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Work sucks..

#101
MJ5150 said:
No matter how long you work for an employer, they don't owe you anything more than a paycheck.
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That is great - and if they treat me as expendable, I'll do the same to them.

They don't have to show any loyalty to me - but they'd better not expect any in return.

All you owe me is a paycheck? Then you won't be seeing me working over breaks, or bringing in my own materials from home to help folks out, or working late for no extra pay, or...
 
#103
MJ5150 said:
Yep. I'm surprised someone like you doesn't already understand this.
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Oh, I understand it.

I understand it's a perfect example of penny wise, pound foolish. A perfect example of minimal short term gain for long term loss.

As you said:

Some employees will catch on, tighten their belts and adjust to the new culture, some will think the new rules are outrageous and leave for something better, some won't react much at all and will be let go.
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Problem is - the first group is "C student" employees, the second is "A student" employees, and the last is "F student" employees. Tossing out the best and worst employees and centering your operations around the mediocre.
 
#105
Sixpack324 said:
My personal mgmt style is based on respect. For example....when I meet a new client for the first time and I have a company employee with me, I never refer to them as an employee or by title.....I introduce them by saying "This is so-and-so. We work together. He/she is responsible for X, Y or Z at (insert our company name here)." It might not be a big deal, but it's an effort to make the employee feel a part of the company. Not merely an employee, but part of the solution that we are trying to sell.
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i like this point a lot. i don't think it is, "not a big deal." it is amazing what a difference subtle language choices can make in people's lives.
 
#108
MJ5150 said:
The whole situation reminds me of this show we watched in the 90's in Seattle called "Almost Live". It came on after the 11PM news on Saturdays. This skit in particular...........Invalid Link Removed

-Mike
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LOL!

The impression that I get from my boss though is that she's more of a lone wolf than anything. Other departments are being run much better. We're apparently the only dept out of many that are being subjected to this. We've already had a few people leave with more planning to .
 
#109
Glad you liked it. It never gets old for me.

Hopefully all you got yourself is a lone wolf. If that's the case, she'll be gone soon enough. You should say to her....I've been here before you, and I'll be here after. :)

-Mike
 
#110
Sixpack324 said:
Do you have $6,250.00 to throw away? 'Cause if you do....I'll pm you my address. We take checks, major credit cards, pay pal and cash.

I know that as a small business owner, I couldn't afford it.
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No, no I don't, not personally. And neither do you, and I'm pretty sure your business' employee count isn't 500.

What I was saying is that among choices on how to save money, if a change that's applied to 500 people comes off as 520$/month in savings, it probably is the worst of the list.

Especially if it's a choice that fosters the perception of you as an asshat to the very employees from whom your revenue comes.
 
#111
I'm a AAA+++ personality, so I have a terrible propensity to want to micromanage. That attention to everything is greatly appreciated when you're lower in the ladder at the companies I've worked at. When I got promoted to my first manager's role, however, it drove my team nuts. One of the best things that happened to me was when one of the team invited me to lunch and said, "Look, we've been here a long time and we know how to get this job done. Our job is to make you look good. You're making it really hard for us to do that for two reasons - 1) You act like you don't trust us and that makes us not trust you, and 2) Who really wants to work for someone who just keeps nitpicking everything you do as not quite what it oughta be?"

I'm not sure I'd quite recommend that approach in every situation, because some people just DON'T take feedback well. I was glad to have it though, because it gave me a chance to learn a better way to do things.

Now, when I get someone new on my team, I make it a point in their first day of work to sit down in a more casual setting and just chat for a couple of hours about how they work best, what kind of management style they respond to, what kind of hobbies they have (lots of neat info comes from this about a person's work-style), and other topics that I use to figure out their work-styles. Then I fill them in - I can totally be THE micro-manager, but I don't want to. It's not because I don't trust you, but part of my job is to have your back and make sure you're learning and doing what you need to do to advance in your career. If I don't know and understand what you're working on, then it's really difficult for me to fulfill my obligations to you. So - we gotta work together. If I start getting too micro-manager-ish, I expect you to tell me about it. If I screw up, then come talk to me. I can't fix what I can't see and I don't want to be the reason that you don't like coming to work.

It's worked pretty well for me. I usually have people lined up to work in my department and my employees recruit on the team's behalf, which makes it much easier to fill headcount when we need to do that.
 
#112
Relic said:
lol, nice.

In regards to gttim's advice, I got a chuckle out of that as well but she's got that covered already unbelievably. She's redefined virtually all the middle management's positions to be internal-facing. In plainer terms, she's got her own group of spies to do her dirty work. The lady's nuts, I swear to god..
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Unfortunately, it seems like a certain subset of sociopathic people wind up in management. Who was the organizational theorist who said something along the lines of "Organizations are pathological constructs"?
 
#113
Sixpack324 said:
One thing I can't stand, though, is tardiness. Not from a financial perspective, but from a personal perspective. If I'm supposed to meet you, weather for work or socially, and you're late......I've just lost a period of time that I can't get back......and you're the one responsible for wasting it. Unfortunately, this personal pet peeve is part of my mgmt style.....But...if you're on time.....you're projects are completed correctly and on time......I'm pretty easy to work for.
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+1

Things come up, traffic is bad, the roads are icy - but people who are habitually late annoy the crap out of me. I see it as disrespectful, because my time is valuable.
 
#115
jmattbassplaya said:
As my old band teacher use to say, "Early is on time, on time is late, and late is you getting canned."
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My wife's band teacher said it this way......to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be left.

I can't tolerate people who are late. I need to learn to be more compassionate.

-Mike
 

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