The 3 Biggest Lies Employers Tell Their Workers; Have You Experienced This?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 12:03:39 -0500

The 3 Biggest Lies Employers Tell Their Workers

By Dominique Rodgers
Monster Contributing Writer

Everyone likes to think they’re working in the most honest, successful and stable organization around, but let’s face it -- that can’t always be the case. Organizations are made of people and people aren’t always honest. Even when they’re not deliberately deceptive, people may tend to put a positive spin on things.

To look out for your best interests on the job, keep in mind these three common ways employers misrepresent things to employees.

Work-Life Balance

“Work-life balance” is a hot buzzword in business these days because people are tired of giving everything to their employer and losing time with family, friends and hobbies. When a company says it’s important for its employees to have work-life balance, it conjures images of dinner at home every night, weekend soccer games and maybe an annual summer vacation.

Reality is often quite different, though, says Marc DeBoer, a former executive headhunter and current president of A Better Interview, a website devoted to helping job seekers perform better during interviews. “Most companies know that their employees will be working upwards of 60 hours per week as there is still so much uncertainty in the economy. Because the economy is in turmoil, companies have been cutting back on resources.” Layoffs at your office may have forced people to do double duty for a while.

Annual Bonuses

A lot of employees are hired with promises of an annual bonus on top of their regular salary. “If we do well as a company, we all share the rewards” is often a big lie, says Jacob Shriar, growth manager for Officevibe, an employment engagement software company. This may not be an intentional lie, he says. Instead, it’s likely the company just didn’t hit its financial goals and did not have the cash to pay bonuses.

Even the best companies have bad years. To combat any negative effects on your bottom line, you can either budget for the year as if the bonus won’t happen and then have a pleasant surplus if it does, or get specific goals and criteria for your bonus in writing when you negotiate your salary and other benefits.

Advancement Opportunities

When you were hired, it’s entirely possible that your manager wanted you to advance along a certain path. You may have even been promised additional training and resources for your professional development that since haven’t panned out. Yes, it’s possible you were totally lied to, but it’s also possible your supervisor’s timeline just doesn’t match yours, says Stacy Lindenberg, owner of Talent Seed Consulting, an organizational development company.

The solution, says Lindenberg, is simply to ask and be specific. Sit down with your supervisor and restate your desire for advancement. Ask about the anticipated trajectory, timeline and benchmarks.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 3 at 2015 4:07 PM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 16:07:48 -0500

On work-life balance: simple fact is, employees with "balanced" lives are more productive than burnt-out employees.

On bonuses: a bonus is not a part of your work agreement, and indeed, companies only pay out bonuses when the companies do well.

Advancement: Only YOU can be responsible for your advancement. Once inside the company, it is up to you to hob-nob, find opportunities, and advance your skills to advance your opportunities.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 3 at 2015 4:38 PM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 16:38:02 -0500

"You will have fun and see the world. " wait...do army recruiters count as employer representatives?

Response by SPC Lukas Jones made Feb 3 at 2015 5:07 PM

SPC Lukas Jones — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 17:07:19 -0500

Maybe this will come across as complaining (and maybe it is) but I was recently fired for attendance issues. When I was hired into my role, the overly elaborate and highly redundant time card systems (and yes there were three) were explained to me. After two months of having the highest productivity and ratings in the entire department, I was terminated by HR for "tardiness". My breaks and lunches were 3-5 seconds over the allowable time given by state law. Now, having to clock my time into 3 separate systems, one might be impressed that I was able to accomplish this feat, and considering my performance, I feel I should have been retained. Apparently HR disagreed. Is this an injustice? I will let you decide. I will also mention that during the entire training and production time that I was with this company, they stressed accuracy over efficiency. My department lead even told me that he would rather see 12 accurate emails an hour than 20 ok ones.

Response by 1SG Michael Blount made May 29 at 2015 10:08 AM

1SG Michael Blount — Fri, 29 May 2015 10:08:20 -0400

1. "Your idea is great, but..."
2. "I don't know why you weren't promoted"
3. "I think you're doing a great job!" (then whey didn't I get promoted?)
4. "I have an open door policy" (then why is it closed half the time?)

Response by 1SG Michael Blount made May 29 at 2015 10:10 AM

1SG Michael Blount — Fri, 29 May 2015 10:10:52 -0400

Oh, the BIGGEST lie I've ever heard....

One weekend a month, two weeks during the summer (only kidding, but I couldn't resist)

Response by SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. made May 29 at 2015 10:43 AM

SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. — Fri, 29 May 2015 10:43:11 -0400

this whopper...

Response by 1SG Michael Blount made May 29 at 2015 10:58 AM

1SG Michael Blount — Fri, 29 May 2015 10:58:43 -0400

What really chaps my ass about some employers is how stupid, naive or passive they think you are. I mean, how can the boss play favorites and not expect people to figure that out? Or, how you can get passed over three times for promotion inside of six weeks to see you're not in their plans, then act surprised when you leave? That takes a special kind of stupid.

And, yes, I had specific employers and people in mind.

Response by 1SG Michael Blount made May 29 at 2015 1:09 PM

1SG Michael Blount — Fri, 29 May 2015 13:09:08 -0400

Oh, I nearly forgot..."We admire your military service, but we don't reprimand our employees like that....." (even though you thought giving pushups to the SOP copping Z's at his desk was a motivational teaching point)

Response by CPT Maria Burns made Sep 15 at 2015 5:21 AM

CPT Maria Burns — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 05:21:10 -0400

Not quite a lie, but when I was hired I was told that the company had a very generous leave policy. It was implied that I could take my six weeks whenever I wanted.

The reality is that I can only take at most one week a month off. In order to take any amount of paid time off, my boss has to receive thirty days notice, and even if I give more than thirty days, there's no guarantee I'll receive the dates scheduled due to a very high turnover rate here.