We have reached a point where employers no longer hear their employees, and employees no longer listen to their employers. Both sides speak. Both explain. Both are convinced they are right. Yet real conversation has all but disappeared.
Almost every day, we see it in cafés, restaurants, workshops, shops, and offices. Conversations between owners and employees unfold in a charged atmosphere, with raised voices, short sentences, and defenses prepared in advance. The employer talks about responsibility, work, costs, deadlines, and discipline. The employee talks about pressure, disrespect, exhaustion, low pay, and the feeling that their effort goes unnoticed.
The problem is that neither side listens in order to understand. They listen only for the moment they can answer back. The employer reads ingratitude into every objection from the employee. The employee reads pressure and exploitation into every demand from the employer. What grows between them is not a relationship, but a trench.
You do not talk from a trench. You fire from it.
With time, even the little trust that existed begins to disappear. The employee stops speaking honestly because they believe no one will understand them. The employer stops explaining because they believe no one wants to take responsibility anymore. In the end, two sides remain that need each other, yet behave like enemies.
Not every employer is heartless. Not every employee is lazy. But when people go long enough without truly hearing one another, they begin to believe only the worst about each other.
The answer does not begin with more rules, new procedures, or motivational speeches. It begins with one conversation in which neither side is trying to win.
The employer must be willing to listen to the employee without fearing that doing so will weaken their authority. Hearing someone's problem does not mean agreeing to every demand. It means showing that the person across from you matters. The employee, in turn, must be willing to hear what is uncomfortable. A company cannot run on understanding alone. It also requires responsibility, discipline, and results.
Both sides need to speak clearly, without humiliation, threats, or dragging old grievances into every new conversation. The employer should explain why something is being asked. The employee should say what is weighing on them before dissatisfaction hardens into resistance.
Not every conversation will solve the problem. Sometimes it will simply reveal that the working relationship has run its course. But even an honest parting is healthier than months of silence, raised voices, and resentment that slowly poisons both sides.
Perhaps the biggest problem in the world of work today is not a shortage of people, money, or opportunities. Perhaps the biggest problem is that everyone has started speaking, while almost no one remembers how to listen.
And the first step toward a solution is not for the other side to finally understand us.
The first step is for us to try to understand them.
*Excerpt from the book "The Philosophy of Entrepreneurship," chapter "Difficult Conversations."*
**Reshid Dervishi**
Reshid Dervishi