When the Social Contract With Your Employer is Broken

Most of us, at some point in our lives, get a job. When we begin work, whether we’re aware of it or not, we initiate a “social contract” with our employer. We have expectations of the employer, and the employer has expectations of us. Expectations, based on role, experience, culture, gender, and a myriad of other factors originate a social contract between the employer and employee. Social contracts are not new. They have been around since Aristotle and were made famous by Jean-Jacque Rousseau’s book, The Social Contract. The idea is that in addition to any specific contract we might sign with the employer, we also get an unwritten contract. A written contract might place special terms of employment such as pay levels, vacation policies, and intellectual property rights, into legal form. The unwritten agreement is called a “social contract.” The social contract assumes particular protections in various matters such as discrimination in terms of gender, race, age, religion, and disability. The social contract includes issues such as: coming to work on time, being respected in the workplace, cooperation, collaboration, and receiving rewards for productivity and creativity. Even an expected “good morning” could be part of an unwritten agreement or “social contract.” When the social contract is broken (breached), when employers or employees do not fulfill their unwritten social contract obligations, resentment ensues, tensions build, and relationships break down. Breached social contracts are what make working intolerable for many people. Our new blog is designed to begin a dialog with people in the world who are concerned about human factors in the workplace, and we begin the blog with the idea that, as Arthur Miller once wrote, “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” Breached social contracts result in employer and/or employee betrayal. We believe that social contracts in the workplace are:

• a minimal employer obligation;
• a minimum employee obligation;
• extremely tenuous as they are understood today; and
• in need of open consideration and critical discussion.

Please join in the discussion at our new Human Factors in the Workplace blog. Your response about social contracts will help address an issue that should be critically important to all of us focused on improving the workplace experience. For one perspective (ours) on the subject, read the linked article.