America is seen, by many Americans at least, as a meritocracy. A meritocracy means that in order for someone to succeed they have to deserve to succeed. They have to put in the hard work and long hours and sacrifice to get to the top. It also means that those who are lazy and undeserving wont succeed. Of course my home state, Tennessee, and many others have Right to Work laws which while primarily designed to hinder the formation of labor unions also allow employers to fire any employee for any reason they want as long as it isnt for something like race or gender or religion (in Tennessee and most other states you can still fire someone for being gay or lesbian or transgender though). So this means that a hard working, smart, loyal, reliable, productive employee could be fired just because their boss didnt like a shirt they wore or thought they had bad taste in movies. They can fire them simply because they think their payroll is getting to large or because they ask for time off to care for a sick parent. They can fire them because they think an employees hard work might impress their superiors more than their own lackadaisical performance. A person who does all the things they are supposed to in order to succeed in a real meritocracy can lose their job for no good reason at all. How is this supposed to incentivize hard work when you know it can all be taken away from you at a moments notice with no explanation at all? Do you want better employees? Then make sure they know that all of their hard work is valuable to you. Want a better workforce? Then get rid of laws that dont encourage hard work like right to work laws.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 00:08:58 +0000
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