Employers Don’t Have Indispensable Employees – Case Lesson of Real Madrid FC

Employers don’t have indispensable employees.

Quite shocking, right? Yes, I repeat, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be indispensable to your employee.

Take Real Madrid FC, Spain, as a case study. The club is one of the most decorated clubs in Europe, no doubt. But when it comes to the culture and traditions, they are not the best at it.

Starting with how managers are being treated, it simply shows how they operate.
Carlo Ancelotti managed the team from 2013 – 2015 and won the prestigious award for the club, the UEFA Champions League Trophy. A trophy they’d never won for a long time.
Despite winning La Decima, the FIFA Club World Cup and Copa del Rey in the 2013-2014 campaign, he was shown the exit door for going trophy-less in the 2014-2015 campaign.

Jose Mourinho also got sacked at Real Madrid. This was a manager who ended the reign of the invincible champion, Barcelona FC. Jose Mourinho was brought to Madrid in 2010 to challenge Barcelona who has been dominating the Spanish football. The Portuguese started well with a Copa del Rey in his first tenure and a Spanish league in the second year. He was shown the exit door in 2013.

Zinedine Zidane won the UEFA Champions League trophy for three consecutive times (2016-2018) for Madrid in his two and a half years spell as a manager. He also won some major trophies as well. He resigned in May 2018, citing the club’s “need for change” as his rationale for departing. He is back to the club though after the club went through lost weeks.

Real Madrid is not only known for sacking managers, but they also treat their players poorly. Especially their club legends. We’ve seen the likes of Raul Gonzalez left in unfortunate circumstances despite hoping to retire at the club.

Iker Casillas was another club legend who left in tears, sitting alone on a stage as he gave his farewell press conference in 2015, no club presence to support the long-serving player. This was a player who joined Madrid’s Academy at age nine, played for the first team for 16 year and captained them.

Even Cristiano Ronaldo, the club’s finest ever player, left for Juventus in 2018. He later blamed the Club President, Perez, for his departure. The five-time Ballon d’Or claimed the President no longer see him as “indispensable’.

Other heroes like Alfred Di Stefano, David Beckham have all tasted the strange treatment by the club, questioning the club’s culture and traditions.

One player currently going through this poor treatment from his employer is Gareth Bale. The Welshman has been shown the exit door. Even the club manager, Zidane has made it known to the public that he doesn’t want Bale.

“We hope he leaves soon. It would be best for everyone,” said Zidane.

This is an utmost disrespect to the player who has delivered results to the club when called upon. His stats showed he had scored 102 goals in 231 games, adding 65 assists.

This simply means all employers do not remember past glories or judge employees by what they have done, you are expected to keep bringing results every time. Just like employees want to keep getting paid every time.

Get this straight, you are your employer’s best worker as long as you are bringing results. That stops the day you fail to do so. The only way forward is to keep bringing results if you want to remain relevant. Inasmuch you’ll not want to be judged by your employer for previous payments, stop blaming your employer for judging you based on the present result.

Likewise, employers should also know that you can’t always win every time. Give your workers time to adjust and implement new techniques. Things are always changing. No employee wants to underperform.