“It’s not just for money alone that one spends a lifetime building up a business…. It’s to preserve a way of life that one knew and loved” Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol”
When the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Ebenezer Scrooge back in time it’s interesting to discover that his happiest memories are of the workplace. Not just any old workplace, though ; Scrooge was apprenticed to Mr. Fezziwig, an enlightened employer, certainly for the 19th Century and quite possibly for today….
Fezziwig’s approach was quite simple and basically common sense. He believed that we only get out of a relationship or transaction what we are prepared to put in. Thus, he provided good working conditions and fostered a culture of trust, fair play and honesty in return for his staff’s guaranteed loyalty and hard work, with the added bonus of the eagerly anticipated staff party to celebrate Christmas.
In today’s faster-paced and highly pressurised and regulated world of work it is very easy to lose sight of the basics of good employer/employee relations and to forget that this is a two-way street . And as the reference to Charles Dickens proves, ‘twas ever thus . The moral to our Christmas story is that the most motivated and loyal employees tend to be those who are treated the best by their employers; and employers will always reward their hardest working and productive employees.
We wish all of our clients and candidates a wonderful festive season and very prosperous, happy and healthy 2016. "God Bless Us Every One", as Tiny Tim would say!