Your Employer Would Turn You Into Biofuel If They Could

In high school, I worked at Tim Hortons. Most of my coworkers were on sponsored visas. There was one woman who had been there for years, long enough to get permanent residence and a well-paying government job. But she still spent her weekends working for the Tim Hortons that had initially sponsored her visa. I asked her why she didn’t quit, and she told me she couldn’t because she felt loyal to the owner. She wasn’t the only one; there were several others who displayed a similar irrational loyalty. Even back in high school, this sounded absurd to me. You’re giving up your weekends for minimum wage to a guy who can replace you at the drop of a hat? As I’ve spent more time in the labour market, I have only seen more examples of workers acting in similarly self-detrimental ways and employers acting in the most ruthless, self-serving ways.

The employer and worker have diametrically opposed interests. The employer wants the maximum amount of work for the least amount of pay. The worker wants the minimum amount of work for the maximum amount of pay. The theoretical beauty of the system is that you can find a happy medium where both of you are satisfied with the arrangement. However, in reality, the worker is almost always at a disadvantage. For an employer, the additional headcount means more profit, but outside of exceptional talent, it’s not make or break for them. For the employee, the difference between having a job and being unemployed can mean the loss of housing, healthcare, and, all too common, even self-worth. With this imbalance, the system breaks down. It allows the employer to underpay their employees either directly through low pay or indirectly through unpaid overtime.

What is to Be Done?

It all starts with recognizing the class distinction. You must rid yourself of the ill-fated notion that your employer cares about you. All they care about (as they should in a capitalist system) is maximizing profits. For them, you are a number on a spreadsheet. The only reason they continue to employ you is that it is profitable for them. If they deemed it more profitable to throw you in the meat grinder and serve you to the customer instead of having you serve the customer, they would do it without hesitation. Any successful employer is hyper-aware of this; you must be as well in all your interactions with them.

Break the Chain

To your employer, you are one of hundreds, if not thousands, of employees. To you this is the bulk of your livelihood . There are two realistic approaches to shift the balance of power.

The first is to become more valuable to your employer. This is the standard advice of taking on more responsibility and being a high performer. But, unless you are a partner or a world-class researcher, this approach has limited potential and a bad ROI on the amount of effort it requires to move the needle.

Instead of increasing your value to your current employer, you should decrease the value of your current employer to you. You should always be ready to interview. This means have your resume updated and your interview skills sharp. For software engineers, that means doing a couple of LeetCode and system design questions a week. These are skills that you don’t practice on the job day to day, but are the difference between working for a no-name company for peanuts or a top-tier tech firm for three times the pay.

Doing questions is not enough; the best practice is real interviews. Your LinkedIn should be updated with the open to work status set to casually looking. This will make it easier for recruiters to find you, but you don’t need to disclose this to everyone. Do not enable the profile picture banner of shame. An interview once a month is probably enough to keep you in shape. Accept one from one of the recruiters contacting you, or send out some applications. Remember, you don’t actually care about the job; you’re just doing it to practice the skill of interviewing itself, so the company doesn’t matter too much.

The final step is to have an emergency fund. I cannot overstate how much better work feels when you’re not worried about finances. With six to twelve months of expenses sitting in a savings account and your interview skills kept sharp, you’re basically guaranteed to land another job if you lose your current one. This takes away your employer’s main source of power over you, their ability to cripple your livelihood.

Improve Your Conditions

With the balance of power in your favour, you can start addressing things you dislike in your job. It’s not an exact science and will require you to test the waters and see what will fly under your specific circumstances.

Are you constantly getting messages that distract you from high-priority tasks? Stop replying to them right away, mute the notifications, and only respond every few hours. Are there pointless meetings that you’re invited to? Start skipping them. Would meeting deadlines require you to work overtime? Too bad for whoever set those deadlines; let them know they’re unrealistic and clock out at five. Use your sick days more liberally; mental health is a valid reason for a sick day when you’re not worried about getting fired. If you’re able to work from home but are expected to come into the office, start doing more work from home days. If you’re able to work fully remote and have been wanting to travel, just go for it.

Congratulations, you have turned your mediocre job full of pointless meetings and a terrible commute into a chill dream job. All it took was looking out for yourself. Remember, it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Capitalism Rocks

No other system would produce 232 different Oreo flavours. And no other system would give you a realistic shot at prosperity. But you have to use the system. Your employer uses the system, which is why they’re in the position to hire you. And don’t be fooled by “our small company is different, we really are family”. If they’re not maxing the game, they’re going to be replaced by someone who is. You must do the same. Recognize the facts of employer-employee relationships and use them to your advantage. Have no shame in sticking up for yourself. Capitalism works by incentivising everyone to look out for their own best interest. The moment you forget this fact and do anything out of the goodness of your heart, you will be exploited by someone who didn’t.