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By Francisco J. Colayco

Once upon a time the world was simple. If you were employed and did your job, you would probably always keep your job and even receive regular pay increases. If you did your job well and were loyal to your employer, you had good chances of being promoted, receiving additional pay increases and looking forward to a retirement package. Many employers treated their employees like family and gave special benefits and bonuses on a regular basis especially when the company was doing well. What was important was to be happy in your job. Being happy meant meaningful work for some. But for some, having a job already made them happy. That was when life was simple. How lucky are today’s employees who continue to enjoy this kind of happiness in our complex world.

Now, life and work is different. Few companies can afford to be paternalistic and few employees can afford to be loyal to their employers. Money has become more important when it comes to choice of work. It is a “which comes first, the chicken or the egg” situation. Even if an employee wants to be loyal, his personal financial situation has to come first and even if an employer wants to give more to his loyal employee, the employer may not have enough resources. After all, the employer’s first objective is to grow his company to continue to provide more employment not only to one employee but also to all the rest. The employer has to think farther than the current situation and plan for improvements and growth of the company

Of course, there are employers who are too engrossed in making more money at the expense of the employees. Unfortunately, there are also employees who want to think the worse of their employer without understanding the full picture. All these can cause misunderstandings and that is why Labor Unions were born. The ideal picture is when Labor Unions and Management are truly enlightened and listen to each other.

Whatever the situation, it would be wonderful to have a generous employer. But because of the fast life and increasing population, people nowadays have to really plan for their future without depending on the generosity of their employer. If you are an entrepreneur owning your company, you are the employer and you are the employee of your company. You need to separate your personal finance life from the financial situation of your company. This is the mistake of so many entrepreneurs. Just because you own the company, you may think you can treat the finances of the company as your own pocketbook. Don’t! Pay yourself like you pay your other employees and live within the pay you get. If you need additional pay, get it from some other sources like a part-time job or a project. Prepare for your retirement package. We will talk about that in the next article.

We discuss these issues in our seminars/workshops. Join them and you will be surprised on how much you will learn. Call us at 6373731 or 6373741 or visit www.colaycofoundation.com