Is it good employer strategy to pay my employees just enough so that they can’t save money, so that they can never walk away from the job?
Like, there is a threshold where if they are able to save X per month, they will eventually use that against you and quit at an inopportune time?
And if that threshold falls below state mandated minimum wage, what steps can be taken to mitigate this?
Focus less on trying to stop them leaving and more on giving them good reasons to stay.
Yo it’s no stupid questions, not no evil questions.
It is a terrible employer strategy that all but guarantees you will have a high turnover rate as people use their off hours to find better paying work.
It also ensures any public you have to face will consistently be interacting with a work force that could not give any less of a fuck, because you are literally not paying them enough to.
The only conceivable way this is a good business strategy is if you are either a short term seeking nepo baby, get all your business advice from one, or are yourself a complete and utter drooling moron who has never once taken even a beginner’s course in proper employee retention.
Do. Not. Do. This.
Doing this is the kind of advice Boston Consulting Group would give shortly before Citadel cellar boxes your company.
It’s a seriously bad idea. pay shit, get shit employees. It will see OP’s company providing shit service, cost more in both turnover and having to fix the shit that their shit employees shat all over, as well as driving customers away.
It’s also immoral.
And yet it seems to work for Walmart. Or am I missing something?
Your best employees will be snatched away by other companies, offering them an onboarding package that takes care of the cost of moving. Your worst employees will be forced to stay with you.
There is the old saying that “People don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses.” My advice is to go to therapy first, I think the question will sort itself out after that.
No, their anxiety will be through the roof and they’ll do a shitty job - all the actually good people will jump ship anyways.
The best strategy is to pay above market rate to attract talent and offer options to reinforce everyone’s investment in seeing the company succeed.
No. The best strat is to pay as much as you can and treat them as well as you can so that your best workers stay happy and stay longer. Don’t let your most cavebrained competitors beat you on talent and leave you with the underperformers nobody else wants. If you can’t afford to invest in quality then you’re already losing.
It sounds like you’re looking for slaves. There’s a reason slavery is illegal.
If this isn’t deliberately rage bait, there is something very wrong with you.
There’s an alternative strategy of making it a place they’re happy to work at. It’s more expensive, sure, but it gets you better workers instead of only the desperate.
Happy workers stay longer and don’t leave rotting fish in the vents right before quitting out of frustration.
If your strategy as an employer is how to keep your people in indentured servitude, that makes you a cunt. Be a good boss - help your employees achieve their goals and get to the next step in their career. That will help you attract newer talent when you need it.
Is it good employer strategy to pay my employees just enough so that they can’t save money, so that they can never walk away from the job?
Yes! That’s how an average slave labour company works, you hire someone, you make them work long hours so they couldn’t have 2nd job or hobby, you pay them at the minimum wage, you lower their self worth and self esteem, and you put up all the barrier of quitting that’s actually illegal but they don’t dare to even test it. It’s the best strategy to keep yourself afloat and them underwater.
Like, there is a threshold where if they are able to save X per month, they will eventually use that against you and quit at an inopportune time?
Yep, there’s two way of employee retention, one is pay them good and treat them good they can’t even go through the bothersome process of searching job, another one is pay them just barely enough and trap them physically and mentally, drilling the learned helplessness into their mind so it’s impossible for them to even take the first step. Of course you’ll want to take the latter option because it’s the best slave labour strategy and maximise your own return!
And if that threshold falls below state mandated minimum wage, what steps can be taken to mitigate this?
You move to another state with lax law and force your employees to move, of course! And if that’s not an option, there’s always gonna be a pizza party on friday night.
Remember, the less money you pay for your employees, the more money you pocket yourself. Get yourself a Titanic tour ticket, you earn it!
Let’s look at Walmart and see if this strategy works. Yup seems to work.
I read it from the masterpiece book, How To Be A Slave Owner by Jeff Bezos
I don’t appreciate the sarcasm. Things have become tight. And after some knuckleheads couldn’t handle basic tasks in a basic industry, I have found we are able to operate with just half of the staff I used to pay. The ones who stick around know their worth.
What I’m worried about is that the remainder will also try an leave, knowing that I rely on them more than ever before. So my angle is to obfuscate the fact that I actually need them. How do I make sure they can’t read me on that?
I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.
Good. That’s the point.
It’s a shaming tactic that you aren’t supposed to enjoy.
Maybe it’s time to admit that you are bad at this and you should do something else besides trying to run a business. It’s clearly not your forte.
This is why, minimal wage should be high enough that people can live. It’s not normal, that in many western nation, a minimum wage worker cannot afford rent in non social housing and it still poor enough to be eligible to welfare program as soon as they have kids
No one wants to work for you because it sounds like working for you sucks. Nothing to do with money, you’re literally just asking how can you be the shittiest employer possible.
Maybe change your attitude toward employment and treat people like they have value and they might stick around.
To me it sounds more like they have a dying business and want to hide this fact from the employees for as long as possible.
I worked for one of these once. And one of my skills is in retaining co-workers. Eventually we ended up with a bad credit rating, nobody would invest in the company, and the company couldn’t afford to keep the lights on AND pay its debts. It made/sold a great product that the market wanted, but some bad years racked up bad debt that the owners couldn’t get out from under.
So, eventually those of us who were left just wrote our own pink slips, got the owner to sign them, and nobody went back to work the next day. Owner sold off everything of value to cover as much debt as possible and declared bankruptcy.
Then they partnered with someone else and started a new debt-free company and hired back a lot of the same employees (it WAS a fun place to work when we weren’t having to worry about if we were going to be paid that month).
I went somewhere else instead, where my starting wage was 3x what I’d been getting at the other place, with options for bonuses and raises.
Good strategy is to pay me just enough so that I get too lazy to look for another job. If I can’t save, I’m out ASAP.
