Saying Good Bye
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you laugh when you see that scene in office space, but then it hits you that what they're saying is your reality and you almost start crying....
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I try not to cry on fridays.. it's almost the happiest day of the week. So I try to keep it that way.
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Plato said it first. Words to the affect of when people think alike then very little is thought.
I think phrases like "you achieve more with honey than you do with vinegar" should be tatooed into every management trainees brain.
When you work for a good boss they inspire you. You have the confidence to ask for their help because you know that even if they don't offer a solution they will offer a different perspective on a problem.
A good boss should be a mentor and look for ways to inspire his troops. He is not trying to "motivate" his troops because motivation has to come from within. He has to develop and environment that allows self motivation to flourish and grow.
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Steve,
After reading this letter, I know I like you. Your beliefs and action supporting those beliefs is right on.
Life is too short and good to work in fear!
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Nice quote, this one is ont step better : "Life is too short and good to work!"
in fear" -
jwainz - you should repeat your comments under "my favourite SSCer.." - it might win you a t-shirt and/or books - Steve said so!
Remi - you'd wither away and waste to nothing if you didn't have your work....so be careful what you say!
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
Great thread, I am currently working on a training program that will use Steve’s letter asn an example of what not t0 do. If anyone would like to add stories of their experiences I would appreciate it if you would either e-mail them to me mikedubois3@yahoo.com or add them to this thread. I have a few comments to add to this thread but first things first.
Mike
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"you'd wither away and waste to nothing if you didn't have your work"
No chance... I have other lifes, remember??
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I should hasten to add that anonymity is guaranteed unless I have received explicit permission to use a person’s name and or company. If you would like to have the companies’ name used and you feel confident that your information can be used without posing a threat to yourself I can do that as well.
Mike
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Turnover is a part of every business, employees leave, die, or get fired. Turnover is neither good nor bad it is a measure of how many people leave the organization over a given period of time. As Steve’s case shows in many cases the decision to terminate employment is not at the sole discretion of the business. Employees are free to decide that the terms and conditions of the workplace do not meet their needs and leave on a voluntary basis.
The dynamics of the employee employer relationship is extremely complex. Despite the large number of studies that have been undertaken to determine the underlying reasons for low productivity and or high turnover there has been little progress made in establishing a link with any one or combination of factors that are directly linked to these measures. Despite the attractiveness of linking pay to performance there have been few if any studies that show this relationship as statically meaningful levels. . Interestingly commitment to organizations goals has been found to be statically significant in determining the propensity of an individual to remain with an organization. Schoolteachers and law enforcement personnel who receive low pay and in many cases work under adverse conditions (most of which are related to funding) tend to remain in their jobs for long periods of time. I would be very surprised if Steve’s decision to change jobs and work for himself resulted in a reduction in the number of hours he works per day.
As Steve’s letter shows there are companies who engage in activities that result in their loosing their most productive employees. It is time that they learned the 7 P’s (Poor Prior Planning Produces Predictably Poor Performance)
Mike
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I have to get this one out at our next meeting
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Mike, studies trying to correlate factors such as low pay, bad environment etc with turnover tend to look at employees as units to be correlated rather than human beings.
How can you produce a mathematical correlation for changing your job because you don't like your boss?
People's motives for changing jobs also change. Yesterday I might have changed for more money, today I might change for job security, tomorrow I might change for job satisfaction. Not exactly things that fit well into a mathematical model.
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David your observation is right on point. Let me restate a sentence from my earlier posts [original: The dynamics of the employee employer relationship is extremely complex.] Restated as: Employee employer relationships are extremely complex and dynamic. Which is one reason that academic studies have had such poor success in determining factors that will reduce turnover.
In a competitive market determining the factors that will encourage employees to perform at their best and remain with their employer are not moot points. But as you pointed out employee’s motivations are dynamic making research difficult if not impossible. An additional factor that complicates such task is the fact that businesses seldom implement a successful change strategy. The drive to empower employees (a strategy I am very much in favor of) is the latest victim of unsuccessful change strategies. Implementing a successful change strategy is expensive in both time and money. Not implementing a successful change strategy is inviting disaster. Hoverer, the results in both cases will not be evident until well in the future perhaps years, which is much to long for managers who want results that will show on next quarters accounting statements.
I would like to assure you that treating employees as individuals is the best policy. It would be nice to devise a measure that would prove this.
Mike
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