> Over the long-term, what really matters is keeping your people (employees) happy
<cough>customers<cough>
<cough>customers<cough>
We've all been to those places where the employees don't give a fuck about customers, and basically tell you with their body language and tone of voice to fuck off.
Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7lGqmZprx0
You have to 1) break the egg first, then 2) put it in the pan and cook it, then 3) put it on a plate, then 4) eat it.
You can't do all those things simultaneously, you have to do them in sequential order.
1) Keep employee happy ==> then 2) you have a happy customer ==> then 3) the customer buys more shit from you
Employees come before the customer.
Depending on your business you may have stable customers who just keep going. You can’t neglect these forever, but compared to employees it may be of lesser priority short-term.
If you neglect employees on the other hand, even short-term, bad things will happen short-term or long term. Employees remember when they were neglected and loyalties are hard to build.
There are many reasons people stay in a particular job, good and bad, but those same reasons allow for a lot of "employees neglect".
You have to neglect a lot of employees to an extreme level, for a long time, for it to actually make a significant difference. Mostly, you'll loose a few staff, who'll be replaced by new, keen, eager to please/succeed staff who's enthusiasm effectively mitigates poor management, and who's "tolerance for sh.tty management" counters have been reset to 0.