Photo credit: ‘Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion’

A trite saying in this day and age, but it rings no more truer than now. The last two months have hosted one of the most miserable winter weather in my existence. And from this bleak atmosphere comes an even bleaker outlook from my peers as well as myself. Everyone I’ve talked to from family members to friends seems to have a bitter disposition about them and I’m not sure whether is from me or if it’s just in general. I too have taken on a more cynical viewpoint (well, more so than usual) these past few weeks. The job market is bleak and every work environment that I have been employed in seems to host a leadership staff of incompetent and/immoral phonies. Of course I’m not trying to go off on a Holden Caulfield rant here but I don’t think I’m alone in witnessing the overall atmosphere of our current work force. It’s company’s cutting costs on quality – and that includes company product and employees – and pushing a downgraded product for double the price having drone employees on minimum wage regurgitate that it’s new and improved.

Wake up CEO’s!!! Our nation isn’t the blind sheep that you may assumed we were before. We’ve evolved, in large part thanks to the internet which has given us an outlet to question and call out the injustices put upon us. Through the power of documentaries such as ‘Food Inc’ and ‘Forks Over Knives’ citizens want to eat healthier and more ethically so they’re going to dish out the extra cash for quality alternatives other than the processed and cheapened food chain. They want clothes that are comfortable and will last – not the scratchy and unraveling pieces of crap that 10-year-old child in a third-world country risked his fingers to piece together just so it could get marked down to that special prices of $19.95.

It’s disgusting and the people are using the power of free will and merchant competition to resist corporate conglomerates and instead shop at boutiques or retailers where the label shows that the product is made of a natural fiber and in a place other than India, China or Sri Lanka. These shoppers will also go to the places where quality can be found in the service they are given, which is dictated by how well the employees are treated/paid. Think about it, how proficient and personable is an employee who able to easily pay their bills and save money versus an employee who has to live pay check to pay check because the company can only dish out a salary that is barely minimum wage? You think by cutting costs in salary you’re saving the company money, but in all honesty when you cut costs in salary you’re cutting the service given to your paying customers. If you don’t believe, then just look at the success stories found in the Container Store, Google, Starbucks and Apple, and the quality they continue to bring in every aspect of their business, including how they treat their employees.

Maybe when corporations have begun to make the right investments in their practices, the nation’s outlook may begin to change as well. Spring can’t be too far away from us, can it?

“I’d rather have 10 lions on my team than 100 sheep” – source unknown