What does it mean to have compassion? When referring to this word, most people imagine sympathy or concern towards others. It’s not giving people what they deserve when they’ve been through a misfortune. It’s mercy, tolerance, kindness, sensitivity, warmth, love. These are words of positive characteristics, which are not so easily thrown around when talking about our new head of state, President Donald Trump.
He has made quite a few impactful changes in laws and regulations already; business regulations not excluded. Although he represents our country, it is not necessary to take on the same mannerism that he has displayed, especially within business operations. Workers grease the wheel, and thus have reasonable expectations of how employers should treat them despite whatever new regulations Mr. Trump may be establishing in the next 4 years.
What Are Some of President Trump’s Business Regulations?
If you followed politics throughout his campaign, you may have heard that he wants less regulations in the workplace! Well, for most issues; some other issues call for more regulations. Below are a few of his campaign promises:
- Reduce taxes and reform workplace regulations
- Work on the trade deficit of the country
- Repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
- Support paid maternity leave, up to 6 weeks
- Encourage employers to provide child care at work
- Push for nationwide E-verify
- Favor exemption from the overtime rule for small-businesses
These may sound good, but they do cause concern for the HR network. Following in the footsteps of the Canadian order, “for every one new regulation, one old rule must be eliminated.”, Trump goes a little further with the executive order to eliminate two rules for every new regulation. This could mean that regulations that aren’t a concern for health and safety are likely to be eliminated. That doesn’t seem too bad, right? Wrong. The regulations that may be taken away may be:
- Minimum wage requirements for federal contractors
- Paid leave and protection for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees
How Are Employers Supposed to React?
These laws regulate business actions, usually providing a minimum that has to be done. Even if protection for the LGBT community is taken away, employers are likely still expected to give this group the same treatment as any other groups. As one attorney said, ““Despite the legal turmoil, employers may still wish to implement anti-discrimination policies protecting transgender individuals.” Just because it isn’t mandatory, doesn’t mean that it is morally correct to ignore this group of workers. Secondly, If minimum wages aren’t a requirement for federal contractors, employers should still be considerate in what they pay their workers! Just because the regulation is removed, doesn’t mean that employers no longer need to be compassionate towards their workers.
Donald Trump as a Businessman
Before becoming president, Donald Trump was a businessman, more specifically, a real estate tycoon. It’s unclear how he treats his employees; because of the confidentiality policies of the company, we’re not able to get a clear picture of the benefits that his employees receive or the way that he treats them. This is important because, as our nation’s leader, he will likely translate his business practices into new rules under his administration.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been too many, if any, positive viral stories of how good he is towards his employees. We’ve all heard the unattractive stories of how he treats women, talks about them, and views them as a person. This is not an example that should be followed by employers. Just because our head of state does is, or has done it, does not make it an appropriate example to follow. Regardless of his leadership ability, employers need to be compassionate towards their employees.
Employees are human beings and not animals, objects, robots, or whatever else you can control or toss around. These are people, working to make a living so that they can support families, build their dreams, or to be generous to others.
Kaizen
Kaizen is a Japanese word that means continuous improvement. This is implemented in Toyota’s production system. They focus, daily, on not only improving their products and process, but also in their team members and leaders. By their deep rooted Japanese cultures and tradition, the employers strive to take care of their employees. Companies in Japan treat their workers like family, no matter what their station. Because of this, the employees work hard to show loyalty to the company, even forfeiting their paid sick leave when they’ve got a 103-degree fever running. They are such workaholics that the Japanese ministry of health, labor and welfare had to enforce a rule that won’t allow employees to work past 10 p.m. Yes, 10 o’clock at night! There is such loyalty in Japanese employees because of how employers take care of their employees. Once they are hired into a company, it’s almost considered to be employed for life!
By Japanese examples of business practices, U.S employers should also take care of its employees very well. It is beneficial to both parties. There is a moral right and wrong, no matter who our President is and what he has done.