Warning – this is a slightly bamboozled micro rant, but with something deep embedded.

I’m talking to a friend about changes in employment law, specifically around the distinction between ‘employees’ and ‘contractors’. The changes are to protect companies from ‘contractors’ arguing that they’re really ‘employees‘ because of the way they’ve been treated.

I’m shocked and share it. It’s followed by “well contractors expect to be treated differently”.

“Ok, to some extent they have a different set of expectations but not to the extent of exclusion.”

This is what I see:
• People are afraid that someone will take away a resource. (There must follow a mental model that would signify negative consequences)
• There is a belief that people who prefer not to be an ‘employee’ will not operate in good faith
• It’s ok to treat people differently depending on a piece of paper

WOW!

This is the issue I think we’re creating for ourselves…
We’re taking the humanity out of what we do, contribute, and create. We’re distilling it down to a basic transactional exchange: time + skill for money.

Regardless of what we believe is moral, this is not what science and psychology tell us gets the best out of people. So organisations actually create a bigger problem for themselves.

Consider instead Richard Branson’s approach:
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

If you’d like to know what really gets the best out of people send me a DM and I’ll send you something impactful.