Why do Coporations Have no Soul?

It’s not uncommon to hear bosses refer to their employees as a “family”. I have heard this all my life. The characterization can seem like a harmless way to generate camaraderie and community. On top of this corporations come up with slogans such as “don’t be evil” as to perhaps say they have a higher purpose than just to be profitable.

But your coworkers are not actually “like a family” and your company doesn’t have a soul or a purpose apart from making money. You’re born into your family and your family doesn’t disown you if you are not productive; where you work and who a company hires involves making choices. And encouraging employees to think of one another as family can have negative consequences.

I first realized the dangers of calling employees “family” early on in my career, when I saw several people let go for performance reasons. These were gregarious people who were beloved by their coworkers, and when their teams found out about the firings, they were absolutely beside themselves. The decision was widely questioned because the employees had accepted the idea of being a family, and “firing” a family member was unacceptable.

In other jobs I saw employees being asked to behave like a family when sacrifices needed to be made but when management went about firing people, it was more about being a profitable business.

As such, its more accurate to describe modern corporations as professional teams and not families. Like professional teams, they are ruthless and will fire and hire based on performance and nothing else, yet they will always inculcate an idea of a family and a mission because that is a competitive advantage to attract and keep top talent.

You should always give your very best in the job you do but remember that you are a professional who gets paid for the work you do; this is best exemplified by Kawhi Leonard leaving Toronto Raptors for the Los Angeles Clippers after winning the NBA title. On the other end Demar Derozan was loyal to Raptors but was traded nonetheless due to his sub-par performances. Consequently, remember the following:

• You job is always on the line no matter how good you are. There will inevitably come a time when, whether through firing or layoffs, the company will have to terminate some employees’ employment. Your job will be audited and even if you are the best employee ever, you can be laid off if the auditor, your boss or the board thinks you are redundant.

• You can be made redundant due to ever changing performance standards. To compensate, motivate, and develop employees, the company must objectively assess employees’ performance relative to clearly established metrics and to other employees. These are managerial, not parental, behaviors.   

• Your organization might pivot and change its vision and goals. Like parents, business leaders are responsible for people development; but they are also responsible for much more. They are also tasked with creating value for customers and stakeholders— this means they will let you go the moment they need to adapt to serve this purpose.

• You are an expense and employers want you to realize that. They understand jobs aren’t permanent and most don’t want them to be. They expect a fair exchange of value with their employees if there is a fit for both parties and this “fit” is an ever-changing goal post.

So, all this tells us that the question as to why corporations don’t have a soul is irrelevant to begin with– this is because corporations can’t have a soul as they are money making machines by default. Everything they do is to make a profit – benefits plan, vacation days, the culture, the diversity, the decisions to dump millions of gallons of oil in the sea, the decision to hide money in offshore accounts to evade taxes, the decision to spy on competitors to gain an advantage, the decision to donate millions of n95 masks, the decision to support #BlackLivesMatter protests and each other decision is designed to give them a competitive advantage and to expect anything else is being foolish.

Corporations don’t have a soul because they cant have a soul. Some corporations and industries are blatant about this and others are a little subtle, but in the end, all corporations are supposed to legally make a profit for the shareholders and everything else is irrelevant.