Corporate America has become quite an empire. Technology has helped grow the efficiency and wealth of corporations large and small. Somewhere in the search for profit and power, corporations stopped seeing employees as individuals, but as numbers on a spreadsheet.

It is through this corporate lack of individual recognition that many corporations have tarnished the work ethics of individuals. Employees recognize that the corporation views them as a replaceable unit, able to be relieved from work and instantly replaced by another. The damages that this ideology does to the employee are directly related to how they perceive their own work. The instant thought is "My work is not any better than Joe on the corner of 7th Street," so working hard obviously doesn't matter.

Managers make or break the value of any associate, and while every management team is different, many corporations have managers that are assets to the company. However, on the corporate level, the employee is simply a number on a spreadsheet, which helps make the corporation the number one retailer in the world.

Many corporate institutions claim to place their working associates first, and any corporation that makes this statement is looking in the right direction: toward a working environment where people are more important than numbers on a spreadsheet.

While corporations seek to encourage and care for the associates at the lowest levels within companies, the unfortunate error is that bonuses and incentives offered to management often come before caring for the associates. Doing the right thing by the associate could affect the bottom line; thus, management often chooses the alternative.

I have seen individuals work to be the best, and their work is met with opposition. Their work isn't opposed directly, but because they are working to take care of people and projects, their work influences the bottom line – and thus management often delays their work or even stops them completely. Corporations and their cold-hard fight to make the most profit destroy the work ethic of these people who seek to work hard, but who are shut down to protect the money.

Perhaps corporate entities have found that caring for management first is more cost-effective than caring for the lowest associates. I believe that any corporate institution that cares for the lowest level of employee equally to those in the corporate offices will have an incredible return for their profits and will be known as a company that puts people first no matter what their title or position. If you take care of the bottom associate, those associates will take care of the bottom line.