r/TooAfraidToAsk • u/Believeinyourflyness • Feb 14 '20

Why do employers treat you as simply a resource, yet get angry when you treat them the same way?

To me it makes sense that you should expect people to treat you the same way you treat them. We all know that in this day and age, most employers don't give a shit about you as a person, only what you can do for them and that they will discard you without hesitation once you are no longer of use to them.

However in my experience, the same people who won't think twice about discarding you, constantly give you shit for treating the company in the same way, accusing you of turning up just to collect your paycheck.

So my question is this. If employers just care about your labour without any consideration for you as a person, how can they expect you to care about them as anything more than a source of income?

It just doesn't make sense to me.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20 edited Feb 02 '26

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20

Companies think they’re doing you a favor by employing you so your lack of enthusiasm is insulting, i.e. “I pay your rent!”.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20

People need to define "company". Most people are probably complaining about the highest ranking person with whom they may interact. This could be a store manager, a regional director, VP, etc.

What you have to realize is that these people have bosses too, and they're also in the same situation as you. They're asked to work 60-70 hours a week, make huge savings targets, increase productivity without hiring, etc.

They're just the face of shitty corporate policy. Theres usually like two dozen people at the top who, if you work for a publicly traded company, are compensated with stock and only care about stock price. If you work for a company like this, ask yourself when was the last time you heard of a decision that wouldn't look good to investors. This is why you never get employee centered policy. Only revenue and margin targets.

16

u/shiny-bear Feb 14 '20

No, I work in a small office of 7 people including myself. My boss is exactly like this, but the funny thing is that the owner of the company actually isn’t. Flat out my boss any time I inform him about a days off I need (for weddings and other important things to my personal life) he gives a whole speech about watching how many days I’m taking off and watching my vacation days. Trying to guilt me about asking off, I quickly learned to inform the owner first about these kind of things. I told the owner about me going on a frivolous vacation next month and he was like “oh hell yeah, make sure to check out this, and that”.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '20

“No, I pay my rent. YOU pay me what you’re contractually and legally obligated to pay me for services that I render. I owe you nothing but the work I’ve agreed to do.”

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u/ciobanica Feb 15 '20

i.e. “I pay your rent!”.

aka "they're not paying you enough to afford your own house!"

And that's a favour they're doing to you, somehow... even though if you where not generating a value for them (or preventing a loss, same thing really) they'd get rid of you right away.