Taking away employee benefits is not exactly the best way to maintain loyalty.
It's remarkable how many companies these days espouse abstract ideas about being a family-oriented workplace environment, full of "lifting one another up" and supporting a healthy "work-life balance." Let's be honest with ourselves here. This is all talk, no show.
The truly supportive companies out there are the ones in which upper management can prove their priorities to support their employees by enacting actual policies that fulfill their needs. Obviously, not every employee's needs can be met in a company-wide policy, but at the very least, a decent business will go out of its way to find solutions to make its employees feel valued.
Employment benefits are a huge part of that equation. Sometimes, large corporations have the resources to provide more of those benefits, but employees can still feel lost and ignored by being just one of so many workers. On the flip side, however, small companies might have trouble providing similar benefits with fewer resources. At one point, this local New Jersey clinic attempted to provide its employees with standard paid time off packages, until one day, that "benefit" was quietly taken away.
In fact, this author only found out about the change when she put in a routine PTO request. Her boss called her into his office and abruptly denied the request before revealing that there was no longer paid time off. He also explained that she could take the day she needed; she just wouldn't be paid for it.
This is a major no-no for employees who sign contracts guaranteeing benefits like PTO. If an employer is authorized to change those benefits at their will, surely, there should be an official announcement. Moreover, this author should be authorized to propose that a new contract be drawn. Once one term of the contract is altered, then all terms should be up for negotiation. After all, a contractual employment agreement is a two-way street, and employees should be given the opportunity to advocate for their rights and benefits, especially if their managers feel like they can take those rights and benefits away at their whim.
Here's hoping that this author sees the light and decides to start looking for a better opportunity elsewhere, one where she can get the essential benefits of full-time employment that all workers deserve.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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