Modern days businesses are been hit by a lot of financial
tornados but the companies who survive in these hard times are the ones who
cares for their employees especially those companies where employees come close
to each other to save the company.
Bob Chatman who runs a huge manufacturing company in Midwest- USA
called Barry Way Miller, in 2008 was hit very hard by the recession and they
lost 30% of their orders overnight, as a large manufacturing company it was a
big deal and they could no longer afford to manage their labor pool. To save
the company from bankruptcy they needed to save 10 million dollars, so as the large manufacturing company board of directors comes together and discussed layoffs.
At this moment Bob took a memorial decision and he refused to approve the
firing documents of the staff. Bob didn’t believe on head counts he believed on
heart counts and it’s much more difficult to simply reduce the heart counts.
The board get together and announces the program that each and every employee of
the company from secretary to CEO have to take 4 weeks of unpaid vacation they
can take it any time and they cannot take it consecutively, but the most
important is how Bobs decree the program that matter so much he said “Its
better we should all suffer a little then any of us have to suffer allot”.
After this announcement, the moral of the company went up and as the total they
saved 20M dollars.
Most importantly as expected when people feel safe and protected
by the leadership in the organization the natural reaction is the trust and
cooperation and without any expectations peoples in the company started trading
holidays with each other. Those who could afford it more they took vacation
more from others than those who could afford less. Some people took 5 weeks so
that their colleagues who are not financially good have to take only 3.
To recapitulate I must say leadership is a choice it’s not a rank,
I know many peoples at the lowest most level in the organization who have no
powers but still they are absolute leaders as they have chosen to look after
the peoples in their surrounds, however, there are some peoples at the top of
the organization who have clout but not the leadership, they are authorities
and we do what they say because they have the authority over us but we would
not follow them. Remember one thing you cannot judge the quality of the crew when the sea
is calm.
