There were a lot of comments about my last blog article of the CCMA. A lot of people basically said that there is another side to the story, and that is when employees are working for terrible firms which don’t pay them and abuse them, etc they need to have rights. I don’t think anybody would disagree, but the point I am making is that the vast majority of big or medium size firms have a vast majority of staff members who are either happy or at least satisfied and are not having problems. The minority – whether it is 5% or 10% of staff members – that do have a problem are normally the problem themselves. There are just simply people who don’t have an ability to work, don’t want to work and are begrudgingly there because they need the money, whereas the best workers will always take pride in achieving their goals and doing well irrespective of whether they get the praise that they deserve, or are not noticed. A good work ethic, which normally comes from the parents, is not all that common but from what I have learned, people either have it or they don’t and it really does not matter on who the employer is or isn’t – something that comes from within the individual.

I think a few or so misunderstood my perspective as an employer, when it comes to somebody having a history of CCMA complaints, for example at their previous company. It is very easy as an employee to see your perspective but if you were an employer, or you do employ somebody in your private capacity, you will very quickly understand and appreciate that no employer, with any experience of hiring people, is interested in hiring somebody who left their previous job and brought a CCMA complaint against their employer. It spells trouble to an employer, whether employees like to hear that or not. I must distinguish that from the case where, for example, somebody tells me that their previous employer never paid them for the last three months, had financial difficulties and they had to approach the CCMA, but you hardly need to say things that sound like a troubled person – for example the now stripped of her title, FHM model, Jessica Leandra, who as her excuse for using a derogatory racist term, is now going for training on dealing with sexual harassment! In other words, everywhere she goes, men love her so much, that she is so totally harassed that she cannot help but use racist terminology. Most normal people reading that would say, “Please, get over yourself and get counselling for racism, because that is the real problem.” Some people just don’t see what the problem is and mostly in those types of case it is the individual. The bottom line though, is whether people who commented on my last blog like it or not, they do need to understand that indeed you are judged by prospective employers, by your previous work experience, and what your previous employer has to say about you in a reference and if it is bad, it is going to be extremely difficult to get a job at any decent company. It may however not be a problem at those companies where the staff members are not paid for 2 or 3 months!