“You are FIRED!”

The only permanent fixture in any company structure is the man who runs the business ie: the big cheese. If you are a lowly employee, no matter your position, you are expendable. If there is anything you take away from this article, take this one with you – YOU ARE EXPENDABLE. I know this crushes your inner feelings of “safety” and “security” but the moment you forget this fact, you will find yourself assed out if they decide to let you go.

People fool themselves into thinking that their worth is beyond what it really is. Sure your boss can’t do his accounting, he doesn’t know any of the clients and you are the go-to person for all of the major accounts. Sure you’ve created the workflow and built the business into what it is now, but here’s the thing – if your boss doesn’t think so, guess what? No matter how big you’ve grown within a company, you’re only as important as the man in charge deems you. If you become a liability you will be removed, hell what if he sells his company?

Here’s a real-life example to illustrate my point. The names have been changed to protect the guilty and now salty.

The Story of Kevin The Expendable

Kevin was a boss’s dream come true, he was a hard-worker, a visionary and a young man whose efforts had doubled the companies money through a well-managed work-flow. Kevin was 19, didn’t do any college and came into the company as a lowly cog that bust his ass to make it up into the management area. His bosses appreciated his input and rewarded him for it, though his pay echoed my sentiments of “just enough for him not to leave”.

In Kevin’s mind, he was untouchable, he made the company what it was and without him they would be worse for it. To the bosses, while Kevin was a great asset, they could do anything with him because his lack of higher education and the fact that his trade was taught and developed within their company made him a brick in the building that they had built. Should he try to leave, he would find that the world is a cold place that doesn’t extend chances to young people without a degree (this is their thought process). Where’s he gonna go?

Kevin grew confident in his climb to the top, aspiring to become a partner in the company, but his confidence turned into cockiness. He would berate employees in front of customers, sleep with some of them and blatantly press up on others. When talking to the bosses he would speak with them as a peer not as an employee, voicing his opinion at times when it wasn’t asked. Why not? In his mind he made that company, he can talk to them however he pleased, what are they going to do fire him?

After many complaints, a pregnant employee and more, the owners decided that maybe Kevin had overstayed his welcome. Efforts were made to demote him and a top level manager was moved into a “new” position that was above his. Before long Kevin was back to where he started, a cog in the machine that he had helped build. This naturally enraged him and he did the reactionary thing that all malcontented employees do – he went job hunting.

I wish I could end the story by saying that Kevin found a great job that offered more money to which he left for, but the reality is, he told everyone he found such a job. He bragged on how the owners at the new job loved him and offered him 3 times what he makes at the current company – he bragged to co-workers, managers, anyone who would listen. It was as if he thumbed it into the faces of all involved that he was better than them. Well after asking for more money from this supposed company, they decided not to hire him and he was stuck at the old job now a cancer to the other employees.

Although there were things that only Kevin could do within the company, ideas that he had formulated and customers that worked solely with him, he was fired the following week and the company’s profits did not skip a beat. In Kevin’s mind, like most people who think themselves  ”permanent”, he probably imagined them calling him a month later begging for his return. The walls would fall and the customers would scatter due to the lack of Kevin and he would ask for four times his salary and thumb his nose at them for the offense. No, none of that happened, no-one missed the kid and life went on. The End.

Remember, the only permanent fixture in any company structure is the man who runs the business. When you get cocky like Kevin did and play your cards loosely, you will find yourself out of work, out of money and being the example not to follow.

Written by Greg Dragon on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 

Filed under Money and Business
Tagged with boss, business, confidence, education, job, money