The Personal Company Subsidy
You’ve got to hand it to companies. I really don’t know how they’ve done it, but there’s no denying that they have. I’m seeing and hearing it everywhere, a day doesn’t go by without at least one example. A Sunday with the family sacrificed to take a flight to the US for a meeting that starts Monday morning. A dinner with friends cancelled, or converted to early drinks, because someone has to take a red eye flight the next morning. People not planning anything at all on a ‘school night’ because they’re up at 6 every morning to start a long, intense work day so if they’re not in bed by 10 they’ll be broken. Companies asking employees to fly long haul in Economy Class and share hotel rooms because of no budget. And it’s now seen as totally normal to take work calls in the evening, at the weekend, on the beach on holiday.
It’s highly likely you’re reading this and thinking it is totally normal. That’s just the way it is, right? The reality of working life.
Well I don’t think it is normal and I definitely don’t think it’s right. If you own your own company and you choose to do all these things for it, fair enough. But if you don’t and you are an employee, all of this is simply a Personal Company Subsidy. You have a work contract for 5 days a week, maybe fewer (and that is days, not evenings and nights for most of us). If you need to travel for a work meeting, the travel should be work time - not a personal time subsidy you give to them from your weekend, or your sleep time. And if your company can’t afford to fly you to a long haul destination in Business Class and pay for you to have your own hotel room, then I’m sorry but your company can’t afford to send you to that meeting.
But of course they can afford it. They’re making huge profits and their margins are even bigger because of the cost savings they’re making from you and your Personal Company Subsidy - the extra work time you’re giving them for free and the money you’re saving them by accepting flights you shouldn’t be accepting.
What pays for the Personal Company Subsidy? Your time with family and friends, your time for yourself, your time resting & sleeping, your well-being, your health.
It’s a huge cost saving for them and a huge cost to you.