states. The individual mills had between 50 and 100 employees each.

In those days, a job well done was rewarded in the form of praise from upper management, bonuses, and substantial annual pay raises.

The years rolled by, and in 1984 our company was sold to a holding company, since the owner had reached old age and had no heirs who were interested in, or who were capable of, taking over the reins. At the plant level we did not really see any difference in the work environment during the five years that we were owned by the holding company.

In 1989 the holding company sold us to a large, privately held world-wide company. For the first few years, we really did not see much difference, or maybe the changes occurred so gradually that we did not notice them.

As time went by under the new ownership, things became less and less personal, and raises and bonuses became smaller and smaller. It seemed that no matter how profitable our mill was, it was never profitable enough to satisfy the new owners. Expressions of appreciation by upper management for outstanding individual performances by employees ceased to be offered.

The awards banquets, where employees were recognized for their years of service, were discontinued. Awards for five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, etc. years of service were given out individually, and then only when it "occurred" to the human resources people to do it.

I had to "beg" for my twenty-five year watch, and I had nearly twenty-nine years of service by the time I received it. It was presented in a very classy way: I found it in my chair in my office when I returned from lunch one day. No handshake from my boss, and no "thank you." The watch has no inscription, and there is nothing that identifies the watch with either the company or me.

I believe that what has happened at my workplace is very typical of what has been going on in the business world in general, and I think it is very sad.

Companies have always existed for the purpose of turning a profit, and there is nothing wrong with that. I do not believe, however, that being in business to make money and showing appreciation for employees are mutually exclusive concepts, or at least they should not be. The employees make the difference when it comes to profitability, so why should they not be appreciated?

Learn more about this author, Thomas Johnson.
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