Advantages And Disadvantages Of Being An Employee: The Labour Market is made up of Employers and Employee’s who liaise and interact with each other to offer goods and services as well as provide the supply and demand of Labour in the Labour Market with the Employer who is a business owner or staff authorized to employ people to work for the business brand offering the demand for labour, while the Employee who are being employed by the employers offering the supply of labour at an agreed working time and designated pay.
Both an Employer and Employee has a unique role to play in this labour market and their responsibilities are bountiful as well as the advantages which they enjoy for being in such position, but like it’s widely said ‘Everything that has an advantage also has a disadvantage’. So in the same vein while there are a couple of advantages of being an employer or employee, there are also a couple of disadvantages.
For this purpose, this Article shall specifically focus on the role of an employee in the labour market and the advantages and disadvantages associated with their role as an employee.
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The Role Of An Employee
The major role of an employee is fulfilling his job responsibilities and designated duties. Whenever an Employer employs a person, such an Employer employs the person for a particular position in the office and that position comes with various responsibilities and duties which the holder of the position should execute.
So therefore an employee is primarily employed and paid to execute the work responsibilities associated with the position he or she is occupying. So it is not enough to just execute your duties as an employee, you also need to execute it perfectly as it will help the company make progress as well as help you get promotion and a bigger pay scale as reward for your work.
As an Employee you play the unique role of being the backbone of the company, as it’s only the kind of workers in a company that can determine if the company will stride forward or move regressively and if the later is the case the company may fold up. So therefore as an employee who perfectly executes the duties you are assigned to execute; you are definitely the backbone of the company contributing to their success. This role of an Employee comes with some advantages.
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Advantages (Merits) of Being An Employee
1. Guaranteed Pay: As an Employee you are guaranteed of payment for your services either weekly or monthly depending on your agreement, but definitely on the due date of your agreement you will be paid whether or not the company is making profit. So therefore whether the Employer is running on a Loss or not, you will be guaranteed of your pay.
This is not the case with employers as there is no guaranteed pay for them and they just stride on the profit of their company. So therefore, if the Company is running on a Loss, they will keep incurring loss to pay the Employees their guaranteed Wage or Salary.
2. Gives you room to earn more money: Being an employee gives you more room to earn more money because you will have more time to diversify and combine other sources of income which will give you more money. For instance, I am a Freelancer Writer, I am Marketer of a Technological Company and still a Worker at a Law Firm.
If I was an employer of labour, I don’t think that I will have that time and space to diversify into other job responsibilities as my focus will just be on my brand whether I’m on a Profit or loss, but as an Employee you can combine two or more other job responsibilities which of course will help you earn more money.
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3. Less responsibility: As an Employee you will enjoy less job responsibility and difficulty. Much of the burden in a company lies on the Employers who chest a lot of responsibilities, but an Employee chests just one or two responsibilities in the Company which quite less, less difficult, and with a guaranteed pay for completing such less burdensome responsibility.
4. Enjoying Employee benefits: The good news is that you will not only enjoy less job responsibility, but you will also enjoy some employee benefits such as: Leave, Bonuses and other allowance, Pension and other retirement benefits.
Leave is usually granted to Employee’s to take a period of time off work to enjoy their personal time while still being paid. So as an employee you could be granted two months off work in which you will still be getting paid irrespective of the fact you have not been working.
Employee’s also enjoy performance related Bonuses and other allowances other Salary. Some enjoy House Allowance, Electricity Allowance, Motor vehicle Allowance, Wardrobe Allowance, Logistics, and lots more depending on your agreement, Position, and Company.
Importantly after Working, an Employee enjoys pension which is a guaranteed payment of the Salary of Government employees when they retire from work. So therefore as an employee you will continue to earn your salary until you die. In the same vein, in some Private Companies employees enjoy some retirement benefits.
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5. Opens other Career Opportunities: Being a Employee opens other Career opportunities for you as your focus is on yourself and task at hand which could earn you promotion at your office as well as help you build your Curriculum vitae which could land better career opportunities and more lucrative jobs.
6. Offers you an Avenue to Network: As an Employee, you will meet and interact closely with other co-workers. It is often said that your Networth is your Network and being an employee helps you to increase the Network of important people you know which could rightfully help you increase your Networth in the long run.
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Disadvantages (Demerits) of Being An Employee
1. No Equality: One major disadvantage of being an employee is that there is usually no equality between your Pay and Work, meaning that the pay of an Employee is usually not commensurate to their work. As an Employee you could work as an Elephant and eat like an Ant.
2. Limited Income: As an Employee, your income is limited as it will be coming from one source and your workrate cannot give you more income than your designated Salary, so therefore no matter how much profit the company ranks in, you will still be limited to your meagre Salary.
Additionally, as an Employee your source of income could be limited as some jobs can be so demanding that you won’t have the space and luxury of time to combine it with other job opportunities as I elaborated earlier in this Article.
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3. Dependency: An employee is as dependent as child always asking his father for pocket money and this is very bad because as an adult it is desired that we enjoy some level of Independence, but sadly being an employee limits your source of income and makes you depend solely on your current source of income.
By depending on your source of income, I mean depending on your guaranteed salary pay from your employer to survive and definitely only your salary can never give you the level of wealth and Independence you desire.
4. No Job Security: Another Cons associated with being an employee is that there is no security of Job because your Employer can sack you at their Pleasure, so you are guaranteed of your Job and just as your employment came it can also go.
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5. Lack of Control: As a mere employee you cannot make a decision or contribute to the decision making process of the company. Likewise you cannot express yourself.
6. Stunted Career growth: Being an employee often results to stunted Career growth for such an employee. This is largely due to the fact that as an employee you will often spend years of tireless work to attain valuable promotion and so therefore you will be stuck in such a position and will be limited from exploring and leveraging on other career opportunities.
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As I said earlier, everything that has an advantage also has a disadvantage. These are some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with the role of being employee. If you agree with my views in this Article, you may share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.