Good workers

[zoom rader]

ethic in T&T

Published: 

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Angela Lee Loy Photo by:Charles Kong Soo

Angela Lee Loy, Keston Nancoo and Richard P Young participated in a conversation about productivity with a former trade unionist "who is professional, open and candid," in an attempt to better understand the underlying causes of this distinguishing feature of our work ethic in T&T.

They refer to low productivity in our work force which manifests itself in high levels of absenteeism. "As we seek investors to “set up shop” here as one of the country's initiative to diversify from energy by the creation of jobs and to also earn the much-needed foreign exchange, we have to ensure that our work force is prepared to work and be productive and that “scourge” of absenteeism is removed."

They connected with a business which suffers from an absenteeism rate of over 40 per cent and has to overstaff by 10 per cent to ensure the stores open and at times they still cannot open a store because of the no-show by staff. They were also told by a business colleague in the hospitality sector that they suffered badly by the no-show of staff over the recent Christmas season.

"This phenomenon of low productivity driven by high levels of absenteeism really baffles us because we logically assumed that our population has finally realised that the country has lost over 90 per cent of its energy revenue and the signs of economic challenges are very clear and apparent, so the work force will hold on to their jobs dearly. But, maybe we are wrong. A significant portion of our work force do not arrive to work on time, and, if indeed, they show up to work, the provision of eight hours of daily work is fast becoming a thing of the past," they said.

The former trade unionist proffered what he considered to be the major contributing factors for the low productivity:

•It is deeply rooted in culture and there is an absence of a shared national vision so we work, but towards what end?

•Relative to the previous comment, there is also the loss of confidence and trust in our elites which leads to an absence of hope.

•There are deep divisions and growing polarisation—race, religion, geography, gender, age, wealth and income.

•The manager does not show up to work on time and projects that as a perk of the job where he/she does not have to come to work on time. We interpreted that to be a challenge of leadership and the inability of many “to walk the talk”.

•The infrastructure of our country, both physical and social are not enabling. Crime is at the top of the list and is a contributing factor to absenteeism; traffic could mean spending an average of over four hours a day commuting to and from work, which is not an enabler. Lack or absence of water is deemed to be a disabler. The absence of family support as mothers can't leave their children at home unattended if the help does not show up. In a sense, there is a vicious cycle.

•There should be some form of child care at the workplace so parents can focus on their jobs without worrying about their children after school. Some form of transport facility/subsidy should be offered.

•Process and procedures in the business may be archaic or old school, leading to inefficiency. This is more pronounced in government ministries and many state enterprises.

•There is a lack of proper and adequate training that is aligned to the needs of the society.

'Lackadaisical attitude towards work'

"While we understand the reasons being suggested, we believe there is a lackadaisical attitude towards work by a large segment of our population in that we generally do not like work and, if we can produce the minimal to get by, we will do so. There is an absence of “hunger” to work. We do not understand that we should work for a minimum of eight hours a day. We do not understand that it is not proper to be paid for eight hours a day but work less.

"We also have a segment of our society who do not want to work and believe the State must provide. Government after government perpetuates the dependency culture. One just has to look at the “Job Vacancies” section to confirm this point.

"Time and time again, we hear business people state that they cannot find staff. We are mindful that some employers as a policy pay the minimum so as to maximise their profits, referred to as exploitation. We would venture though to say that if a productive staff is identified, the smart employer would improve the compensation to retain and engage the productive staff."

The people behind the conversation

Angela Lee Loy is the president of the T&T Coalition of Services Industries is Partner of Aegis & Co, external audit company.

Keston Nancoo is chairman of the Employers' Consultative Association and the vice-president of human resources at Guardian Holdings Ltd.

Richard Young is chairman of the T&T International Financial Centre is a chartered accountant and his career comprises the highest leadership levels in accounting, auditing, insurance and banking.

The conversation on poor work ethic in T&T continues next week


Well there you have it folks , for years I have said the very same .

Every point made I said it all before even before they did a study.

But as usualI I get level cuss and told i am anti trin and bussiness

[Miktay]

How iz offering the lowest wages exploitative?

[skylinechild]

How iz offering the lowest wages exploitative?

you seriously asking that question ???

[desifemlove]

people saygin this for decades. nothing changed. government is jus for talking, and little else.

[De Dragon]

How iz offering the lowest wages exploitative?

you seriously asking that question ???

As long as it isn't exploiting illegals/hard up locals what's the issue? Does every company, even those providing the same service, offer the same wages?

[zoom rader]

The article is well researched and every bit is factual.

Trini working culture is the Bligh.

[Redman]

How iz offering the lowest wages exploitative?

you seriously asking that question ???

Its a real question.

If Im getting some one to work for $1 then the reality is they cant get a better rate...they would be looking.

I hate to break it to you....but any one that works for some one else is working for the MINIMUM that their employer can get them to work for.
And generally we all will go where we can get a better package.

Every business works on an ongoing effort to get more for less.




Culpability for the entire situation however lies with many employers....they are too lazy to treat workers with dignity and respect.

That more than wages is causal to the employees behaviour and performance.

[racedriverpro]

I here we ranking 5 in the world for absenteeism.

[zoom rader]

How iz offering the lowest wages exploitative?

you seriously asking that question ???

Its a real question.

If Im getting some one to work for $1 then the reality is they cant get a better rate...they would be looking.

I hate to break it to you....but any one that works for some one else is working for the MINIMUM that their employer can get them to work for.
And generally we all will go where we can get a better package.

Every business works on an ongoing effort to get more for less.




Culpability for the entire situation however lies with many employers....they are too lazy to treat workers with dignity and respect.

That more than wages is causal to the employees behaviour and performance.

That's why the employment laws industrial court are in the hands of big bussiness. The odds are stacked against the worker. Unions are paid by bussiness and are a sell out.

Nothing has changed in Trini we continue to have primitive labour laws.

A lazy work force is because of greedy bussineesmen

I always remember in Cuba a guy told me

" the government pretend to pay us so we pretend to work for them.

[Redman]

Well I disagree.

A friend who does alot of these cases says its a balancing act now....cuz on both sides you have more fundamentally dishonest people.
So the Ind Court has to sift through info and decide on the balance of the evidence.

That said-if a good employer isnt very very careful and scrupulous with the paperwork-they WILL be exploited by a crooked employee and the ever present bush lawyers.

If an employer can not disprove the employee they will end up settling with cash for an imaginary wrong...

HAPPENS EVERY DAY.

[nick639v2]

Good workers?- never Trinidadians because they over entitled to everything.

100% endorse the Spanish workforce and expats, their work ethic and even care for the establishments' equipment are on a different level. Not to mention the costumer service, might take them a while to figure out the English but say what politeness and effort is gone in T&T

[zoom rader]

Well I disagree.

A friend who does alot of these cases says its a balancing act now....cuz on both sides you have more fundamentally dishonest people.
So the Ind Court has to sift through info and decide on the balance of the evidence.

That said-if a good employer isnt very very careful and scrupulous with the paperwork-they WILL be exploited by a crooked employee and the ever present bush lawyers.

If an employer can not disprove the employee they will end up settling with cash for an imaginary wrong...

HAPPENS EVERY DAY.

The industrial court is paid off by big bussiness. You may think that your lawyer is on you side but that is not so. Most often they get a kick back to loose your case.

I have see this happen

[ruffneck_12]

Oil spoil we. We have easy money coming in so we don't feel the need to work as hard.

Barbados wasn't blessed with oil like us, it's 439 square km. Trinidad is 5,131 square km.
How come they're up to our level when they have less resources than us?

Trinidadians cannot run Trinidad. Bring back the British. God bless the Queen.

[zoom rader]

Oil spoil we. We have easy money coming in so we don't feel the need to work as hard.

Barbados wasn't blessed with oil like us, it's 439 square km. Trinidad is 5,131 square km.
How come they're up to our level when they have less resources than us?

Trinidadians cannot run Trinidad. Bring back the British. God bless the Queen.

Nah dem PNM ppl don't want white man rule

[Miktay]

How iz offering the lowest wages exploitative?

you seriously asking that question ???

If I offering $50 a day for light labor wuk employees could say no.

Nobody holding a gun to their head.

[Skanky]

J'Ouvert at 3am is more important than work at 8am.

[hydroep]

Having too much of a safety net is another reason. A former employer once asked our department to "try out" the son of a close "well to do" friend. When the young man was working, he worked well but that was when he decided to show up or wasn't taking a snooze somewhere in the building. Then about 6 weeks in...during crunch time...man just decide not to show up for work, no notice, no nothing. He just fire de wuk and gone, leaving the rest of we to ketch we arse.

Apparently it was too much for him and so preferred to spend his days playing video games until he found (i.e. his parents found) something that was more his speed...

[The_Honourable]

Unions: Don’t blame workers for low productivity

Union leaders say workers are not to be blamed for the low productivity in the work force.

President of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU) Vincent Cabrera, Leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) David Abdulah and Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus spoke to the Sunday Guardian about what trade unions and the Government can do to engage workers to be more productive in a declining period.

Vincent Cabrera

Cabrera said he did not believe that workers’ attendance rates are to blame for the lack or fall in productivity in the economy.

“When a businessman in particular talks about productivity, he’s speaking about labour productivity. There is something called capital productivity. Is anyone talking about whether the level of capital productivity in T&T is at an optimal and acceptable level? Think tanks and universities are not looking at labour and capital productivity again; they’re looking at Total Factor Productivity (TFP).”

TFP is the measure of the output of an industry or economy relative to the size of all of its primary factor inputs. Increases in TFP result usually from technological innovations or improvements.

He said the country cannot develop a culture of work if management was absent or missing and then blamed workers when they came late if there was no management system in place.

Cabrera said the Public Service was vilified, most of the people the public came into contact with were “green” or very entry-grade public servants. He said the really well-trained people working hard behind the scenes, right up to the position of Permanent Secretary, are not usually seen by the public.

David Abdulah

Abdulah, former Chief Education & Research Officer and General Secretary of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union and former president of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs, said the party’s position was that the issue of work and productivity were not simply the responsibility of trade unions or workers alone.

He said national discussions were needed about a whole range of matters that had an impact on work productivity.

Abdulah said some of the challenges to workers’ ability to get to work on time included traffic and transport problems, crime and security, lack of water had nothing to do with trade unions or workers.

He said what also had to be discussed was transforming the culture of the country in terms of having a sense of responsibility which had to start at the top where leaders take no responsibility for matters that take place.

Abdulah said if a person going to work does not feel his labour, input and ideas were deemed valuable and respected, it will impact on the effort he puts in.

He said the education system was also not producing outcomes to the demands of the labour market as it was disappointing for university graduates to be cashing in fast food restaurants because they can’t get jobs to suit their qualifications.

Labour Minister

Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus said that it was a very important issue which must be addressed by all parties.

She said the relevant forum to discuss was at the level of the National Tripartite Advisory Council (NTAC) and the council had already begun to address the issue.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2018-01- ... oductivity

[zoom rader]

^^^ Don't ever belive any of those labour leaders

Those are the very same leaders that also advise companies when dealing with workers as they know the ins and out. They collect kicks backs

[KM_2NR]

Interesting read , gotta agree with most of it . I took two months vacation last year , first time i took vacation in like 5 years , when i came back idk what happened but productivity dropped significantly , literally just piles of paper work not being attended to , the new employees have no willingness to work , just doing the bare minimum to appear productive while the competent individuals getting the majority of the workload picking up the slack , eventually everyone just stopped caring .

[Ben_spanna]

#1 example of this terrible work Ethic is the Public Service of Trinidad and Tobago, lead by an even worse example.(pity he had a jetski there that day)

[zoom rader]

#1 example of this terrible work Ethic is the Public Service of Trinidad and Tobago, lead by an even worse example.(pity he had a jetski there that day)

It's a pain and time consuming doing any government transaction.

You always have to deal with hostile government workers.

Men think the new Inland revenue board will be different but it's all gonna be the same

[Ben_spanna]

This weekend gone LINX machine was down in the airport so if you had any Duties or Vat to pay, you had to have Ca$h, what kind of crap is that? ALL government offices SHOULD be accepting Credit cards and LINX by now... why must we have Ca$h and why must we have exact change!

[MaxPower]

Raising salaries will not fix the major labour force problem but it will only get worse...more money for trini means more money to party. Dont feel they going to suddenly change their stink working habits.

Everyone should be paid the bare minimum and not a cent above. No bonus nothing. Fhuckallyuh want more money for? To do WHAT?

Increase salaries for only those who prove themselves.

[Miktay]

Allyuh ever went Min of Legal Affairs?

that place so disorganized iz no joke...nobody know what going on...

After spending 3 hours trying to figure out how it does wuk...they carry mih in the back office where while perusing silver fish invested ledgers from the 1960s there was an ongoing display of who cud wine bess 4 carnival by some of the female staff...

I was entertained and disgusted at the same time...

[zoom rader]

Allyuh ever went Min of Legal Affairs?

that place so disorganized iz no joke...nobody know what going on...

After spending 3 hours trying to figure out how it does wuk...they carry mih in the back office where while perusing silver fish invested ledgers from the 1960s there was an ongoing display of who cud wine bess 4 carnival by some of the female staff...

I was entertained and disgusted at the same time...

I spoke about this years ago. But as usual I got told I am anti trin, bussines ect

[aaron17]

Oil spoil we. We have easy money coming in so we don't feel the need to work as hard.

Barbados wasn't blessed with oil like us, it's 439 square km. Trinidad is 5,131 square km.
How come they're up to our level when they have less resources than us?

Trinidadians cannot run Trinidad. Bring back the British. God bless the Queen.

Nah dem PNM ppl don't want white man rule

Yea but we still using british laws.

[airuma]

How iz offering the lowest wages exploitative?

you seriously asking that question ???

If I offering $50 a day for light labor wuk employees could say no.

Nobody holding a gun to their head.

True, but if you want to get good light labour wuk employees who will come to work regularly, you will pay the industry norm. From my experience, those employers who pay less do not discriminate wrt to employees, even if it means they have to hire the same person who left the wuk multiple times already.
If the people getting a lil' hustle paying them more... guess what, they will go and be absent from your wuk, especially if you will take them back when they return with a silly explanation, because you're more interested the paying less for labour than having a regular employee.
A good paying job will always have an abundance of potential employees to choose from which greatly improves your chances of finding good loyal employees.... the problem is HR and middle management don't always make the effort to identify and keep these employees.

[The_Honourable]

What (Trini) work ethic?

There is a lackadaisical attitude towards work by a large segment of our population in that we generally do not like work and, if we can produce the minimal to get by, we will do so. This is the view of Angela Lee Loy, Keston Nancoo and Richard Young as they examined the issue of productivity in T&T.

"There is an absence of “hunger” to work. We do not understand that we should work for a minimum of eight hours a day. We do not understand that it is not proper to be paid for eight hours a day but work less."

They said there is a segment of people who believe the State must provide. "Government after government perpetuates the dependency culture. One just has to look at the “Job Vacancies” section to confirm this point."

Jeremy Francis, managing director/Principal Consultant Beyond Consulting Ltd, responded to the issue of poor work ethic and low productivity.

"This has been an area of personal interest to me for nearly 20 years. When I first entered the workforce in the year 2000, I was astounded by what I can only refer to as the inconsistent manner in which employees that I interacted with at the time employed themselves at their daily tasks—myself included.

"Secondly, in my years as a consultant, I am always confronted with this issue on an almost daily basis, as I conduct my work on behalf of my clients.

Employers blame the employees and the employees (and their representatives) blame the employer.

"One of the main points of the employer argument is the issue of absenteeism. This remains a serious factor in the current productivity debate. However, the problem of presenteeism—where employees do show up to work and put in a reduced effort, was not mentioned at all. When you link these two issues together, the productivity issue is a lot worse than people imagine. We can all give many examples of employees we know (hopefully not us), that can stretch a task that would typically take an hour to two days—for no other reason than they can. Added to this is the problem of a lack of adequate resources—the blame for which falls squarely with the employer."

We need to consider the following as well:

1. Poor job design. It must be understood that some jobs have been poorly constructed, which can lead to ineffective use of time and labour. Not to mention the fact that the job itself may be uninteresting, overly laborious, and just plain dull. I fully understand that some tasks will be monotonous, repetitive and may not require excessive mental engagement, but some people can excel in such roles and others will not. This brings me nicely to the next point.

2. Ineffective hiring practices. In many cases, an organisation’s hiring procedures are flawed. Apart from the fact that the job description may be outdated (if it does in fact exist), there is sometimes little or no link between that document and the job that the employee is being asked to do. More to the point, because the organisation does not focus on behavioural competencies when hiring, they may hire someone who is technically competent but has the wrong attitude or work ethic. Many a hiring manager leaves it up to ‘vibes’ when deciding whether an employee is a good fit when tools such as psychometric assessments were created many years ago to help with this problem. But for this to work, the employer has to know the type of employee that will excel in their particular environment. For this to work, they must understand their culture. And as with the previous point, this leads to the next area of concern.

3. Poor leadership. There is a saying that goes, ‘People don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers'. Even worse, they may stay and work at their own pace (presenteeism). I cannot emphasise enough the impact that poor management styles have on how employees approach their tasks. And the obvious passive-aggressive response is both absenteeism and presenteeism. Some mention was made of this in the article, but it is a major cause of the culture of low productivity locally.

4. Inadequate performance management. This one is, unfortunately, the cream of the crop. There are too many examples of little to no performance standards in organisations—and even where they are, it is sometimes inequitably distributed and rewarded. We all know the story of Jane, who works twice as hard as Bob, but is paid less, and receives a smaller bonus (if any at all) every year. Apart from the rampant sexism contained in this example, there is also the issue that because Bob is boisterous, has a good relationship with the boss and has perfected the art of taking the credit for the work of others; he is seen by the decision makers to being more productive. Why should Jane work harder, if her efforts will not be recognised? Why should she speak up, if she will be labelled as a troublemaker? So she may get ‘sick’ a little more often, and withdraw the enthusiasm from her work. It happens.

When taken together, these issues highlight that the problem of productivity goes a lot deeper than ‘is part of we culture’. In fact, Trinbagonians are very productive around Carnival—in their feteing and masquerading activities. I have always maintained that if we could harness the energy and focus that our people show on Carnival Monday and Tuesday and unleash it in the workplace, we would be one of the most productive counties in the World.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2018-01- ... work-ethic

[zoom rader]

^^ I said all that before in previous post.
In a nutshell employers hire the wrong ppl and put them in poor management.

The root of employment problems are employers.