Humans are Humans, Not Resources
The simple case for seeing employees as people, and nothing else.
I grew up in Seattle. Born-and-raised. I’ve always been smart and curious about the world around me, and I was lucky enough to earn an excellent scholarship that led me to complete a Master’s in Educational Leadership and Policy. I was raised by generations of teachers and badass feminist women, and I wanted to use my intellect and skill toward my passion for social change and equity — not, to my financial detriment, technology. Now, with my M.Ed., internationally recognized HR certification, and a decade of racial equity experience, I work as a barista.
The coffee shop I work at is wedged at the cusp of Downtown Seattle and the sprawling Amazon campus formerly known as South Lake Union. I see (and serve) techies every day. Techies that are younger than me, who just moved to the area, who have less education than I have, and who make four times what I make. I can’t help but think that these newly (naive-ly) wealthy techies have zero clue about the struggle that folks not in the tech industry have to deal with. And in a city where the tech industry has come to roost, we non-techies are hung out to dry.
Yes, as born-and-raised Seattleite, my perspective is laden with bitterness about the crumbling culture of this town where Grunge was born. But as a scholar, philosopher, social justice advocate, and HR professional, the changes this region has undergone make me contemplate if there’s a better way to do business.
I’m not gonna lie, I’m on Facebook, I use Windows, I own an iPhone, I drafted this piece in Google Docs… So I recognize that these tech companies provide useful services to people, to me. What doesn’t compute, however, is why in the hell Jeff Bezos is a multi-BILLIONaire while the home-city of his mega-profitable company has some of the worst rates of homelessness in the country. And, more to the point, why so many of the employees of that same company can’t afford to live here either.
Sure, Washington state has long had the highest minimum wage in the country, and several cities in this area have moved toward $15 minimums over the past few years — Seattle just reached the final stage of it’s 7-year progression to $15 minimum wage, passed in 2012. The fact that $15 per hour is still not enough to live in this city goes to show how drastic the wealth gap is here. And that wealth gap is dumb considering that there is plenty of wealth floating around, enough for everyone to make a living.
We live in a society that requires monetary income in order to live (capitalism, in case you missed it). For many of us, that means working. I worry that business is forgetting that; I worry that corporations have forgotten that humans are at the core of what they do, of the money they make. And, most importantly, I worry that companies take for granted the basic human needs of the employees who make them profitable.
Let’s review Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (though let’s remember that this is just one, albeit a very common, theoretical framework of human needs, created by a White guy):
The pyramidic theory argues that physiological human needs (food, sleep, warmth, etc.) and safety (or security of the those physiological needs) are foundational to human satisfaction. After those basic needs are met, humans need love and belonging. Next is esteem — feeling respected by others. And finally, human self-actualization, wherein a person has reached understanding and satisfaction in their sense of self and purpose.
A defining aspect of Maslow’s hierarchy is the fact that it’s a hierarchy: belonging, esteem, and self-actualization cannot happen when basic human needs are not met.
What I see happening in the HR and organizational development fields is that companies are taking an interest in how to keep their (most profitable) employees happy. In other words, and for the sake of congruency, these companies are worried about how to make sure their most valuable (again, read: most profitable) employees feel like they belong, are respected, and can feel self-actualized at their company. These types of concerns are how you get software developers consistently earning over $100k each year on top of free parking, all-you-can-eat on-campus cafes, and freedom to bring their dog to work.
At the same companies though, like Amazon, you have folks packing goods and serving at the all-you-can-eat cafe who don’t earn enough to live in the same city they work, or pay for childcare as well as rent, or have sufficient (or any) health insurance. In short, these low-paid employees aren’t getting their basic human needs met. Which is a problem in and of itself, but is downright cruel when top paid staff are making five times what it takes to live comfortably.
This is generally when HR professionals chime in with “satisfied employees are better for business” and “taking good care of staff bodes well for your bottom line.” And yes, there is a lot of research showing that satisfied staff throughout an organization make the company more money in the long run, but I challenge us to move past that. Why can’t we want our human resources to be happy not because they’re resources, but because their humans??
The way I see it, conceptualizing personnel primarily as a means towards capital-P Profit is why our society is breaking: it’s why the wealth gap continues to widen, why the working class keep failing to “get ahead,” why homelessness is increasing in rapidly-growing corporate-friendly cities (like Seattle). The corporate sector needs to change its viewpoint on money, labor, and success, and needs to take responsibility for its role in our society.
If we’re going to insist on sticking to capitalism as our social framework (which I’m not necessarily advocating, and whose clock will eventually run out anyway, according to Marx), we’ve got to find a better way to do it. People-oriented human development and employment is one strong way to start that process.
Let’s start seriously considering alternative methods of compensation distribution that addresses employees priority needs and works to equitably support the whole employee base.
Or follow the co-op model that seems to be serving communities well and still yielding excellent business results.
How about innovating new ways of discipline and performance management that work more to align employee skills and interests with business goals (rather than always trying to find the easiest way to fire someone who isn’t succeeding in their current role)?
And maybe we can quit it with the ulterior motives for diversity and other HR initiatives? You don’t need a more diverse workforce to get the best product outcomes; you need a diverse workforce because “diverse” people are humans who deserve to make a living, too.
Without significant changes to how the corporate sector does business, wealth gaps will continue to grow: kids will continue to go to school hungry because their parents can’t afford food; families will go bankrupt from trying to pay off unreasonable medical bills; more people will freeze to death because they have no choice but to sleep outside. These realities of our present social climate are what make social justice and anti-establishment communities use Eat the rich! as a mantra, and are really starting to mean it. If we want to avoid a revolution, corporate industry needs to start buying into (pun) human-centered labor practices.
