The GarbageFactor™

Because Employee Engagement is not about the money!

Posts Tagged management

Kept in the Dark

Oct 26

Posted by Marian Madonia in Communication, GarbageFactor, Managers, Stress in the Workplace | Comments off

I stopped by a furniture store this week to pick up a new desk chair.  As I was checking out, there was a sign behind the cashier that announced that you could “win a $1000 shopping spree.”  I asked the cashier how I could win and he went from smiling and happy to down with a visible loss of energy.  He said to me “to be honest ma’am, that sign was here when I came in this morning, but no one told me what it’s about.  We are too busy to leave the cash registers to find out, so I’ve looked stupid all day because I can’t tell customers how to enter.”

Management often expects employee’s to be proactive, but if you don’t follow through and make sure they have the ability to be proactive, then it is the same as purposefully keeping people in the dark.  If management has implemented something new, then it is management’s responsibility to inform staff of what is new and how it will affect them.  Employee’s need time to learn and ask questions.  They deal with customers on a day to day basis and will likely know the types of questions that customers will ask.

Keeping employees informed is not limited to new things for customers.  Managers need to ask “What is new?” and “Who else needs to know about this?”  Then they need to get out there and inform staff.  Small efforts such as this add up to big results in motivation and performance.  Employees want to do the right thing and they want to be informed, but they also need management to clear the way so they can. If employees don’t get the communication they need, it just adds to the GarbageFactor™.

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Keep ‘em in the dark & don’t give ‘em raises

Sep 18

Posted by Marian Madonia in Managers, Toxic Environments | Comments off

Not long ago, I met Charlie, an employee of a large manufacturing firm.  Let’s just say we all grew up with the food product his company makes.  I talked with Charlie about the company’s work environment, and he told me that the company was in bankruptcy, that he hadn’t gotten a raise in 3 years, and that the only information that he got on how the company was doing was what he was able to get on the news or over the internet.

This is nuts!  What is this management team thinking?  Do they ask themselves about the impact on staff or are they so overwhelmed by company problems that they can’t see past themselves?

I’m curious, does management understand and recognize that many (if not most) employee’s would have a hard time staying positive, committed, and hard working under these conditions?  Is this management so deluded as to think that people “ought to just be happy they have a job in this economy”?

Unless they are in the habit of hiring saintly types, it’s not likely that too many people are going to be able to remain positive, committed and hard-working for an extended period in those circumstances.  I’m not suggesting that employees don’t have the capacity to do it, what I am suggesting is that it is unrealistic to expect it from employees because “it’s what they are paid to do.”

Employees are paid to do the job, but there are expectations that are unwritten that go along with the agreement to provide work for pay.  Though it is not in the job description, employees expect to work in a positive environment, they expect to be kept informed, and they expect to at least be able to keep their financial footing which means they will get raises equal to the inflation rate.  If these circumstances are not being met, management should consider that they are fortunate if they have positive, committed, and hard-working employees.

Oh, and one question: How many executives got bonuses during this same time period?

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