Interesting anecdotal evidence today.
A friend of mine had a months worth of leave coming up, she informed her employer about 4 months ago, but they never officially approved it. Yesterday they told her she could no longer take it as someone else had leave booked at the time. She suggested they hire a temp for that month but the employer wouldn't budge, so she quit and they have to pay out her leave anyway.
They said they were really disappointed that she was leaving and that she is a great worker (which she is), yet even in her exit interview they refused to offer her the leave. Just shows how inflexible to demands employers can be, as she has worked for 18 months without taking any leave. Also shows how employers fail to build trust and respect with their younger employees
I'd be right behind her if an employer did that to me. Fortunately every boss I've had always say I'm the only employee they don't have to hound to take leave. If I can't get away from work at least every 6 months I start to go loony.
I remember way way back in the mid 90s working for a company. Pretty stressful job, but had a great group of people and pretty decent management. One time on a weekend had to work 15 hours because some idiot contractor at Syd airport had cut the major telecom cable while they were doing renovations in preparation for the 2000 Olympics. What impressed me was the big boss came in and the first thing he said to me and the girl on shift was "have you had breakfast? Can I go get you something?" We'd both brought our breakfast in, but he still went out and got us some coffee and muffin then said if anyone gives you grief put them through to me. He stayed in the office for a good 10 hours, and when someone got a bit too shirty with us we'd pass them on to him and generally not hear from them again.
Things went downhill not long after that. New big boss and to in his cost cutting zeal he decided to cut the monthly birthday cake. All the good will and getting different groups int he same room talking to each other was gone, all to save $20 a month. Then the inflexibility about pay crept in. A year later I'd left, got a new job paying $10K extra a year, and within 3 months of my exit another 5 or 6 staff had left too. The company lost probably around a million $ in lost productivity and training costs simply due to management who cared nothing about the staff. What had been a give and take relationship and turned into a constant take by management.
The best thing to come out of it was I'd been marked a trouble maker and told to not come in for the month after resigning - they'd pay me out. Made my new boss terribly happy to have me starting a couple of weeks earlier, and I had a well deserved week on the beach in phuket.
My current and previous jobs I've really had no loyalty to management. I do a good job, do what is required, but wont go that extra mile any more, because at the end of the day I don't get anything for it. I can get emails from customers thanking management about me, because I do provide top notch customer support, but when I know I get the same pay rise as the least productive member of the group, I ask myself what's the point?
So I think managers only have themselves to blame if they find their workers to be less than enthused at work, or when the good staff up and go because they're not rewarded. Show some loyalty to staff, provide some flexibility and you will see the productivity gains. Humans are living and breathing sentient beings, not resources to be sweated for the greatest amount of profit.
I used to run a thai takeaway shop with a friend. We treated the staff quite well. Before opening they'd cook dinner and eat with my friend, and after closing they generally cook up a big wok of something and the staff could take it home. Minimal cost, but they appreciated it because they were students and struggling with Sydney's cost of living. We never had an issue with staff, always turning up on time, and they'd work out amongst themselves shift swaps. We basically said as long as the right number of staff is here we don't care who it is. They were quite shocked with that as other places they'd worked, heard about were not as flexible. We never had a problem in getting new staff as people moved back home. If anything we always had people wanting to work for us because we treated them well and paid award wages.