How Mistreating Your Employees Can Be Bad Business for You

If you are a boss or a manager, how do you treat your employees? Do you yell at them, undermine them or treat them like they are just a number? If so, you are making a big mistake, as mistreating the staff is not good for business. You will learn how poor treatment of your employees can negatively impact your business.

It can lead to a high turnover rate. If too many of your workers quit, you are likely to have a bottom line that is not that good. According to Wikipedia, it costs businesses about one and a half times more money to recruit and select new workers than it costs to retain their workers. This should serve as a major wake-up call.

If you offend those who work for you, they might tell their buddies to not work for you. One reason that missing out on having these referrals is unfortunate for you is it removes your opportunity to avoid paying to run help-wanted ads. Another is that you are probably going to end up not having a large pool of good applicants to choose from.

There is another way that the members of your staff can make you suffer the consequences for treating them like dirt. This includes telling everyone they know to not visit your firm and make a purchase from you. This can lead to a huge drop in sales. If you have up to a few dozen workers and they each get at least five to ten people to not buy anything from you, this can dramatically hurt you.

Customers do not always have to be told by their friends that you are mean to them. There is a possibility that some of them will hear you yelling at your staff. Another way they can tell what you are up to is that some of your staff members are unhappy and not very talkative.

Being mean to your workers can have a bad effect on productivity and morale. One way is that the more miserable your workers are, the less effort and enthusiasm they are likely to put into their work. Another is that if they are unhappy, it can lead to their co-workers being unhappy.

Being unfair to them can distract you. One way is that you are likely to spend time at your desk fuming if a worker you yell at yells back. Another is that you will feel at least a little bit of guilt - when you are mean, you might think you are tough and that you feel good but you do not in reality.

You have learned why mistreating your employees can hurt your business. Being nice to them will pay off for you and them.
Turnover (employment)