She welcomes your comments at her email Id: - jdebra84 @ gmail.com.
I grew up in a large city. And when I say large, I mean LARGE. I never knew my neighbors two doors down, not to mention the ones down the block. When I graduated from high school, I did not recognize a third of the people in my graduating class.
The same disconnect was felt in my work life. I worked for a huge, faceless company. I had a boss who had a boss who had a boss who had a boss who maybe, finally, could actually do something if there was a problem. That is, let me count, five layers of management to get through before reaching someone in power? Is there any wonder that there were a lot of unresolved issues? Or that the turnover rate was so high that they constantly kept an employment add in the local paper?
There is just something dehumanizing about a company that big. There is a certain level at which efficiency drops off and big just becomes unwieldy. Then again, things can go the other way.
Eventually, I moved from the big city to what I consider to be a small town. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is still plenty big, but in contrast it seems tiny. Not only do I know my next door neighbors now, but I know the ones a block over, know the grocery store clerks by name, and follow the same cars to work every day.
Speaking of work, I left the huge and faceless company for one just a tad bit smaller. And by a tad I mean a lot. Going from a nationwide company whose employees numbered in the tens of thousands to a local company who had less than half a dozen can only be described as a huge change. But, much like the difference between the big city and the small town, I found myself getting really involved for once.
I not only know the names of all my co-workers, but I also know the names of their children and pets, what they like to drink (coffee or tea) and what they eat for lunch every day. Because we all share one big office, there is very little privacy. I actually love it. It makes it feel less like an office and more like a team.
There are down sides to this too. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. There are no secrets. Your co-workers know if you get fifteen personal calls a day, when you are checking Facebook, and when you get a funny email. Your co-workers can become your best friends or your most bitter enemies.
Unlike a large company, there is no way to get away from problem people. That is why it is so important that the personality of anyone new that is hired meshes with the personalities of the employees already there. Of course, that makes the hiring process even more complex. Not only are you looking for talented, enthusiastic people, but you are also looking for a personality type that can get along with several others without causing undue stress and strain. Whew. Talk about difficult.
But working for a small company is definitely worth it. You get so much more done. No more layers upon layers of red tape and bureaucracy. No more passing the buck until it gets lost in the ether. Just a simple, ‘hey, boss, we have a problem.’ Even better is the small business where the boss and owner are as friendly and open to suggestion as mine. Employees are not less human or intelligent than employers, something that often gets forgotten in a large corporation. If companies allow employees to speak up and really listen to them, they would get a lot more done and have a much higher retention rate.
There are so many great things about a small business; things a large corporation cannot hope to compete with. Yes, we may have less capital to work with and fewer employees, but we can still make a real difference in the business world and be just as successful, if not more so, than any large company you would like to pit us against.
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