Question Description
For this week’s discussion, post detailed, thoughtful responses to the following questions:
- What do you feel is the “new social contract” between employers and employees?
- Do you feel it is effective and “fair” to use employees as brand ambassadors?
- What is the “identity work” of today’s employee–i.e., his/her challenges to construct and maintain a coherent (consistent, authentic, and self-satisfying) personal identity?
- What is your personal experience with organizational identification and the challenges of maintaining a coherent personal identity as an employee today?
- How can this week’s theoretical framework on identity theory inform our understanding of employee’s identity work?
Here is an example of someones post:
- What do you feel is the “new social contract” between employers and employees?
The new social contract between employees and employers today is starkly different from what it was 20 years ago or even when I was growing up. The days of an employees undying loyalty to a company are over and it is rare to find that employees even plan to stay with a company through the duration of their career with the average employee staying at a company for 4.4 years or less. (Forbes, 2012)
This shift is largely due to the power tipping from employers to employees along with the effects of globalization and the affect of economic liberalization which has led to rapidly changing careers paths (Singh, ) Today we are living in a world where the new social contract between employees and employers is a lot less clear and a lot less discernible with each company and each employee having to negotiate their roles and meanings to each other more often and with more flexibility.
Today more is demanded of companies than in the past with the age of fair wages, #metoo, gender equality, and family leave upon us companies are feeling the pressure to be more flexible and inclusive. Meanwhile employees are learning that they cannot expect companies to look out for them and their needs they must speak out and demand change.
- Do you feel it is effective and “fair” to use employees as brand ambassadors?
Expecting an employee to be an ambassador for your brand can be both positive and negative. I worked for a clothing retailer that had this mentality that we as employees must wear only their clothing while at work. In theory this seemed like a completely fair request they felt that their sales were directly affected by their customers coming in and seeing the clothing on employees of different body sizes, backgrounds, and ethnicities. While working there I can attest to this being true. More often than not if one of us was wearing a current piece of clothing it sold out faster than clothing that was not worn to work by an employee. The effectiveness of this habit for the company cannot be disputed but the effects on the employ are not always fair although this company provided us with a hefty employee discount when working part time over half of my pay check ended up going to company product just so that I could work. When I first started with the company the rule was that we wear at least one piece of company clothing but after a few months the requirements escalated to require us to wear three plus pieces of company clothing and it had to feature a seasonal item. At that rate it quickly became unaffordable for most of the employees to continue to work just part time and afford new clothing each season. This was extremely unfair to most of us who were working as a supplement to college and just trying to meet our bills and tuition.
In some cases companies walk the line between fair and effective with their requests of employees in regards to using their products and being ambassadors but more often than not this equation does not favor the employ.
- What is the “identity work” of today’s employee–i.e., his/her challenges to construct and maintain a coherent (consistent, authentic, and self-satisfying) personal identity?
With all the positive that the era of flexibility has ushered in there are also downsides. Employees today have less time off than previous generations because of the demands that being accessible 24 hours a day brings. In the past where most traditional jobs had 9-5 limitations when an employee clocked out they were usually done. Today these unspecified work hours provide no limits (Weller, 2001) and this can lead to overworked employees who have no time off. Being overworked can begin to erode ones personal identity and can present a huge challenge to employs seeking to maintain a self-satisfying personal identity.
As outlined in our reading this week under postmodern conditions, persons exist in a state of continuous construction and reconstruction; it is a world where anything goes that can be negotiated (Gergen, 1991) The identity work of employees today is to allow themselves time and space to grow while also fulfilling all the roles demanded of them. To be able to effectively do this they must start by setting strong boundaries for their employers as well as actively investing in areas of their life both at work and personally that challenge them and help grow their abilities.
- What is your personal experience with organizational identification and the challenges of maintaining a coherent personal identity as an employee today?
At my last job I experienced a disconnect between what my organization identified as acceptable work hours and what I personally considered to be acceptable for my role and my pay. I was an independent contractor who could set my own hours per my contract with them and we struggled with finding a balance because of the accessibility that technology provided them 24/7 it was impossible to take any time to disconnect.
Since the job for them was their passion project they felt totally okay to wake at four am and text for hours about the days projects and the retail expectations for the week. Personally, I had much less invested in their numbers, and vendor relationships because my job was just to produce content and waking up at four am with a toddler who woke repeatedly through the night and wakes for good at 6 did not really leave me to be my best self by the time I got into work. When I would bring this up to them they felt that I was not invested in the overall workings of their company, but I felt that for my level of pay and the contract they laid out my responsibilities were not comprehensive but more specialized to what they hired me to do. Reworking these boundaries was something that we never quite got right during my year at the organization and it was one of the main things that led me to want to move on.
- How can this week’s theoretical framework on identity theory inform our understanding of employee’s identity work?
This weeks framework made me realize just how fluid ones identity is and how even as an employee we must always be growing on a personal level. No company benefits from an employee who is only engaged in their home life and just comes into work to punch in their time card and make a living. That is not a model that is sustainable long term for both the employee identity or the personal identity. The two intertwine more than one could assume when looking at the surface and with our changing times our identities need room to continue to evolve.
References:
Gergen, K. J. (1991). The saturated self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life. New York: Basic Books
Meister, J. (2017, January 03). The Future Of Work: Job Hopping Is the ‘New Normal’ for Millennials. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2012/08…
Singh, A. K. (2009). Changing social contract between employer and employee.
Weller-Gregory, K. (2001). Dont Sweat the Small Stuff: Employee Identity in the New Economy. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
Utilizing theorist Weller, Singh, Gallucci, and or Gergen.
