People are not a cost

Until employers cease to see workers as an expense, and start to see them as humans beings, there will never be peace in the workplace.
There was an appalling article here in NZ.

The Reserve Bank is to decide this week whether the economy has hit ‘maximum sustainable employment’ – a concept that feels somewhat abhorrent to those still struggling to find work.

Manufacturing, farming, construction and hospitality – right across the board employers say they’re busting their budgets to recruit and retain staff as the economy hits capacity. And their warning of inflationary wage pressure will be considered by the Reserve Bank next week, amid expectations it will prepare to rein in the galloping economy.

Unemployment is at present estimated at 4.5 percent and trending down. But the Employers and Manufacturers Association argues it needs to be closer to 5 percent, to make it easier to recruit and retain staff, and constrain wage inflation.

I wouldn’t have been as shocked if this was a US article. The US will always be brutal until the whole system changes from a corrupt oligarchy, which will probably require the Real American Revolution. I expect it there. It’s about lifting the whole culture. We’ve had fifty years of Freidmanist greed to poison the employer-employee trust bond. Much to restore. When I interviewed NZ and US CIOs for some research a while back, I was really struck by the difference in attitude to how expendable people are. US companies burn people for fuel.

NZ is supposed to be socialist.

I’m ashamed to hear this in New Zealand. We should aspire to full employment, and pay people what they can contest for in a fair market where they aren’t afraid.