With me or For me

“With me or For me” can you feel the difference?

I once worked with a friend at their furniture store for a short period of time and his dad who is a part owner in the business said these words that still ring in my head. Gunther turned to me one day as I was disassembling furniture and he said “David, I want to let you know you work With me not For me”. This is how their whole operation runs and they have incredibly loyal employees. I had never heard this before, an owner saying that you work with them and not for them. I felt that no one person was any higher than the other an everyone’s role was just as important as the next, including the founder and owner of the business

I write this as I recently have found myself in looking for a new place to be of service and in my searches I never come across a potential employer that has the “With me” feel to it. Most leads I come across are very dry and uninspiring or talk about how great of a place it is and what you can do for their greater purpose, or “For me”. I have been of service to many places with the “For me” attitude and they experience uninspired attitude from their employees.

Exploring the “With me, For me” concept a little deeper, the “For me” concept feels like a master slave scenario where you are lorded over by having to serve a master, this is to say they own you and your time when you are on their clock. This traditional way of working may work well for the owner but under serves the employees, that will build resentment over time. I have had many work experiences where this is the case in hand, mind you I did not last long at these jobs and these employers tend to hire more destitute employees. In this model there is a hierarchy, a Boss/Employee do as I say scenario.

The “With me” concept feels much better, this means that no one position is better than the other. This is a work space that is much more humbling and where the Boss/Employee relationship in in the spirit of cooperation, not condescending. It feels better, it means that you matter just as much as the owner/manger etc.. In this space you feel that all parts equal the whole and it gets reflected back in the work space. This work space is a more Heart centred place to work where everyone cares about their fellow employee and the employees mirror this back to the job that they do. the work they create is of top quality because they care.

A good example of a “For me” that I seem to be witnessing is a major North American aircraft manufacturer, as of late the Company has had a number of quality issues in their airplanes and from what I have gathered, or my own assessment is this Company has an ingrained “For me” attitude that runs right up to the Management and maximizing shareholder profit. I have seen a few undercover videos where the employees of the Company, refuse to fly on their own product and that drugs are being sought by the employees. Having employees smoking pot at their breaks at work means the employees are no longer engaged in their work, not inspired or in spirit, not working from their heart space.

So, why do I write this? I am writing this so you can feel the difference in between the two types of work environments and I have experienced the “With me” and “For me”. I can attest the “With me” is a rare working concept and one that needs to be implemented to attract Heart centred employees who really want to come in and make a difference, not only to your business, but for themselves and the world that they care about. Everything is a reflection back to us, if we put out to the world a Heart centred business it gets reflected back to the business in their employees and customers, and who would not want Heart centred customers?