Who comes first: shareholders or employees?

Every profit seeking organisation is under constant pressure from their shareholders to deliver results. All business investors seek to get a return on their investment, unfortunately this can create a management style where the need to maximise profits results in excessive pressure on the employees.

While investors only calculate numbers and financial forecasts, managers must deal with the human aspect of business, and quickly find out that what might be in the best interests of the company finances, is not always in the best interest of the employees.

There are many factors that effect human performance, namely motivation, fatigue, mood, recent occurrences, and many more. What is critical for any manager or fellow employee to remember is that the balance of these factors that make up a persons mood is always in fluctuation. A few negative effects on an individual and you might see some unpredictable and later regretted behaviour. Everyone has had an incident where they became angry and said or did something that they came to later regret.

As a manager and fellow employee, one must identify when individuals are under stress and provide extra lenience for that day of work to avoid potential conflict.

One can get lost in the business environment focusing on profit instead of people. These individuals often forget that the people are the business and make the profit. Your employees are the businesses greatest assets. If one focuses exclusively on profit generation at the expense of their employees, they will soon loose their only profit-generating resource.