A Boss Unworthy of the Title

Joe T runs a small but successful insurance agency in a tony suburb of San Francisco in California. Prior to that, he had worked for a big insurance company where he honed his insurance knowledge and marketing skills. Joe T is a very smart guy who knows the insurance business very well. So well that in the few years of his agency's existence, he has managed to attract some very big and wealthy clients.

However, in spite of Joe T's successes, he is not the type of boss I would like to work for. He demands loyalty, hard work, intelligence, and dedication from his employees. Those I have no problem with for any boss is entitled to set a certain level or standard of performance for his employees.

But as a boss, Joe T is seriously flawed in one area. In exchange for the high level of performance he requires of his employees, he tends to promise them with vacation trips around the US and to sign them up for company-paid training courses that would help boost their professional skills. Those are all still fine. However, it was observed that whenever the time came for him to fulfill his end of the bargain, he always reneged. He reneged time and time again without fail. It is for that reason that no employee had lasted more than two years in his employ.

Whenever it came time for him to fulfill his end of the deal, Joe T always brought up issues or concerns such as the high cost of the plane fare, the high cost of hotel and lodging, and the cost of the training as reasons for his inability to follow through on his promises. If so, why make a promise then if there's really no intention to fulfill it?

Without a reasonable excuse, a broken promise amounts to nothing less than a betrayal, an act of bad faith. A person who constantly breaks his/her promises to another can never be considered as a person of integrity. A broken promise especially hurts when it imposes a condition that requires a significant amount of work/effort on the other party to fulfill.

This has happened to all of us at some point in our lives. As human beings, our memories tend to be long on people who had wronged us and had been unfair to us. In an employer-employee relationship such as the one above, I view the broken promise to an employee as tantamount to taking much needed food away from the employee's dining table. It is very demoralizing and heartbreaking to an employee who relied on the employer's word in good faith. It is an act that is worthy of all condemnation.

For such dishonesty and unprofessionalism, a boss like Joe T clearly deserves no loyalty and respect. When such negative traits are present in a boss/employer, other factors that may exist such as good pay and good career opportunities no longer matter. A person would be better off moving on to another employer who would give his/her contributions the respect and appreciation they truly deserve.