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Letter to employees--This IS the way it is

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RobinHood said:
What exactly about this letter scares you so much?
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A difference of opinion is hardly fear. I don't understand where you are coming from with that response? If anything, it's more courageous to speak up than to sit back and silently disagree?
 

I wholeheartedly support the notion that business owner are taxed like crazy. That is nearly indisputable. My point is, to have that much of a lack of empathy for your employees is not good. What kind of attitudes can you honestly think your employees would have if you honestly sent them that email.

Remember, if you don't have employees then you won't have a business. If you have unhappy employees they can ruin your business's reputation in no time.
 
My tone was hardly condescending. It's just an opinion.

TA, if you honestly believe that your friend sent that letter, than I seriously wonder what kind of a friend he is to you? He's either taken the piss out of you and you've taken him seriously, or you're trying to take the piss out of us?

I doubt very much anyone's actually sent it. They may THINK those thoughts...but really, you'd just kill the morale of your employees by sending that.
 
The USA version:
http://reasonradionetwork.com/?p=942

Dear Valued Employee, unknown author
January 17, 2009 · Print This Article

To All My Valued Employees,
There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges.
However, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.
Let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.
First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a Back Story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You’ve seen my big home at last years Christmas party. I’m sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.
However, what you don’t see is the BACK STORY: I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.
My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn’t have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business ”” hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom’s for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn’t look like it was birthed in the 70’s. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.
So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9 A.M., mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5 P.M., I don’t. There is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden ”” the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations… you never realize the Back Story and the sacrifices I’ve made.
Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved money, have to bail-out all the people who didn’t. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.
Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I’ve paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:
I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don’t pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my “stimulus” check was? Zero.. Nada. Zilch.
The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.
The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you’d quit and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? That’s nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.
Here is what many of you don’t understand … to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.
When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don’t defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep. So where am I going with all this?
It’s quite simple.
If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I’ll fire you. I’ll fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child’s future. Frankly, it isn’t my problem anymore.
Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I’m done. I’m done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.
So, if you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about…
Signed, THE BOSS
 
Again, yet another version.
http://www.emailjokes.co.za/index.php

My point is,if someone wants to have those opinions they are more than entitled too. But just because I disagree, I find it rude to suddenly say I'm condescending. I can understand business owners are angry with todays taxes. Fair enough!

But please don't take me for a fool an indicate to us that you know the author of that email and it was written for a specific business from a friend of yours with high qualifications.

I said it was nothing more than a junk email making the rounds on the internet you several of you seemed to think I'm having a go. I'm not nor was I.

I think we've debunked the authenticity of this hoax email!

I've said my piece. I won't post again on this subject.
 
I rang him and he agrees he altered the original as pointed out here to suit his purpose back in Jan.

I'd never seen it. After reading Gordons posts I certainly have now.

My tone was hardly condescending
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Directed at Timmy.

Gordon You and I go back many years.
No hard feelings pointed in your direction.
Your still one of the best Chartists I have seen!
Dont mind you disagreeing--join the queue

Wouldn't surprise me really, he seems like a fair douchebag
Click to expand...

So we've met then.
 
prawn_86 said:
Yep i agree. Pretty sure it has even been posted here on ASF before in a different thread
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Yes, I think so too. And it's been circulating on the net for many months, probably best part of a year.
 
cuttlefish said:
I can understand the sentiment in the letter but I can also see where Gordon is coming from about it sounding bitter.
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Well, thank heaven for a balanced comment. I can't believe how Gordon has been attacked so personally because he dared pass a different opinion.
God help anyone on this forum who gets in the way of some of the egos here.
 

I also would see no point in sending such a letter to employees......it would achieve nothing worthwhile and in fact may even cause some ill feeling.
I don't necessarily see it as a bitter letter though. Factual yes, but not bitter...just a bloke who's sick of getting screwed by the government, telling it how it is.
I mean, we're all sick of getting screwed by someone, whether it's the banks or the government or our employers or local councils or whatever, but we're not necessarily bitter about it.
I personally know people who got out of business for the same reasons outlined in that letter. I never saw any sings of bitterness in them when they were in business, and they certainly aren't bitter now they've left the business world.
 
gordon2007 said:
I doubt very much anyone's actually sent it. They may THINK those thoughts...but really, you'd just kill the morale of your employees by sending that.
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This has always been my take on this letter. A bit like some of the other emails that do the rounds. No one would send them either, despite most people thinking along the same lines. Just as you would never send something like this or every employee would be working against you. I always thought of it as points that all employers identify with. And an attempt to let employees get a bit of the other side (not that they would really care).
 
And an attempt to let employees get a bit of the other side (not that they would really care).
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Many do.(Care)

All of our people have a structure which allows them to increase their income by bringing more to the company.
Some do nothing but others supplement their income handsomely.

Some of my staff worry about the company more that I do.
For many years now its been a goal to employ people with the right work ethic.
People who can/will adopt our culture. A culture which everyone in it up holds with pride. New staff don't have to impress me--they have to impress their colleagues.

Personally its a pleasure to go to the office---a great group of people.
 
Going the John Galt way....

We're on strike against your creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. If you want to know how I made them quit, I told them exactly what I'm telling you tonight. I taught them the morality of Reason -- that it was right to pursue one's own happiness as one's principal goal in life. I don't consider the pleasure of others my goal in life, nor do I consider my pleasure the goal of anyone else's life.


The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath:
I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man,
nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.

source.
 

Apart from getting the job done (which is all you pay them for), why should they be "loyal" to the company? In fact, why would anyone stick around if they could get a better job elswhere and earn more? They don't reap the benefits of your business, so why should they schedual their lives around your business when there is a better opportunity elsewhere? Can you imagine someone saying "Sorry sir, I can't accept your fantastic $100K job, because it's a busy time of year for the business at my current job where I earn $60K"

I am currently in my 4th job. I show my appreciation to my employer by always work hard and doing more than what is required of me. But the second a better job with better pay comes along, I'm out of there. Because of my work ethic, I've always left on good terms and have a long list of very good referees for future jobs.

You own a business and do all that you can to improve it; hoping it will grow and earn you more money. So how can you expect your employees to stick around when they get a better offer elsewhere?

The other gripe I have is I've noticed a lot of employers say they can't find "good employees" anywhere. Yet these same people pay minimum wage (or close to it), or the average amount for that particular job. You pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Minimum wage = minimum results. Pretty simple.
 
Fair points Gav


Ive had this happen as close as December.2 of my guys who are specialists in gabion work were poached by a competitor.They came to me saying they were getting $15/hr more and they were invited to join the boss for a game of golf to chat things over. Despite my pointing out that they were to be employed as subcontractors who had to do all their own Bass statements,personal tax and cover all their costs,that once the work ran dry so would your income,youd be working less hrs than here--nothing short of $25/ hr was to change their mind. Away they went.

Last week back they came---"you were right" both said--lesson learnt and so did a few of the others tempted by the lure of the $$.
I have 7 employees of 16 who have been with me 7 yrs or more. as Ive said to them all if you dont love what you do then find a job you love as you wont be giving it your all.



If an employer sees you as valuable he will do all he can to keep you. I have no problems with anyone bettering themselves. When someone comes to see me for a wage consideration my first question is "What is it that makes you worth more to me than anyone else" I normally dont have these meetings as valued employees are kept ahead of standard rates well before they see a need to have a pay rise.

You own a business and do all that you can to improve it; hoping it will grow and earn you more money. So how can you expect your employees to stick around when they get a better offer elsewhere?
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The ones we want we keep the ones we dont can go elsewhere.


You know Ive found that once a fair wage is negotiated its NOT about the money--for either party.
Its satisfaction for the work you do,both individually and from the employers view as well.For outstanding employees the money comes---for them and the employer.

Let me also say that Monkeys turn up for work on $50/ hr just the same as monkeys at $25.Monkeys are monkeys no matter what they are paid.
The trick is to be very good a recognising monkeys.
We have a 3 mth trial period---here at the Zoo---our staff dont feed the monkeys and we let them back into the wild.
 
No worries Tech/A. If half of your employees have been with you for 7yrs or more, you must be doing the right thing by them.
 
If I were an employee and received this letter from my employer, I'd be walking out the door. The unprofessionalism of such an act is inexcusable, if one wants to have a whinge, do it to your partner or to someone in confidence, not as a smack in the face to your employees.

Just remember that many of your employees may also have made an investment in you and your company, whether you are aware of it or not. I have only ever worked for companies that I believe in and that I want to see succeed, once I loose that drive and cannot put in the extra effort for whatever reason(and such a letter would be one of them), I leave as this is not fair to the owner or myself.

I am disgusted that any employer would put this in writing to their employees, shame on you, I have no doubt that employees have no respect for anyone that does such a thing.
 
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