Dear employers everywhere,

I don't know why you all seem to have forgotten you time as a worker, but I am certain you complained to your friends about your job back then. Further, I am certain you thought the management was idiots. Those of you who are middle management probably still do these things. Please, tell me why you think this same stuff doesn't apply to your employees? Do you think you know best, and everyone else is wrong? (Odds are against you by a wide margin on that one). Do you think you are the best and they are just ungrateful -- that you remember bitching and have now implemented the perfect system? (once again, the odds suggest this thinking is wrong)

Aside from your perception, lets take it for granted for a few moments that people will always bitch about their employer, their clients, their co-workers, whatever. This is a natural result of being forced into a lot of "together time". It comes from various stresses in the quest for better hierarchy position. It comes from the conflict of viewpoints when working towards a common goal. People bitch because they let out the stuff they have kept in at work -- it is simply venting. People who hear venting know it too, they listen but don't give it too much weight, because venting is just what we do to relieve types of stress.

Historically venting has occurred to family and friends at barbeques, coffee shops, church, the local bar, and other such gathering places. These things are just part of the fabric of the social structure we have right now. Lately the Internet has become part of the hangout/socialize scene. It is essentially the internet's neighborhood bar, where venting happens. People still know it is venting. But for some reason, you as an employer don't want to allow venting.

I get that you have fears of someone deciding not to buy your widgets based on a employee letting off some steam. I will tell you that in my whole life, I have only rarely seen someone lose business as the result of a venting employee. It is something that people don't include into the equation very often. It usually takes far more vindictive actions than mere complaint and trash-talking to have business suffer -- usually a smear campaign that has actually been organized and premeditated. In fact I strongly suspect that your concern is actually rooted in a fear that people will think poorly of you personally rather than some vague widget sales notion. Perhaps your ego is taking a blow you don't like?

I would propose that facebook offers an opportunity for you, one that is new to our era: you can find out what your employees are saying! You don't have to send spies to the bar or put moles in the workforce anymore, you can just go to Facebook and twitter to read up on yourself. Further, instead of getting the second-hand report, almost certainly skewed to make the reporter look good, you can just see the complaint. If you can get past your hurt feelings (and I submit that a good manager should be able to do this), you now have an opportunity:

You can actually address those concerns! You can start making changes based on what people think is bad, restrictive, or otherwise hindering their work. This will make you a good employer in the eyes of your employees. It earns you loyalty and higher productivity. What it won't do, is make the employees stop bitching. This is just how it goes.

Regards,

Someone who wants you to stop sucking