simplerich

When your biggest problem is your most senior employees then your biggest problem may be you! As a manager I’ve been fortunate to get crews that stick around and continue to work for me and then I have said to myself, “Well, they know what they’re doing. There’s no reason for me to nag them to do what I know they need to do.”

I think we all know where this is going. I, as their manager, have to find ways to keep those old dogs doing old tricks as well as new tricks… tricks they’ve done so often they can do them faster and better than I can in a lot of cases. They should be able to… they do them more frequently than I do. Well, they used to.

One way an employee starts slipping is when we, as their managers start slipping on noticing if they’re doing what they’re supposed to. We start not noticing, or start making excuses for them. “Well, Mongo missed his cleaning list last night, but I’m sure he’ll do it next time he works.” Once the long-time employee has his manager trained to make his excuses for him he’s golden. We have to notice when they do it exceedingly well and we need to notice when they do a bad job.

I don’t have the answers on how to keep all my employees motivated all the time. I can’t do that. I’m not a good pusher. I don’t lead well by nose-rings either. I’m better at, I think, getting people to want to do better because they want to. That for me is more important. The whole carrot/stick approach works if you know what carrot people want. Money isn’t the only carrot out there and it’s not the best carrot in my experience. That doesn’t mean I have never used it or that I’ll never use it again. Just that it’s not the only one out there.

One of the dirty tricks about management is that sometimes it’s more than just getting great results out of people. Sometimes it’s getting to watch someone go from being a fair employee to being a great employee… during that transition, when the employee is growing their manager is, to use an ugly word… manipulating that employee… tricking them to do things. There are a ton of books out there on the subject and I love reading them. Helping them help you keep them engaged is often as easy as just asking them to help you. They’re long-timers for a reason. They are typically the type who are willing to help.

Complacency is the danger on those long time employees. Lately I’ve been battering my head against that wall at a couple locations and have gone with the shake things up for the sake of shaking things up route. New checklists. New cleaning lists made by new people. New duty distribution. What used to be store front jobs now merging with store back jobs. Having the lifers… anybody here over five years has earned that title from me (January is 15 years for me)… having the lifers help make the lists, and having them intentionally trade jobs with other employees in other departments has been helpful.

None of this is new. None of this is earthshaking or digg fodder I know. But it’s important… and as a long time employee myself. I’d forgotten it until recently. I’d gotten used to seeing the same thing and seeing what I expected to see recently. My boss recognized it in me though. He didn’t come right out and accuse me of going through the motions, but he did point out that I was enjoying special projects more than day to day stuff and that I tended to do better on special projects than I was doing on the day to day. He never said I wasn’t doing well on the day to day stuff… just what areas I was doing better. Then he stopped talking and waited for it to bug me enough to come back to him.

So, look around… are you going through the motions? Are your employees doing it?  I was. I’m better now. I’ve been very lucky with bosses lately.

There’s a saying in business that nobody’s indespensible. That every employee can be replaced. It’s true. In the past two years the company I work for has changed ownership I think 3 times. If even the owner of a company can change I think it’s a sure bet that an overnight janitor at one of the smaller locations can change, regardless of time with company or even quality of work. Everybody can be replaced.

Earth Day is about conserving and the difference between Disposable and Replaceable becomes important. I’ve owned a Dodge Dart, Monte Carlo, a Mercury Sable, a Renault Encore, a Ford Escort, and a Suzuki Forenza. All of them were replaceable but none were disposable… well maybe the Dart, but I only paid 200 bucks for it and it was a LOT of fun – three on the tree transmission! But I digress.

Just because something can be replaced doesn’t mean it should be treated as disposable. I’ve got a coffee cup I refill every morning on the way to work. It saves me fifty cents and saves the convenience store a cup. One day I’m going to lose this cup as I do and I’ll get another one. But until then I take care of this one. I don’t throw it on the ground and I don’t leave it unwashed. I treat it as if I intend to keep it for the long term. I really do hope to do that. But history tells me that at some point something will happen to it. I may lose the lid. I may leave it somewhere and not be able to find it. I may leave it in a hotel room. Sometimes people and jobs grow apart just like me and my coffee cup. But that doesn’t mean I hasten either one of those things along.

My employees and I can be replaced. My guess is that in a year nobody would notice we were gone, I may flatter myself. It probably wouldn’t take that long, but hey, I think I’m great so go with it. But that doesn’t mean they’re disposable. I want them to stay for the long haul.

Employee retention is a money saver for a lot of reasons. It saves us money in training and it saves us money by the employee knowing more than their replacement will know. The mall here has a book store in it that has had the same 3 core employees for at LEAST 10 years. I know if I ask them a question about a book or an author they’ll know the answer. If I see a new person there… I typically wait until I find one of the lifers. I like getting the old timers. They just know things. I want my stores to be the same way.

I want my employees to be the ones customers wait to see. There will always be some turn over. It seems every store has one position that rotates through someone every three months. For the life of me I can’t figure out what it is that causes it (I have a theory). I work every day to try and convey to my employees the value they bring to me as an employer and to the company for whom they work. I set my expectations high and then try and help them live up to them. I give them too much credit and then let them show me I was right to do so. Most of the time that works. It doesn’t work for banks or mortgage brokers, but it can work with managers.

So yeah, we’re all replaceable but we’re not all disposable. Today is Earth Day. Make sure your people know they’re not disposable today and every day.

Today is Earth Day, and while I’m not a fan of fake holidays or one day events that are supposed to draw attention to a topic but don’t effect actual change, I’d have to live in a hole to not comment on it. It’s expected. Earth day. Great American Smoke Out. Black out hour or whatever it was called where everybody turned off their lights for an hour. I can’t even remember the name. All these events are things that draw attention to something without actually DOING anything. Reminds me of the Brown Vs. Green episodes of Dirty Jobs. (Big fan of that show.)

So, Earth Day to me is a made up non-holiday where I still have to go to work, but also am required to feel guilty for not composting my own waste and growing my own food from said compost while living in a cave with no electricity or in any way impacting the native wildlife… if I’m understanding it correctly. If I can do this from a Hollywood jet in clothes I only wear once in front of a battery of lights and cameras all the better.

Earth Day to me is about stewardship. Now, stewardship is something I only ever hear talked about in church which is odd. I would think I would hear about it at management seminars, round tables, and in books about management. But it’s not referred to that way if it’s talked about at all. I think the word’s been co-opted and ppl are afraid I’m about to throttle them with some good old fashioned religion. I’m not though. Stewardship isn’t necessarily about religion. It is primarily, in all it’s incarnations, about responsibility. Our responsibility for how we act in regards to stuff. Whether it’s our stuff or someone elses stuff is dependant on which definition you’re using.

Earth day is about our responsibility to our stuff and all of our stuff, everything you own and everything everybody you know owns probably came from good old Terra. With the exception of moon rocks it’s all from earth… even plastic came from here. We don’t import that stuff from Jupiter. I’m not talking about that stuff though. I’m not talking about Styrofoam cups vs. reusable coffee cups and I’m not talking about hybrid cars vs. pure gas cars. Those things bore me. We all know the right thing to do already.

What is our responsibility to the planet is a daunting question and a little intimidating. Let’s start smaller though. What are our responsibilities to our employees. Not the responsibilities on the current Labor Law Poster that’s posted in a Common Area. Those are duties imposed on us by the State & Federal Governments. What, beyond that, are our duties to our employees. What makes us good stewards of THEM?

To be good stewards of our employees we should treat them fairly, and fair does not mean “the same” in spite of what Human Resources will often say. It’s not “fair” to expect a person with no legs to put stock on the highest shelves. They’ll never be able to do it. Making that part of their job is cruel, not fair. (You think I’m making that one up but I’m not.) It’s not fair to expect the same speed and quality of work from a brand new employee as you would get from someone who has been there ten years. How could they be as good? Human Resources departments will often insist on “same” over “fair” as a way of protecting from law suits. But I argue that a) If an employee is treated fairly they won’t sue and 2) employees who are treated unfairly will sue, whether it’s “same treatment” or not.

Today is Earth Day and we’ll all be pounded with requests to recycle, not litter, drive less and walk more, eat less meat, and turn off an extra light. Those are all good ideas for saving the environment. But what good ideas do you have to save your employees? They’re a resource you’re responsible for developing and conserving.

If you’re the employee you are a resource with value. Make sure you’re giving your best effort and best value for an employer who values you. If they start treating you like a Styrofoam cup don’t stick around forever, keep performing, but look for a job where your best effort will be recognized and rewarded. Find a new boss that recognizes your worth. There’s nothing so depressing as working at a job, or any relationship actually, where the other half of it thinks you’re a Styrofoam cup. Don’t put up with it at home or at work.

Seriously, it’s Earth day go save something.

UPDATE: Here’s another run at the same subject. I’m trying to figure out how to say something here and I think the second attempt was closer.

Twitter, 140 characters (letters, numbers, & spaces) to convey an idea has no trouble coming up with some great, short, one-liners.

sayalakai RT @aycangulez Mgrs aren’t hired 2 contribute a linear amount of work, they’re hired 2 amplify the value of those around them ~Scott Berkun

The hardest fire I ever had to do of a manager was not because he was a bad employee but because he was a terrible manager. I couldn’t convince him that doing the entire job himself was what I was after. I wanted him to have his employees help out around the store a little. After all, we were paying them to do more than show up and collect a check. He was always busy. He was the hardest working manager I had except he was never doing HIS job but always doing his employees’ jobs.

He wasn’t developing his employees or empowering them or allowing them to grow. He was creating a store full of place-holders and people who held the counter down during a shift. He never left them anything to do. He was an outstanding Sales Associate, but he was so afraid someone would challenge him he never challenged them.

When I lost him after doing everything I could to help him, honest, I tried to convince him to let them do their jobs, I didn’t lose the store. I lost one more employee after the manager. One person who had become so used to doing nothing that they were content to do just that and resented any opportunity to do more. The rest all stepped up with a degree of relief. They were waiting to be asked to step up and do something and when they were they were good.

None of them had stepped up when they weren’t asked to though. While there was a leadership vacuum none of them stepped up to fill it. While there was no to-do list and no delegated duties not a one of them consistently tried to shine or asked for more to do. None of them got the manager’s job. Managers are developers of other employees, but they must also be self-starters to a large degree. And while these employees turned out to be salvageable, they hadn’t shown the spark that said to me they were the right choice for management.

I was at someone’s house recently and it was time to eat and their son was playing a video game like Mario or something… it was a game with a save point. You couldn’t just save it wherever you were and if you turned it off you lost all your work since the last save point. I’m not a fan of those games and honestly wish they would make an emergency shut off function. The Mom, hereafter referred to as The Evil One, said it was time to eat, and within a minute walked up and turned off the console. The kid was really upset. I didn’t blame him. I reacted as if it’d been me that was kicked in the stomach. That was a massive loss of work and time on his part. The Evil One… she didn’t get it at all. I didn’t argue with her in front of her son. I’m not that stupid. But I did bring it up later. Her response was that it was just a game and he could do it again.

The part where he was doing everything he could to get to the save point, going backwards to save his progress was lost on her. The part where the game was something he cared about and put a lot of time, effort, and practice into didn’t matter because it was “just a game.” I got it though. I understood why he was upset and sullen through the meal. I kind of was too.

It’s just a job. She’s just a clerk. What she does doesn’t matter. If her boss gives her a project to do but doesn’t follow up on it, recognize her good work, and show areas where she could improve or maybe do it differently that would either make her job easier, faster, or more efficient she’s going to notice. She’s going to feel like her job doesn’t matter… like she doesn’t matter. All of that she agreed with, and when I put it in that context she understood that respecting a person’s time, effort, and work was important. She didn’t play video games, but recognized that it took skill, time, practice, and work to achieve anything.

The whole thing brought the idea of respect to me. Not respect for people over us or who have control over us. That can be fear as much as respect and it’s often something that people KNOW they are supposed to do. Respect for people who work for us, and over whom we have some power is vitally important for managers. I’m reminded of the USA Today article CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character. It’s one of my favorites. I have it saved as a file on my desktop to read once in a while. But it’s more than that.

My goto book for things when I’m formulating a post is often Managing with Aloha by Rosa Say. I read her take on it first and sometimes it kills a post because she’s already said it so well I’d just mess it up, or I find that I’m about to write a post that is almost just like something she has said so I don’t rather than appear to be plagiarizing her. To avoid that happening this time I didn’t refer to her book. I really wanted to make this post. What I did find on her website though, about respect, is a great list of things employees want from their employers, and I would argue it’s things that anybody would want from anybody else, and the core of the things is respect for them as a person, an employee, and for them and their work and time. Here’s the post on Rosa’s site. It’s certainly worth a read.

The Mom in the story above, I won’t really refer to her as The Evil One, did recognize that she could have asked him to switch off the TV, or get to a safe spot and turn off the sound and join us. She did recognize that she’d shown him disrespect, and that wasn’t a lesson she wanted to teach her six year old. She didn’t want him to feel like what he did didn’t matter. She didn’t like it as an employee, wife, or daughter, and didn’t even realize she was doing it to her son. She apologized to him and they hugged and it was very cool.

Pokemon Platinum does allow me to save it at any point, which is nice. I play it whenever I get a minute. No save spots for me!