In the XXI century and after so many reflections, proposals, forums and discussions around the world that highlight the anachronistic nature of the paradigms that still govern working life, many companies and organizations continue to be determined to generate commitment in their people and to produce in they a kind of religious fidelity regarding the vision, mission and values of the company.
Apparently the majority do not understand that people do not work because it is what they most want to do in life, nor are they seeking to be part of a clan or labor sect: They work because they need to earn money, improve their living conditions, raise their status and decrease the limitations that exist in consumer societies. Anything that is said other than this is simply utopian.
Of course, there are people who work for the love of art, philanthropists of heart and conviction, but even they must face the need to feed themselves, dress and possess the minimum of resources and tools to carry out their function before society, therefore that they must make money or own someone to do it for them. It's that simple.
But be that as it may, you cannot ask people to marry an idea, a foreign dream, of which they are only replaceable parts because, even if they insist on denying it, it is no secret to anyone that one of the decisions they usually To be studied in times of budgetary crisis is the reduction of personnel and that no matter how much a person has given to the company, if there is something that warrants leaving it, they should do it as if their effort were worthless. So how do you demand something based on an illusion?
Rather than strive to inject into the veins of employees what they believe the company to be, those who run it should be concerned with knowing how the talent and skills of each person can be useful for both their vision and theirs. This is what you expect and want… what do you want and expect? Cost me!
In this tangled reality of dreams of one's own and of others, of the pretense of following an organizational current in order to maintain a position that provides social and economic resources, there is a reality that precisely confronts that paradigm of demanding commitment from the people who work in the company starting of a fidelity that does not necessarily exist, and that is what I have called Labor Polygamy.
In short, Labor Polygamy is the multiple and simultaneous performance of the work exercise in more than one scenario, where the only vision (s) and mission (s) that really count are those that the individual possesses..
Perhaps not all people practice it, but many professionals not only have one job, they may have two or more. That means that you must manage, internalize and model similar or different values in each of them and, if that were not enough, demonstrate with the same effectiveness and, following the same patterns required by those obsolete paradigms, that you are committed to the company once that enters it. Is this possible? Of course it is, but not as those who imagine that the employee must be committed to the company to achieve the goals are met, on the contrary, they must be so committed to their expectations that they do not care about the effort and the challenges that must be faced in order to materialize them.
There should be no emphasis on commitment. The commitment is personal, the identification is collective. Stop forcing employees to memorize and recite the vision and mission of the company as if it were a "primer." Instead of focusing on these things, the company should focus on the core and offer its collaborators what they need so as not to be "unfaithful", to meet their needs and build what they are looking for, what they dream of, otherwise the company Not only will you be building a house of cards, under the absurd belief that your people are committed to it, but you will constantly and safely suffer from high turnover, brain drain and low performance, because you cannot demand high performance when you must distribute in time in diverse scenarios.
For the employee, having several jobs can be tiring or interesting, demanding or lucrative, among many other coincidences or contradictions, but for the company it only means one thing: It does not satisfy the economic and professional expectations of those who practice it out of necessity and not for hobby. How can you be committed to someone or something under those conditions? How can you demand that you identify with a vision that apparently does not really include you?
Labor Polygamy is becoming more common every day and could be both an advantage and a disadvantage for the labor market. It all depends on how it looks. In the chapter dedicated to this topic in my book Inept Managers you can read in detail the characteristics and other elements on this topic.
