The Company Without Us
I’ve been fascinated with Alan Weisman’s book, The World Without Us. The book looks at what would last and what would decay in a world without people. Some things start to fall apart after days. Without us, the New York subways would flood in a week, bridges would crumble in 50 years, and CO2 levels would return to normal after 10,000 years. You can see an interactive demonstration of the world without us here. That’s the World. What about our little business world?
With so much talk about human capital in HR circles, could we imagine The Company Without Us? What would happen if we went away? Do you think that company leaders ever consider a company of no one? Or a company that’s different every year with different people in place? A company without HR? Is that a form of The Company Without Us? What would crumble?
The Boss Awards
I got a note from KnowHR reader Sammi, who said, “While there are many sites where people can evaluate their bosses, this is very intuitive to use. While it is easy to bash the worst bosses, this site also encourages employees to give credit to the best. I think that their tagline says it all, ‘Where employees rate bosses anonymously for justice.’”
The Boss Awards looks fun. There aren’t many bosses rated yet, but this idea seems to be catching on. Bosses are on notice. Can Rate My HR be far behind?
Why is Money Not Motivating to Employees, But it is to Managers?
Thought I had over coffee this morning:
Why is it that the same managers who use “people don’t work for money” to justify underpaying workers are convinced that their own bonus and long-term incentive plans are great and highly motivating?
Final Voting for My Bad Boss
I wake up every day and give thanks that I’m my own boss. I’m not really cut out to “work for” the glowing icons of The Peter Principle. (Someday I’ll write a story about when one said “You’re no D***ie Sl***y,” referring to a consultant in another region, to one of my top-performing colleagues when she was talking to him about billing and selling the most work in an entire consulting region. Brutal and Stupid. Not a great combo.)
The final voting for My Bad Boss runs from August 14-21. Here’s the story that’s in the lead:
Cancer Can’t Stop This Boss
My story starts with me being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. I am in my early thirties and have not worked since March of this year. I also have three young children under the age of 8, and a wife who cannot work due to my condition. I think you get the idea.In the industry I work in, disability benefits are available but only equal about one-half of what I normally would be making. These benefits are formulated from a day to day basis for days you have received no other compensation for. Needless to say, every day claimed is extremely important in the basic task of feeding my family and keeping the lights on.
I have been an employee for about 10 years and as such, I have built up some paid time off. I sent paperwork in to take some of my time off, to help pay the bills, but when the paycheck came, I was short on several days. This was compounded when I did not claim disability benefits on the days I thought I was being paid for. As an end result, I lost out on my vacation days AND DISABILITY BENEFITS. Talk about getting hit where it hurts.
My boss threw away the paperwork I sent in and then lied about ever receiving it knowing that filing a grievance for the time I should have received would take months if not years to resolve. Its hard enough just trying to stay alive, let alone trying to pull knifes out of not only my back, but the backs of my wife and children too.
Got anything to top that? And if you do, I will personally go and ninja kick your boss in the neck for you.
NB to HR: Make this right. There are the rules, and there’s what’s right. And if you don’t do anything else this year, GET YOUR PEOPLE TO SIGN UP FOR DISABILITY INSURANCE. Enough with the ridiculous training classes and quarterly meetings. Do something that matters. Get people to sign up for LTD. What are you waiting for? (To make this easy, within a week I’ll post a communication kit that you can use. Free.)
What Do You Do If Employees Don’t Do What They’re Asked To Do?
I just cracked up when I read “Do Chores Like a 13-Year-Old Girl” on White Trash Mom. It’s about a 7-Step drama that unfolds when the mom asks the daughter to pick up some dirty dishes and put them in the dishwasher. The last step goes like this:
Step 7-The dramatic performance of this task increases the time spent on this chore to 30 minutes. After finishing this chore, SLOWLY go and report to your parent that this task is done. Tell them this information as if they had asked you to kill an entire family and bury them under the front porch—-the chore is that distasteful.
It is at this point that the parent will either be completely disgusted and allow the teen to go back to more “important” tasks or if the members of the household will be forced to watch additional drama.
Sure, it’s funny when it’s about kids and parenting. I’ve experienced a little of this drama in my own house. But what do you do when your employees don’t do what they’re asked to do? I’ve been known to ask and ask in my own business, only to be surprised that things didn’t get done.
Dealing with Broken Dishes
My business partner, Sarah, calls this kind of behavior “Broken Dishes.” That is, if employees are asked to do something, and then they do it poorly or “break the dishes,” then they don’t get asked to do that work again. And guess who does? The high performers. (Sarah also has a phrase for that: Performance is punishing.)
So, what do you do when employees don’t do what they’re asked to do? Do you come down hard? Do you let it go? Is there something that keeps your organization running without drama? I wish I had an answer for that. But I was the guy who was laughing when I read the story, so I’m interested in what you do. (And I could always use some advice on raising teenagers!)
What do you do with broken dishes? Or 13-year-olds?
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