 
IF GOD WORKED WHERE YOU DO

The Return Of Ethical Business Practices

Book Four

Copyright: 2003

By: K. C. Boone, MSFE

Publisher: The Scribed Light

ISBN: 978-1-939634-22-1

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any form, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Getting There

Chapter 2 - Current Corporate Culture

Chapter 3 - "Human" Resources

Chapter 4 - The Almighty Boss

Chapter 5 - Where's Everybody Going

Chapter 6 - Supervisors Are People Too

Chapter 7 - Management Strategies Galore

Chapter 8 - Employees Of All Types

Chapter 9 - Buying In

Chapter 10 - A Little Fun Never Hurt Anyone

Chapter 11 - Never Forget From Whence You Came

Chapter 12 - Happiness Matters

Chapter 13 - Give And You Shall Receive

Chapter 14 - Business Ethics: A Contradiction In Terms

Chapter 15 - Abusive Employers

Chapter 16 - Abused Employees

Chapter 17 - Abusive Employees

Chapter 18 - Unsung Heroes

Conclusion

Bibliography

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all employees and employers who seek to make all work places better for all.

Acknowledgment

My business career has been a marvelous adventure shared with so very many wonderful souls. I have been blessed to cross the paths of those who have taught me much, each in his/her own way. The number of souls encountered is too great to count, but the experiences given by each are invaluable.

Introduction

What if God worked where you do? Have you ever considered this? What if God showed up one day at your work as a new hire? What would He think? Would He run screaming toward the nearest exit, or would He feel at home in your place of peace?

Our laws require the separation of church and state. This concept has been implemented into our business culture, even as an unwritten rule. It is certainly a necessary practice in government related businesses. In many ways, even though our country was founded on principles of faith, we must be careful to not allow our faith to be inflicted upon the rights of others. Our careful balance between faith and fairness often causes us to lose sight entirely of God's principles, which offer the most fair and balanced system of all.

We confuse the term God with our own preconceived notions about what is implied by its use. We assume if the word God is used, that it automatically entails a sectarian view point with all sorts of biases. For the sake of our "what if" scenario, let's just equate the word God with love. Let's not imply any other standards upon God in our example. Let's take religion completely out of this, and simply imagine that God is the embodiment of love and fairness. Religion has no place in our example, so let's not get caught up in the distractions of separation.

If we envision God as the overriding spirit within each of us, we may be wise to let our spirits operate in our businesses. This is not to say that we should overtly share our love of God at work, but we should behave in a manner befitting our highest ideals. It is not necessary for me to blow trumpets and proclaim my Godly nature. My Godly nature will be evidenced by my actions. My inherent love for all people will be obvious in my righteous treatment of others. My loyalty to my work will be evidenced by my excellent work ethic.

Let's take a pretend journey to work, as if God were along for the ride. Let's imagine our day as God might see it, from His perspective of love and kindness.

Much of our lives are now consumed with work, so let's work as the Gods that we are, full of love and respect and equality for all.

Chapter 1 – Getting There

Of course, God doesn't have to worry about the commute to work. For our pleasure, let's assume that He does. Let's have some fun and put God in an economy car, a well used high mileage family model. Let's say that He lives in the outskirts of a large city and that His new job is downtown.

Do we ever consider the amount of time and energy that we exert simply getting to work? In any large city, traffic is generally the toughest challenge of the day. There are people who commute for hours each day. We often don't realize that the amount of time spent sitting in traffic is time that is taken out of our lives. We justify the time as necessary for the maintenance of our lives.

The accountant in me calculates the true cost of the commute, not the least of which is my life. What costs are involved? The obvious costs are fuel, vehicle and time. The less obvious costs are our health, sanity and family. Sure, a life in the burbs is great, but at what cost? If mom and dad are stuck in traffic for hours each day, what is the value of the time left, when they do get home? Is it not enough that simply working a full day is rough? Add to the work, the compounded exhaustion of having to get to work and from work.

Our lives are often built around our jobs. If our jobs are located in downtown, then we find ways to incorporate our living circumstances around that fact. Many downtown areas are crowded and are not seen as the optimum places for raising children. We try to make the best of both by finding housing in areas we deem appropriate for our families. If the most appropriate areas are in the burbs, then we make the willing sacrifice of time away from our families, so that we can give our children the best. Have we stopped to realize that we have taken what is truly most important, and given what is of less importance?

Each must look at his/her values and decide upon the living locale. Many believe that by working in big cities that their earnings will be higher. Truly, it can be said that earnings may be higher, but at what cost? The true cost of living in a large city can take away any financial advantages that may have been assumed. If I have to commute two or more hours per day, then there is significant cost involved. If we factor in the real costs, perhaps a life in a smaller area may offer us advantages over the larger areas.

So, God has chosen the status quo and has chosen to live in the burbs and work downtown. He knows that jobs are hard to find, so He is just excited for the opportunity. He leaves home early each morning, as He is very conscientious. He soon hits traffic and finds that the lines are filled with angry stressed drivers trying also to get to work on time. God, the ever cautious driver, reaps the wrath of drivers who are not so courteous. Sure, He receives His share of honks and fingers and expletives. Even God might be tempted to express His anxiety in the fever pitched commute to work.

Ever diligent, God finally arrives at work, fully stressed and late, like so many others. Full of guilt for having been late, He feels compelled to apologize for His tardiness. What a great way to start the day!

And for the grand finale...He gets to do it again on the way home. Ms. God had better put up her safety shields before He gets home, because the ballistics will ensue. He won't mean to take it out on her, but surely He will. Of course, as she has been in traffic also, it will be an even match of "who had the worst day."

The kids are excited for their parents to be home, until they get a dose of "can we just get a minute of peace" medicine. There are twenty four hours in a day. How many have already passed before you have even seen your family? What is the quality of the time remaining, that will be spent with your family?

Even God may just want some time alone after His day at the office. What can be said for the rest of us who don't have His coping skills? And let's remember, we are simply looking, so far, at a good day. What if the car wouldn't start or the kids were sick? God may wonder why His life is not what He had imagined. God, never wishing to throw in the towel, would give His all for the cause, until He could give no more.

With perfect kids and family, working is tough. Add a little extra to the mix such as unruly kids and a sick spouse, and you have the makings of a very unhappy employee. You may love your job, your kids, and your spouse. The combination can be overwhelming, if not kept in the proper perspective. Our lives are a juggling act and must be ever assessed for practicality. We should never be so naïve as to assume that life will fix itself. We must take the time to make the wisest possible choices, which benefit our lives.

God Himself would easily see why people do crazy things when faced with so much stress all the time. What advice would God give to those of us suffering from the unrelenting stresses of life? His advice for each would be different, depending on the different circumstances of each. Surely, He would tell us all to look within ourselves and make choices based on love – for the love of ourselves, our families, and others. He would suggest that we make changes, so that we can enjoy our lives as much as possible. He would suggest that we shift our focus from our employment to our families. He would ask us to look at our lives from a more broad perspective, which would reveal the details of our stress making machine.

As in all of life, the answers are within ourselves. We must take the time to assess and reassess our lives. If this doesn't work, then do that. If that doesn't work, then do something else. Life is ever changing and in many ways, is a trial and error process. If we choose to do nothing, then changes will still occur. By ignoring our problems, they will continue to exist. God would advise us to be more proactive in our lives. If you don't like what you have, choose something different.

Choosing wisely involves choosing with love as the overriding factor. Choosing with fear as the motivator, will always give you choices which bring forth less than your best. Let love be your guiding light in all that you do, and you will never be disappointed as you will have given it your best.

Chapter 2 – Current Corporate Culture

Upon entering the doors of the new job, God would be barraged with information from all angles. Just as any new employee will attest, the first day is often the most difficult. We are introduced to people in rapid fire succession. We are handed papers to fill out and policies to read. We are given a walking tour of the business and are processed into the system with great haste. We are excited to be there, but find that we are exhausted at the end of the first day. We feel that we have run a marathon of employee intake.

Let's assume that God is not as affected as we are, by the information overload. He is more prone to take it all in and examine more fully the process. He is more concerned with the fact that the new employees are stressed, than that they are absorbing all the information crammed at them.

In the current corporate culture, customer service and employee satisfaction have taken a back seat to amassing greatness. When once customers were number one and employees were invaluable assets, we find that now a company's listed position on the FORTUNE 500 is the most important consideration. Our greed and power mongering have removed humanity from our organizations, and have reduced employees to mere machinery for the exploitation of the few.

When Enron lost sight of what was most important, they lost everything. The greed of the few costs both customers and employees much. When the entity is seen as greater than those who benefit from it, then the entity cannot stand. We see this over and over and over, yet fail to realize the lessons to be learned.

Just as Rosie and Martha are realizing that one person can ruin empires of their own creation, many others are also facing court time to explain the insensitivities of their actions. In the grand scheme, we don't give a second thought to saying insensitive things, but in reality, one unkind gesture can cause the greatest empire to collapse in upon itself. The rise to the top is filled with dreams and an appreciation for those who get us there. When we are there, we seem to quickly forget who put us there. We turn our attention away from the "we" who helped us up, and focus on the "I" who will hopefully keep us there. This shortsighted and unrealistic view causes us to tumble faster than our eyes can blink.

Losing sight of the people who make things happen causes the destruction of the entity. One person who tells his/her story can spread internal destruction with unimaginable speed. How quickly we forget the idea of John who sparked the advertising campaign. Who now gives a second thought to Sue who dreamed up the product improvement? What real difference did Fred make when he brought up the concern about product quality? Did Jan really do anything or just play devil's advocate? Soon, all that we can see is that the "I" did all the really important stuff, and the rest were just bit players. Obviously, without Oprah, her empire would not be. With the focus on Oprah, we fail to see the cast of hundreds or thousands that made her what she is. Granted, Oprah is a visionary, but she is not an island.

When an entity loses sight of the whole and sees only the "I," then the whole is lost. Think of how few companies there are that have lasted over the years. Think of how companies once employed persons for their entire careers. Think of companies that sought the welfare of its employees, just as the companies sought their own survival. What happened to the good old days when an employee was a piece of the whole? When did we lose sight of the whole in favor of the one? The recent Tyco trial brought to light much of the excesses which drained the company of vast material assets.

A CEO can often get blinded by his/her own self-importance, and be driven purely by greed and selfishness. Our current worship of CEOs is great, but no one person makes a company. Have you ever seen PINNACLE do a show about the employees? We worship the one as if the one made the company. We envision CEOs as somehow the maker of the whole, when many of them simply stepped in to a company already in existence. What about the employees who really work hard every day to make a better product?

This is not to say that a CEO does not provide important contributions to the organization, but when we see the CEO as the organization, we lose sight of the organization. There is no one person that does anything great alone. It takes the whole to make the whole. One person can make a difference, but only with the cooperation and appreciation of many. Writing a book is almost worthless without those who appreciate it. A movie star is nothing without fans. A singer is nothing without the fans. A CEO is nothing without the people in the company. One employee can make a difference in untold ways. Many employees joined by a common goal can do wonderful things.

In this time of "lawyers rule the world," we must learn lessons from the many dramas of the courts. Why do lawyers rule the world, when they are only servants of the main stream? Lawyers come to prominence because the main stream feels cheated out of what they believe is their due. Feeling wronged causes people to consult attorneys, which causes a chain reaction to follow. The lawsuit is filed, the courts kick into action, juries are picked and so on. One person can have a dramatic effect on the whole. If we stop and look at the overall reasons for so many lawsuits, we start to see that the suits are a symptom of a larger problem. What is the larger problem? Losing sight of the person, who is a part of the whole. When one person feels wronged by a large corporation, he generally has to fight for himself, as he often is lost in the shuffle of magnitude. One person can bring the whole to its knees when lawyers get involved.

What made the employee feel wronged? Why is the employee causing so much trouble? What is the reason why one person chooses to fight the corporation? Integrity is generally the cause. Certainly, there are those who perceive that they have been wronged, and even if in reality there has been no wrong, still the fight ensues. There are those who seek to take advantage. The whole is damaged by the one, but what caused the one to feel that there was reason to justify the fight? Perception is a powerful thing and can cause a person to do things that they feel are perfectly justified. One person can become tainted, believing that all the world caused her misery and so the world must pay. It may not be the fault of the company, but the company will surely pay.

The war rages on, with much being lost. There is never a win in a lawsuit, except for the lawyers, as there is much misery in the process. Why then do we so often fight the fight? Far too often, the employee has been wronged and the facts bear out the wrong. Companies do lose sight of the importance of the one and the one gets lost in the shuffle. When you go to your boss for help and you only get in trouble for asking, why would you then feel that you are important and that your best efforts are appreciated? Think of all of the times we simply put aside the concerns of employees as nothing important, but in the long run see them blossoming into something that is considered important. When we get a call from a lawyer, then suddenly it is important. Why does a lawyer command more respect than an employee? Be not mistaken, nothing motivates quite like a call from a lawyer.

An employee can waste countless hours trying to get resolution, but the one call or letter from a lawyer will instantly get attention. If the best defense is a good offense, then we would be better served by fixing the problem up front, rather than trying to find ways to resolve the symptoms as they occur.

If you look at a business which incurs many lawsuits, you will find that employees are not satisfied. Employees don't go through the trouble of getting jobs just to be dissatisfied. Employees get jobs to make a living and provide a contribution to the whole. Humans have a tremendous need to belong, as evidenced by some of the groups that we join. When an employee is hired at significant cost, does it not make sense to get the most from the employee by keeping the employee satisfied? Realizing that employees are not slaves on the payroll, will give a different spin on the reality. Seeing employees as what they do will bring collapse in record time, so it is far more beneficial to treat employees with respect.

The secret to any company's success is the employees. Miserable employees are not productive and are actually destructive. Instead of working to improve morale, we work on ways to improve productivity. We raise standards to the point of impossible and hold people accountable for them. We take satisfaction shortcuts and expect desired results. We somehow rationalize that we can whip employees into submission and great productivity. We overlook the very real fact that a happy employee will work to the best of his ability, just to please the company that pleases them. A pat on the back goes a long way in the productivity of a day. Sally is a human being and does have a life. She needs fulfillment in her day and she wants to be appreciated. Susie is not a machine that can be controlled by force – her will must be combined with the will of the company, and she must feel that she is a vital part of the company.

Seeing Sally as the part of the company that makes a tremendous difference, will make Sally see herself as the part that makes the difference. If Sally's job is to place a sticker on a piece of clothing, then an important Sally will do her best to put the sticker in the just the right place with just the right attention. If Sally feels that she is only a sticker placer, then she may not even bother to put stickers on the product, because she feels that she and her contribution are not important. It's only a sticker and really has nothing to do with the product. Sally spends her time daydreaming of important things that she could be doing, because she is just wasting her time in her present position. How do we motivate Sally to be the best that she can be?

Do we shower her with rewards for her efforts? Do we announce that Sally is the best ever? Do we give Sally the best parking place? Do we overpay Sally? How do we get the best effort from Sally? We find ways to make Sally feel appreciated. We have long since known that money is the least effective motivator, so realizing this, we look for other ways to motivate Sally. Granted, Sally must feel that she gets a fair wage for her efforts, but otherwise more money won't motivate a dissatisfied employee. What does Sally want or need to feel a part of the whole? Perhaps we should go out on a limb and ask Sally. If you want to know how to motivate people, simply ask them. This is a lesson of untold value – listen to employees. When an employee goes to you for support and gets none, you have spoken volumes to the employee. It will take much to overcome what you just did. You may never be able to overcome the hurt that you just caused.

Simply listening is invaluable to employee satisfaction. If you ask three people what motivates them, it may be vastly different for the other 500 employees. Get a feel for the whole. Survey everyone, and then decide based on the whole. Sally knows that you can't please everyone, so she expects that at least her opinion be heard. A survey of a few does not give everyone the buy in or the feeling that they matter. It is a common misconception that the few can accurately speak for the whole. It isn't possible to sample everyone all the time, but in a company, it is possible and it is vitally important. It is less important what is said, than that all get the chance to be heard.

Another valuable lesson I learned from corporate America is, that if you don't want to know what employees think, don't ask. An employee who is surveyed and punished for the answers, is a person who will lose all trust in the company. It would have been better to just not have asked. Many times we don't want to know the answers, and may even feel compelled to punish the ones who supplied the unwanted answers. Most large companies use survey forms which do not require employee identification, to protect employees from retribution, but any handwritten comments can be traced back to the employee who is now exposed. No employee should be so trusting as to put their names on survey forms. I once knew a man who believed strongly in his opinions...

The fear caused by companies is real, and causes employees to lose heart and productivity. We have a tendency to forget the person behind the employment, and start to think the company is the primary focus of the effort. The company is nothing in reality, but a compilation of the people employed by the company. Enron is nothing without employees. Tyco is not a thing, but is a large number of people combined in their will for a better life. Microsoft is not Bill Gates, but is the total sum of the employees. If Bill Gates saw himself as the whole, then the company would fall quickly into ruins. Worshipping Bill is not why the employees come to work each day. Bill puts less into himself than most, and puts his best efforts into his product by investing in his people. Bill realizes that software is a creation of people. Without people, Bill would be sitting home wondering what to do. Microsoft employees are the company.

We love to give the credit to the generals, but often fail to realize the contribution of the one soldier who made the difference. Without soldiers, generals wouldn't have a job. It is the importance of the one, in relation to the whole, that makes an effective organization. If each soldier saw himself as an island, the military would quickly lose effectiveness. Josh would be worried about his own behind, while the war was lost. Josh wouldn't be thinking about his unit or its safety, he would be focused on saving Josh's butt, while the unit may have been in desperate need of Josh's effort. Josh's disconnect from the whole could make the difference in the outcome. Just as the whole must recognize Josh, Josh must recognize the whole. Josh is the Army and the Army is Josh. One is nothing without the other.

Typically, corporate employees don't visualize their importance as being life or death in the final analysis, but in the long run, everyone makes a difference. If the mail clerk doesn't work, then orders won't be received by sales, and customers won't be happy, and the business won't succeed. Look at the one and see the whole. This perspective will change dramatically the whole, and the one and will bring a satisfaction to all, which will divert the need to hire several lawyers. If we think that lawyers run the world, then let's change the world and run it ourselves. Let's focus on eliminating the need for lawyers, so that we won't have to dread them.

Think of the ridiculousness of performing an action for an entity which does not exist. Think of working day and night for the sole purpose of a name, which is only a combination of letters made up for identification purposes. Think of working most of your life, for the benefit of something that doesn't even exist. Wow, that puts things into perspective. Now, don't you feel that you are making a difference? You put all that effort into an entity of nothing. And if that entity just goes away, you really feel that you have wasted much for nothing. Your retirement plan is vested in something that can go away in an instant. One wrong move can wipe out your investment instantly. All of your best efforts down the toilet, and you have nothing to show for all the time and effort. Why do we put so much into something that is nothing?

Many people have found themselves without pensions, after they invested so much. After twenty long hard years of work, suddenly you have no job and no retirement. You really feel the wind go out of your sails. You drop into the depths of depression with no hope for the future. All is lost. How easily does suicide seem like an option? Your life is wasted and you have nothing to show for it. What's the point of living, when you have in reality accomplished nothing?

You think of your efforts in something that is nothing, and realize that you have put all of your attention in the wrong place. You feel nothing but regret. You imagine that you are nothing, working for nothing, and ending up with nothing. How low can you go? Where's the point of it all? Why were you put on this earth to be nothing, working for nothing and to end up with nothing? How quickly have our dreams, hopes and desires turned into the totally meaningless realization of our lives? We are seen as nothing by the very ones whom we have served so diligently. They move on and we are left in the wake, to suffer in the misery of what is now our reality. Those who plundered the whole for the one, have taken what they got and moved on to another place, where their selfishness can blossom. They are looking for the next host of their leeching. Why do those who rob from the All, seem to walk away unscathed and go on to prosper from others who will be left without?

You sink deeper into the reality of the unfairness of your life. You have no idea of the countless others who feel just as you do. You can only see your misery, and imagine that you are alone. You know that there must be others, but everyone around you seems to be living great purposeful lives. Why are you the only one who is without? Why must you have to go through this alone? Why have you been rewarded nothing for all of your best efforts? Where is the justice in the world? Why do you even bother to get up in the morning? Soon, you are sick, and are taking all sorts of medications for depression, which only cover up the reality. If you numb the pain, then you will be able to go another step. You start to examine the meaning of life and realize that you are not alone. There are millions of people who have suffered just as you have. In one fell swoop, thousands of employees lose everything and fall into depressions, just as you have.

Shouldn't there be a support group for those who have fallen victim to the same circumstance? When businesses today are looking for hard working employees all the time, why are there so many who can't seem to find work? Why does it seem that those who don't care are the ones who are working, while the good employees are down and out? How can this be? Sure, some have connections that get them other employment, but those who seem to care the most are the ones who are out the most. Perhaps, the realization that your best efforts are seemingly wasted, makes you less prone to want to give more. Perhaps, you are so tainted by the experience, that you just don't even want to bother with giving more to nothing. Wouldn't it be nice if you could somehow put your wasted effort to a good use? Wouldn't it be great to be able to help others, just like yourself pick up the pieces of their broken lives?

What can you do? You are just one and you don't have the resources to make anything happen. Just look at your life right now, and know that you are the culmination of nothing but a lost cause. What can you do? And why would you even bother? There ain't no future in helping those like yourself, because nothing doesn't beget anything, but nothing.

Your darkness has befallen and there is no light in sight. What to do? You turn to God or whatever entity gets your blame. Why God, have you forsaken me? What did I ever do to deserve this? Even if you haven't spoken to God in years, you seem to suddenly have a great interest in talking to God. When there's no where else to turn, we turn to God. Why? There's no where else, and we instinctively know that God is there, somewhere. He will listen and will perhaps throw us a bone and help us. Desperate times require desperate measures.

Once you have had enough of the pity party, you start to face reality again – the rent comes due and the need for groceries sparks new life into your mind. You have no choice, but to seek employment. You beat the streets looking for something to do, until you find something and you take whatever comes along, because you have no where else to turn. You find yourself in a worse condition than before – you don't have the energy to fight any more. You have fallen victim and somehow must deserve what you got, so you take what you get because it is what you get. You live your life in the defeated state that is now your reality. You are nothing, working for nothing, knowing that you will wind up with nothing. You go through the motions seeking merely to live until you die. You know that by death, you will not have to struggle any more. You begin to look forward to death as it is the only relief in sight. You have been whipped and have taken all that you can. You have no motivation left, and even God has thrown you aside. Why bother when failure is eminent?

If this sounds gloomy, know that it is reality for so many people. There is a reason why people feel that losing a job is much like a death in the family. Especially for those who have given many years to one organization, it is very disconcerting to no longer have the safety net on which they have depended for so long. We sit and imagine that we will never work again, that somehow that was the only job that we will ever have. There is anger and depression over the death of a job – healing takes time, but before you know it, you have seen a new light and are inspired to live life again.

Did the thought of this person and his despair, ever once cross the mind of the boss who made decisions based on selfishness? Does the boss lie awake at night feeling just as the employee does? Does the boss feel the hurt that he has caused? Does the company that once existed have any regrets? Do the higher ups with all of their education and resources regret their selfishness, or do they just move on to better things? When the dust has settled, does anyone really care about the one who gave twenty years? We would like to think that we empathize with those left in the wake, but often our selfishness causes us to see only what has happened to us, and blame others for our misfortunes.

While sitting in court, does the CEO think about all of the lives destroyed by his greed? No, he's thinking about how to save his butt, and get back to his normal living standard. He doesn't care if Al has groceries to eat; he doesn't care if Val has medicine for her kids; he doesn't give a second thought to all of the lives that have been affected by his selfishness.

Perhaps a little time in jail will offer him a more humanistic reality. Some time to think, might be just what the doctor ordered. Introspection is a valuable thing. Sitting alone in a cell, with no phones ringing or no visions of the next party, might just give him a chance to feel the hurt that he has caused. If he goes to jail, this would be a perfect opportunity for him to receive letters from employees. Sitting alone would give him the time to realize that employees are human beings and have lives also. Letters from employees telling of their lives and the effects of his actions on their lives, would be a wake up call. Connecting with the whole could be a chance for him to put his talents to better use. Obviously, he held the position that he did because of his talents. How could he use his talents more beneficially, if he suddenly realized that he had wasted much on selfish pursuits? Maybe once he realizes that he has been given much, he can see that he should have given much.

There does come a time when we have to look in the mirror. We can shift the blame many times and many ways, but the day comes when we have to get to the bottom line, and look at our actions and their effects. After the deed is done, realizing that our actions affect others, we get on of the greatest lessons in life. If we do things for selfish reasons, it does not negate the effects on others. Seeing ourselves as the focus of our actions, does not mean that others are not affected. When we go back to the whole, we then begin to understand the enormity of our impact on others. One decision can have dramatic effects on others. One reckless act can do untold damage to others. The simple act of speeding can affect the lives of many, if it leads to a car crash. We don't think of this when we are late and put the pedal to the metal. We are only thinking of self, just as the CEO is. We don't mean to harm others, but we do. We never intended to cause hurt, but somehow we did. When we see life through our eyes alone, we never realize that there are others out there seeing us. Whether we see others or not, they see us. We are never truly alone. We are not islands.

Chapter 3 - "Human" Resources

On His first day at work, God has to report immediately to the human resources department. God is anxious to meet those who work in this department, as they are surely friendly and ready to help the new employee. Sure, He has already had interactions with them during the hiring process, and feels comfortable with them. Did God ever suspect that there is a difference in the treatment of a candidate as opposed to an employee? Nah, that wouldn't make sense, would it?

As a candidate for hire, God was treated with the greatest respect and courtesy. Why would this excellent treatment not continue upon His hire? Many new employees go through a period that is often referred to as the "honeymoon period." You remember when you were welcomed with open arms and your ideas were heard and applauded? How fleeting are those times, when reality finds you caught in the race with all the other rats.

The realization that you are not one and only one is dramatic. Think about all of those affected by your actions. It may be the cashier at the store or the employees who work for you. The impact can be the same, so never discount the effect of your actions. Just as this applies to individuals, this also applies to companies. We throw up the company name, and suddenly are acting in the best interest of the name. We hire and fire and discipline in the name of the name. We lose sight of the persons behind the name, and are justified when we take action in the name of the name.

The power of the human resources department is almost beyond comprehension, if you realize the impact of the department on the personnel. When Ken goes to HR, he has needs and his needs are vital to his life as he perceives it. He needs to feel welcome and important. He is opening himself up to those whom he trusts have his best interest at heart. If he is met with scorn and ridicule, then Ken's performance will begin immediately to suffer the consequences. As in all of life, there are consequences for all actions. The first impression that Ken has after entering the HR department, can determine the entirety of Ken's productivity with the company.

It is human nature to be skeptical. It is easy to become tainted and to assume that everyone is out to get us. Remember how our employee felt let down by the company, for which he gave so much? Think of the HR person who has heard it all, and has been thrown to the wolves, many times by people with less than admirable intentions. It is a struggle to keep ourselves open to the individual, and to not just lump them in with the rest of the "blood suckers" working for the company.

Remembering that everyone is unique and not everyone has the same motivations, is vital for the optimum operations of the company. If the HR department sees their purpose as one solely for the benefit of the company, then employees will feel this, and will not use the resource properly. If you get a cold reception in the HR department and are made to feel that you are less than important, then surely the company will not have served itself well. One unkind act starts the lawsuit ball rolling. Never underestimate the power of one action.

The mere name implies the importance of the department – human resources. When that department sees people as numbers or positions, then the truest resource is lost. Seeing people as objects instead of warm-blooded humans, deprives both the employee and the organization of the common elements which build a great organization. When an employee walks into the office and the department's personnel immediately assumes that it's just another problem, and then the cause is lost at that point.

When focus is properly placed on serving those who serve the organization, then true resolution is at hand. It has been my experience that people don't just go to the HR department for no reason. If the HR personnel are properly working for the intended purpose, then no employee should have any reservation about going to the HR department.

There are generally two situations which cause a mass to flow through the HR department: the first involves the tendency of people to flock to those who make them feel good; the second involves the tendency of people to flock to the HR department when their needs are not being met by the organization. I have experienced both and find the first to be preferable. A kind and compassionate department which works diligently for the benefit of both employee and employer, is a department that is very representative of a successful company. A HR department which people feel intimidated to approach is also representative of the company, and not in a very good way. Organizations which focus only on the bottom line, have departments which work toward the bottom line. We all understand that the bottom line is important, but by focusing totally on the bottom line, we lose sight of what contributes most to the bottom line – the employees.

An employee can make or break a company. If you don't think so, check out some of the lawsuit awards and imagine them on your bottom line. A company focused only on the bottom line will willingly spend thousands of dollars defending the company against a lawsuit, when all could have been averted if the company had been more responsive to the employee. Lawsuits don't come out of thin air, they are the result of an employee feeling duped by the company. If companies were more proactive in problem resolution, then less money would be spent serving the lifestyles of local attorneys. If businesses were in the business of putting lawyers out of business, there would be far more satisfied employees and the bottom line would immediately improve significantly.

It is our nature to "manage by exception." Having been in management for years, I know this to be true. Most corporate policies are the result of past problems. Policies are not typically developed for the betterment of employee work environments, but are for controlling employee behavior. If companies took a closer look at what causes policies to be implemented, then more satisfactory policies could be implemented. Granted, there are situations which justify certain policies, but policies should be more proactive than reactive.

I witnessed the issuance of a policy which was implemented as a result of theft by an employee. I also witnessed the compounding of policies, based on further inappropriate actions by employees. Where does it end? The theft proofing policies start to become the way the business operates, and all operations revolve around trying to prevent another theft. Would it not be more prudent to simply insure the company against theft and move on? As long as there are unscrupulous employees in the workplace, there will be attempts at theft. If the company turns its focus away from all the employees who don't try to steal, and focuses on those who do, then the organization will falter in its mission, unless the mission is theft prevention.

Theft is an expensive cost of doing business. Think of the money and time spent on a recent celebrity shoplifting case. An offer to simply repay the company was denied, and the grandest display was performed for the media at tremendous cost to all involved. Sure, thieves need to be punished, but to go to ridiculous lengths to punish, ends up punishing more than just the thief. Do you not suppose that the cost of the prosecution and investigation and attorneys did not flow right down to the customers? Who really paid for the exorbitant cost of the prosecution? Sometimes, we get caught up in the ridiculous and do literally make a mountain out of a mole hill. When an entire organization is affected by the deeds of one thief, perhaps the organization has too much time on its hands.

We must get a feel from the employees about the perceived operations of the HR department. Remember, lawyers need work and they are available, especially if the HR department isn't. Lawyers realize the importance of disgruntled employees, even if companies do not. Be in the business of putting employee relations attorneys out of business. Unresolved employee issues can grow with light speed, and somehow incorporate others who are only too willing to jump on the bandwagon.

If an organization truly does not operate with the employee as the primary focus, the organization will fail, one way or the other. It's simple logic and law books are filled with proof.

Chapter 4 - The Almighty Boss

If God had to work for your boss, how would either of them deal with it? Would God feel comfortable and supported? Would God feel as if He could do nothing right? Would the boss enjoy having God work for him or would he be intimidated by all of the righteousness?

It's hard to find the perfect employee, just as it is hard to find the perfect boss. We must consider that God would be the perfect employee, right? But, what if an honest hard working employee is not what the boss really wants or needs? Can this be possible? Haven't you known great employees who were not exactly appreciated for their dedication and honesty?

Your boss will see the new employee, God, according to how God fits into the boss' way of doing things. If the boss isn't exactly the picture of honesty, then God will have a tough time working for him. If the boss is all about doing what is right, then God will fit in well. A new employee has a 50/50 chance of easily fitting in. We should not be so naïve as to assume that honesty is always appreciated or wanted. We should not assume that it will not be appreciated or wanted. Every employee brings to the job his true nature, which will either be judged right or wrong for the organization.

It is ironic, that even the most dishonest employers, somehow want honest employees, but this is an awkward position for both. Dishonest people don't trust others, so they can't even trust honest people. And of course, dishonest people don't want their employees to be honest with others about their business practices. Does an employer who is cheating on taxes want the honest employee to be honest with the IRS? Due to His honesty, God may have a hard time fitting in with some organizations/bosses.

Have you ever felt like you were the enemy of the company? Have you ever been afraid to ask a simple question? Have you ever felt the need to disappear into the woodwork and remain unnoticed? Have you ever walked away from a situation, because you felt that it would just come back to haunt you? I bet that you have, if you have ever worked. If you haven't, consider yourself extremely lucky and stay right where you are. If you have, think of how miserable you were in that circumstance. Remember that you felt lower than a snail's behind, and wanted only for each day to end uneventfully. You lost your drive and ambition, because the consequences of any bold actions were just too costly. You knew that you didn't want to be heard, so you simply tried to go unnoticed. Didn't you just love working under those conditions? Remember the movie 9 TO 5? Many times I have been in situations very similar to those experienced in the movie. Why on earth can we not see that this is destructive in every conceivable way?

Often our egos get in the way and before you know it – Hitler has nothing on you. You rule the roost and things happen your way or no way. You are large and in charge. You are the BOSS! Your supreme intellect and power have caused your ascent to the position of greatness that you now hold. You can't believe that you are the master of the destinies, of all of those peons beneath you. You rule with an iron fist, and believe that you are the only one who can decide what is best for all concerned. You know that you hold the position, because you are the greatest possible candidate, and are the magic that makes the machine hum. You are it. You are dazzled with your own self-importance, and go forth spouting the wisdom of your very being. You cannot and will not tolerate, even a hint of insurrection. You must be allowed to exhibit your mastery of everything, as that is your destiny.

I have always known that everyone has a boss – even those who think they don't, do. Someone drives the train, and even CEOs have bosses. No man/woman is an island, and the perception of power can be delusional. A person who supposes that she actually controls something, in reality does not. If you think that you are the boss, start to think of those you answer to, and there is always someone/something, not the least of which is the IRS.

Recently, many CEOs have found that the SEC is a boss. Suddenly, the real boss steps up and the CEO doesn't seem to be so awe inspiring any more. Regardless of the position that you hold, you do have a boss. You are never really in charge of anything and don't fool yourself – employees are powerful bosses, regardless of how far beneath you they are perceived. Once you realize that employees are really bosses in disguise, you will have a greater appreciation for their very real power.

My mother once told me, that as I had started at the bottom of the corporate ladder, I would always know how to treat people. Those who advance from further up the ladder lose valuable insight, because they don't really have a good appreciation for what it is like at the bottom. I have experience at the bottom and a few steps up the ladder. My experience has given me enough insight to realize that all employees, regardless of position are truly equal. Let me tell you from first hand experience, there is no more important position in a company than the custodian. Walking into a restroom that you wouldn't enter without a flame thrower, will offer a great appreciation for the one who so generously cleans your staff restroom. It is easy with all of our education and experience, to envision our own greatness, but having to use an unclean restroom will bring you quickly to another realization.

The custodian is one of my favorite employees. I always try to buddy up to the one who keeps me in the clean. Do we underestimate the value of a clean floor or having the trash taken out? I have learned much during my twenty years in corporate America, but the most valuable lessons were learned from those whom I least expected to learn. Having once gotten down on my hands and knees and tried to remove wax buildup from a long hallway floor, I found the task to be one of my most difficult. Putting numbers on a spreadsheet, in no way compares to the difficulty of maintaining a beautifully waxed hallway. We assume that anyone can wax a floor, but until you are doing it, you don't fully appreciate the skill involved. When we overlook the custodian's position and performance, we lose sight of what really makes the place work.

Ever been into a business with dirty floors and overflowing trash cans? Your company may as well close up shop, if this is a first impression received by a customer. You don't even have time to make a sales pitch when the floors look bad. The moral of the story is that we have to see every employee as the boss, because truly the boss would be unemployed were it not for the employee. So, while you marvel at your greatness, never fail to thank the real bosses for keeping you where you are. You'll be surprised at how quickly your perspective changes, and you begin to act as if you actually do have some wisdom.

Now that we have an appropriate appreciation for all employees and their positions, let's move on to our interactions with them. Simply walking by and telling someone that they are doing a great job is important, but where the rubber meets the road is when the employee seeks interaction with you. Certainly, caught up in your own self-importance, you don't have time for such menial interactions, and you want only to avoid having to listen to the gripes of yet another nuisance employee. You are just sick to death of people who don't share your company vision and wisdom. You are far too valuable to have to waste your time, swatting at gnats whilst being overrun by elephants, as my mother used to say. You are the main cog in the wheel and you can't keep the machine humming, if the lesser cogs keep breaking down.

You just need to get better cogs. You'll get rid of the weak cogs and bring in new and better cogs. You lose sight of the tremendous investment that you have in the current employee, and seem to think that a new employee will warrant more investment. So, you fire the old tired gripey cogs and get new ones. Before you know it, they are old gripey cogs too, and soon they must go, just like their predecessors. The cycle continues until one day a spark of reality hits, and you actually do see that a new employee will turn out just like the old one given the same input.

Wow, you are getting smarter. You are learning that by getting a new employee, you are not fixing the problem (this is not to say that some employees don't need to go,) but are simply creating a new problem which requires a new investment. Failing to realize the cost of hiring and training a new employee is great, and will cost you much in the long run. Dealing efficiently with the root problem is the most cost effective solution. If you had simply taken the time to hear the employee, you would have realized that the employee had a great idea, which could save you lots of money.

Who sees waste better than the person actually performing the work? How can I see, from a windowed office on the tenth floor, how much ink is wasted in the printing process? If I have never actually done the work, how can I know what goes on? Sure, I'm smart. I went to college and learned everything about everything. I can compute the printing cost based on total cost divided by product printed, but I can not accurately determine the cost of waste if I don't know the process. If I don't see the spillage, then I have no way of knowing the real cost of doing business.

I can hire cost accountants and put them down in the print shop, they will work the numbers tirelessly, but they have no way of knowing whether a simple adjustment will save money. They don't work the machines, so they can only go from what they are told. If Buddy tells them that the machines have to use four gallons a minute, then they have to assume this to be true. Sure, you can contact the machine manufacturer and find out that it can be done with less, but you suffer quality. So, you are chasing the unknown while overlooking the one who really knows the answer. Again, the mechanic knows what it takes to make the car operate, not the dealership owner. Ask the dealership owner to diagnose the car's problem, and you'll soon see him calling the mechanic. Why not call the mechanic first?

In production jobs, it is very easy to waste much while not being aware. Having worked for a boot manufacturer, I did learn that one cow hide can produce many soles or few soles, depending on the skill of the cutter. A highly skilled cutter knows how to place the die, so that the maximum soles can be cut. An unskilled worker once cut off her finger. Imagine the cost of that? The cost of an employee can be great, if the employee is not properly appreciated. An employee who works unbelievable overtime can easily make costly mistakes by injuring themselves. This is a cost that affects the bottom line promptly. Sure, there is insurance to cover the medical costs, but check your next premium, if you think that you are unscathed.

People are very complex machines and can break down over a personal issue or a work issue. An uncaring company can cause breakdowns in untold ways. Is it not more prudent to work toward keeping the machine healthy and satisfied, rather than trying to fix it once it's broken? People are not machines. Machines can't operate without people to operate them. Robots are machines run by people. A breakdown in the programmer will cease the robot's operation. The basic principle is this: take care of your employees and they will take care of you. You are nothing without them, and you'd be wise to realize this. The sooner, the better.

Haven't you seen different supervisory types handle a job in different ways? I have seen many come and go and no two have performed the same. I have seen some do little to nothing and soon be removed. I have seen some work hard and seemingly accomplish nothing. I have seen some flow through the days with a smile and little effort with the organization flowing like music from a master musician. How do they do it? What's the secret? How can one work so little and produce so much? If we examine the personality types of those I witnessed in the same position, we find the starkest differences in personality. (I do not advocate type casting and include this for demonstration only.)

Do-nothing – this boss did almost nothing and spent most of his time alone. Focused on wife and what she was doing. Performance was poor during his tenure.

Worry-wart – worked hard to smooth over every problem, but accomplished very little. Performance was poor during his tenure.

Hard-worker – worked hard, but used the illusion of power to lord over the herd. Performance was poor during her tenure, but deadlines were met.

Clueless – spent time smoozing and chatting with favorites, but ruled others with iron fist. Accomplished nothing and never met deadlines. Loved the power of the position and loved self most. Performance was good on the surface due to data falsification. Morale at all time low.

Happy-go-lucky – worked a decent effort and spent time appreciating employees. Spread warmth and kindness to all and found that all was done as required. Performance was good and most were pleased.

There is much to be learned from these examples, and of course every business is different. Five different personality types in the same position demonstrate that a person's personality greatly affects overall performance. The hard worker puts forth more effort than is necessary, because there is not enough trust and delegation. The lazy person can't seem to get anything right, but focuses on what outsiders will see and lets everything else fall in ruins. The only circumstance where the most employees were satisfied was the happy-go-lucky type, who allowed people to do their jobs and he always had time to listen. Any employee got a fair shot at being heard, whether his/her desired outcome was achieved or not. Taking the time to listen proved to be the best possible task that the boss could perform. Everything seemed to flow into place.

You must be thinking – where on earth did you work to have such turnover? Well, I will say that the turnover was so high that at times, employees didn't know which rule to follow. Turnover of this magnitude is not good, and only causes confusion and disarray. That's another lesson with its roots in employee satisfaction.

Chapter 5 - Where's Everybody Going

What if God finds Himself in an unbearable working situation? Let's assume that God could find Himself in such a situation, and feels that He must leave His new employment. His honesty just isn't appreciated, and He doesn't see how He can continue to work in a place where His values are in constant conflict with operating procedures. Should God not try to influence the organization to see things His way? Should He simply walk away and seek a more suitable environment for His employment?

As always, there are two sides to every coin. It is unrealistic to expect that one employee, even if He is God, can change the entire organization. When an employee feels conflicted between his perception of right and wrong and the company's, perhaps it is wise for the employee to seek other opportunities. On the other side of the coin, an employee who doesn't fit in with the company, should be given the opportunity to adjust or depart. An ill fitting employee is not good for either side of the coin.

Employee turnover is caused by many things on both sides of the coin. An employee should not obligate herself to work where she is not comfortable. An employer should not continue the employment of someone out of fear of reprisal. How the situation is handled, either way, reflects the general operating principles of an organization and the employee.

High employee turnover is a symptom of a problem, which causes many other problems. Haven't you ever worked in a company with extremely high turnover? Have you ever wondered why? What causes high turnover? We like to think that employees leave because they find better paying jobs, but in reality changing jobs for money is generally the least of the motivating factors. Changing jobs is a pain and requires retraining and loss of seniority. Why then, do so many people choose to leave where they work? The answer is simply lack of satisfaction.

Recalling some of my personal experiences brings chills to my skin. I can hardly believe some of the things that I have witnessed. It's really a wonder that I retain the presence of mind to write about such things, but know that I am not alone, and others have faced the supervisor from hell. There are those who think that every supervisor is from hell, until they are faced with being a supervisor.

Is there anything more exasperating than an employee who does nothing, but complains the loudest? There are those who get mad when confronted about doing nothing, when they know very well that they've done nothing. They seem to always cry the loudest and never let it die. When simply putting forth effort would solve everything, they simply choose to find fault outside of themselves.

Certainly there are all kinds and no situation or supervisor is perfect. Doing the best that you can, always with the employee's best interest in mind, will make you the best possible supervisor. You won't please everyone, but you will have the peace of mind in knowing, that you did your best for the employee. There are those who do need to be terminated, just as there are those who are wrongfully terminated. Life isn't fair, but when all is said and done, would you have liked to be treated the way you treated others? This is where reality hits home, and you know that you are a good supervisor or not. If you treat others with the respect that you would like to be treated, then you have done your very best. The Golden Rule applied to all circumstances provides the quickest solution to all problems.

There is not always agreement between the parties, but if you can both agree that all parties had a fair shot, then your deed was well done. There are employees who go through life holding grudges for disciplinary action which they fully know was justified. Do we or our employees ever really look at our truest selves and realize that our actions do cause reactions?

There are those who work to cause hatred, because any reaction is better than none. There are those who truly do seek to put forth the least effort possible. There are those who simply fake accidents to get out of working. There are those who have brought hardship to the masses due to their own laziness. We all know cases where employees have faked accidents and have caused others to pay higher insurance rates. We may even enjoy seeing courts award large settlements against big companies, until we are shelling out the premiums to pay for the awards.

Our own shortsightedness causes us to laugh when a big company falls, until we see the faces of those who really suffer the consequences. We like to see the greedy CEO fall from grace, never knowing that someone may have lost his/her retirement, after having put in thirty or more years of effort. There are thousands unemployed right now, because of the greed of a few. How have we allowed this to happen? Why do we continue to reward the CEO who is robbing his employees? Why do we relish in the employee who felt compelled to fight for his rights, which actually were violated by a company, knowing that the other employees and customers will have to pay the ultimate cost? If we look at the big picture, corruption at all levels takes money out of our pockets eventually, in one way or another.

Shoplifters may get punished if caught, but customers get punished with higher prices every day. Lawsuits may get justice for one, but who will pay the cost – the organization or its customers and employees? If we really want to improve our products, let's do what we can to control costs in ways that we can actually control. Lawsuits happen for a reason and the reason is not to keep lawyers employed. Shoplifters steal for a reason and all the surveillance equipment in the world, will not totally prevent shoplifting. If we focus on our most costly expenses, perhaps we would find that our mistreatment of employees is far more costly than we realized.

I have witnessed employee abuse in almost every way imaginable. I have always fought for the employee and his/her rights, and have stood firm, even in the face of retribution, for the cause of doing what is right. I have suffered much for doing what is right, but have never regretted my actions when they are done with an employee's best interest at heart. We all have regrets, but have you ever really considered your treatment of employees? Have you ever looked inside Mr./Ms. You and seen the real picture? If others were to offer an opinion of your fairness, what would they say? I guess it doesn't matter what the opinion of others is – only your opinion counts, as you are the one looking in the mirror. What does the mirror say about you and your management style? How have you treated employees? How is your job performance? Are you worthy to receive the pay that you are given?

Self analysis is invaluable in treating employees properly. If you don't bother to even consider how you treat others, then you will never treat them respectfully. If you can't see past your own nose, how can you even begin to consider how your actions affect others? Do take the time to take the first step and realize the consequences of your actions and the basis of your motivation. If you wake up in the morning and go through your entire day only concerning yourself with you, then you have really missed out on life, and you are certainly the worst possible supervisor and employee.

Are you the type that will blindly do whatever your boss tells you to do, even though you know that it is wrong? Do you even bother to question if other avenues are possible? Do you sling the axe wherever your boss tells you to, even though you know that he is absolutely wrong? Do you stand up for your employees? Or, are you the first one to agree with whatever the boss says? Do you hurt people knowingly? Do you even feel sorry for them at all? Or, do you justify your actions as following orders, like a good soldier? Concern for yourself overrides any other possible actions, so if the boss says it, it must be so. How can you look yourself in the mirror if this describes you? We all must follow orders and do what we are told, unless it is illegal. If I feel that it is not in the best interest of the company, I do state my case and do as I am told. My conscience is clear. Is yours?

It is usually much easier to roll with the punches than offer opposition to the demands of a supervisor. I assure you bucking the system is not very rewarding, as any whistleblower will tell you. But, if you answer to your conscience, which will be with you long after your supervisor is gone, you will be justified in your actions and will be vindicated in the long run. If you know that you have done all that you can according to conscience, then you will sleep at night, while others toss and turn. You will be able to look at your employees and hold your head high, instead of having to dodge those whom you have wronged, either aggressively or passively.

There does come a day when you will face the consequences of your actions, so choose to have a clear conscience when you do. I am often inspired by the submarine captain who stood in the face of great adversity to take responsibility for his ship's actions. He went against the advice of lawyers and admitted his mistake, so that his conscience would be clear. Do you have the courage to do this, even if it means that you will lose your life investment?

Not many have courage such as this, but it is something that makes the person who they are. Facing your responsibility is your only way of keeping a clear conscience. Think of a company's conscience, if such a thing could exist. Think of the companies that you have worked for – what type of conscience was exhibited by each? I have worked for companies which had a great conscience, and I have worked for companies that had never even considered that there could be such a thing. The bottom line is often the conscience of a business, and that business soon loses in pursuit of ill gotten gains.

If you use people as machines and simply dispose of them when you are finished with them, you will reap what you sow and karmic debt seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Companies that serve their employees and their families are the ones that seem to prosper over time. Companies that serve the bottom line are the ones that just can't seem to stay afloat. There may be highs and lows, but it is the degree of employee satisfaction that generally determines the ultimate outcome.

As an honest person, you have a hard time working for a dishonest company. It seems that you just can't fit in and nothing you do succeeds. When you are dishonest and you work for a dishonest company, it seems that you can do no wrong. If you are honest and work for an honest company, you feel a part of the company, and somehow work that much harder to ensure the success of the company. The conscience or character of a company is based largely on the owners of the company and how their priorities align with their company.

A dishonest person will start a dishonest company and will institute dishonest policies and will be dishonest with customers. You will know them by their deeds. This type of organization does not succeed, because dishonesty breeds distrust which results in failure. If you are dishonest, why would you believe that your employees are honest? You tend to see things through your perceptive filter and judge things as you see yourself. If you do not trust your employees, there won't be many restful nights trying to keep the business running. You will become obsessed, thinking that everyone is robbing you blind. You will start to take over more and more of the duties, so that you won't have to rely on unreliable employees. You will lie awake at night, just knowing that they are taking all of your money. You will worry yourself sick, just trying to keep ahead of your dishonest employees.

Doesn't this sound charming? Do you think that a mafia boss sleeps well? Do you think that Hitler could ever fully relax in spite of his bodyguards? What you are, is how you treat others. That was good, so let's repeat: What you are, is how you treat others. Think about it – it is very true. You cannot treat others in a manner which is not inherently true of you. If you are wise and insightful, then you can't help showering others with wisdom and insight. If you are selfish and mean, then surely you will pass along to others the fact that you are important and they will suffer from the exhibition of your meanness. If you are kind and gentle by nature, then you can't help exhibiting kind and gentle behavior.

It is not possible to put up such a front as to fool people for very long. Your true colors will shine brightly through and you will be known for what you are, as evidenced by your deeds. This is a very unsettling thought for many who actually do have a conscience. We've all done things that we aren't proud of, this is simply a fact of life. But the occasional boo-boo is one thing, whereas a long-standing pattern of employee abuse can hardly be excused by absence of judgment or temporary insanity. Circumstances can at times cause us to do things that are ordinarily out of character, but in the long run, we will do what is inherent in our character.

A person who simply cares about herself will demonstrate in many ways her loyalty to herself. Pretending to be what you are not, only works during the good times. When stress is up to the max, you will become what you are. When the choice to do right or wrong forces you to choose between hurting yourself and hurting someone else, then certainly you will not choose to hurt yourself, unless you know that you are deserving of the hurt. Only a person of conscience will choose to hurt himself, when others can so easily take the blame. A person without conscience can easily shift blame in an effortless manner.

Such choices are difficult. But in the long run, blaming others will not be in your best interest, if you are actually the person responsible. You may skate along for a while, but in the final analysis, your day will come and you will have to face the consequences of your actions. Is there no greater punishment than having to live with yourself, knowing that you have knowingly wronged another? If you have a conscience, then there is no greater punishment.

If you don't have a conscience, then you don't give a second thought to getting someone fired for doing what you told them to do. You have overriding mechanisms built in that allow you to justify your actions, regardless of how wrong you know that they are. When you are only concerned about self, others just melt into the background and really don't matter. You write them off, as if they were leaves being swept away by the wind. You go merrily along your way, and look forward to the next opportunity to make yourself look good.

You don't even give the other person a second thought, and don't care if they have lost their dignity or earning potential or family stability. That really doesn't matter to you, because you have again used your infinite intellect and skill to rise above the occasion. Why do we suppose that employees freak out and kill their bosses? In your company, have you not seen a memo about employee violence, which was issued in response to the recent incidences of disgruntled employees who shoot up their workplaces? I have seen such a memo and found it to be amusing. Why so funny? Because there was absolutely no mention of treating employees with respect, so that they don't feel compelled to take radical action. See how we are reactive and not proactive? We never assume that a company's actions in any way cause an employee to feel backed into a corner of despair so great that they don't even have the will to live. No, the crazy old employee just got mad for no reason and shot his boss.

Really now, does anyone kill for no reason? What would it take for you to shoot up the office? Surely, you would have to have a reason, just as anyone else would. I think about the recent shooting of a lawyer outside a courthouse, by a person who knew he was being taped. He was so mad that he didn't care. Why was he mad? He believed the lawyer was bilking him out the money that he needed to get the medical attention that he desperately needed. Does anyone sympathize with the person who felt that living with his physical pain made life not worth living? He had reached the point where it simply didn't matter what happened to him, because he felt that he had nothing to live for.

Surely, we won't blame the lawyer or the legal system, because they were just doing what was within their right to do. We never stop to realize that there are people who have given their all to their work and feel lost without it. The rational mind would tell them to simply go elsewhere, but the irrational mind of someone who is over wrought with emotion may see that there is no hope.

Never assume that everyone thinks like we do. Never just dismiss someone as a piece of meat, to be herded through the maze and then simply set up for disposal. Just as you would never see yourself in such a lowly position, you would be wise to not see others as such. People are not animals and they do have feelings. Stack up some hurt feelings with some strong anger and a little hopelessness, and you've got a whole heap of something about to go terribly wrong. You may dismiss people as worthless numbers, but I assure you that neither the person nor the person's family feel as you do. If you stop and realize that every person is just as important as you are, you may just have the insight needed to avoid much needless heartache. This is not to say that every employee should be kept regardless of their actions, but it does state that everyone should be treated with due respect.

If you look in the mirror, you may find that at some point, you are lucky to not have fallen into the numbers trap or maybe you have. If you have, then you know what it feels like to be treated as if you are not worth the shoes on your feet. Having been treated as worthless, you get an appreciation for others who fall into the same trap. Empathy grows at light speed, when you walk a mile in some else's shoes. If you know what it is like to suffer needlessly at the hands of a ruthless employer, then you will be a better employer by virtue of the learning that you gain from your experience. Having once suffered such, you will always treat people with the respect that you were not afforded, because you will know how it feels. It is easy for those who have never experienced failure to easily dismiss the concept. But sooner or later, even the mighty fall and are suddenly educated in the school of hard knocks.

Regardless of intention, you can cause great harm to another just by your actions. You may not even have thought about how the person would react, so you can't be blamed for ruthless behavior. You were just doing your job. Oh, how we like to use that excuse for our cruelty. There is nothing in any company policy that says that you must be cruel. There is no policy demanding a callous attitude in the dispensation of your duties. Don't let the job be an excuse to be cruel and uncaring. Even if you are the company hatchet man, you can be as kind as is possible and treat everyone with respect. We often see terminating an employee as serving justice to those who desperately deserve it. Firing someone is not justice, and you are not the judge of the person. You may be the judge of his performance, but you will never be the person's judge. If the legal system worked like you, how long before the masses would revolt and have you face a jury of your peers?

Sure, we lose sight of the person in favor of the company. Did the company ever tell you to treat people like animals or did you just assume that you should? Did you ever get such a policy that instructed you to not see people as people? If you have, frame that policy and present it at the next board meeting for dispensation to the shareholders. Someone may be very shocked to learn what is going on inside the belly of the beast. And don't be fooled, such foolishness does manage to get out in memo's drafted by those who think they will never be seen. Did the tobacco companies issue any internal memos which came back to kick them in the rear? An unthinking employee can kill you unwittingly and unintentionally. Often we get caught up in our own self importance and think that we can say or do whatever we please. Then without warning, the __it hits the fan, and the company doesn't see you quite as powerful and omnipotent as you see yourself.

Just like the people whom you've treated badly, you too can be treated badly. Of course, it will be someone else's fault, as you obviously have none. If you think that you are perfect, ask your employees to evaluate you. If your employees say that you are perfect, then you are the worst sort of dictator and they aren't free to be honest. If your employees feel that they can come to you and complain about you, then you are on the right track. If your employees tell you that you suck, and then are immediately fired, you may find that no one else will have a problem with you. Sure, if you rule by force you will rule, but you will never have anyone working for you who trusts you. You will never know the pleasure of having someone be truly honest with you. You will never sit in your office and have an employee argue with you and win. Why on earth would you allow such a thing to happen? If you never let someone else win, then why do they even play the game? Sure, it is easier to pass down rules like God from heaven, but is it in your best interest or the employee's best interest or the company's best interest?

An environment which promotes an open and honest exchange of thoughts and ideas is the greatest environment in which to work. I've worked in almost all types of environments and find that when I can freely go to the boss and be honest without fear of retribution, I am a better employee. I may have the worst idea ever heard, but I deserve to have my idea at least heard. When I leave the boss after dropping off my great idea, I leave happy and the boss is still in shock that I actually thought it was a good idea, but is no worse for wear. What's the harm in listening? I have had some of the greatest ideas that I have ever taken credit for when I listened to others. Don't you just love it when your great idea becomes the boss' idea? That always makes you feel good and ready to give him more good ideas for him to take credit. Bad ideas always fall on the one who actually did have the idea, but a good idea some how becomes the boss'.

When you take credit for the work of another, who benefits in the long run? You hurt yourself and you hurt the worker. How do you hurt yourself? Stop and listen to the chat behind your back and see if you have done yourself a favor. You will be trashed beyond belief, and everyone will make sure that it is a known fact that you took someone else's credit. This is infuriating to people and you will face the consequences, one way or another. Don't think that you are so slick as to actually get away with something so dishonest. Many have tried and many have failed. Of course, if it is your nature to cheat, then your days are already numbered.

Chapter 6 - Supervisors Are People Too

What if God were your supervisor? What if you suddenly were working for one with high morals and values, with honesty and love as the base of operations. Would you freak or would you find comfort? As all supervisors are employees too, we must consider that they are just like us. Supervisors have bosses and are at work at the same place that you are. Are they really any different, except in scale?

God, as supervisor, would not be narrow minded and would be always open to the thoughts and feelings of His employees. He would be considerate, but would in fairness to all require an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Employees will feel comfort in knowing that the boss is on their side and on the side of the company. God would not allow poor performance, just as He would not allow abusive treatment. Could you work for God?

Just as it takes all kinds and variety is the spice of life, supervisors come in all types. Supervisors are people too, and they have bosses just like you do. Moving into management is one of the most eye-opening experiences in an employee's life. When we once thought it would be so cool to be a manager, we find that the reality is just a little less than cool, once the title wears off. Before you know it, you are swamped in a quagmire of employee problems that only a superhero can overcome. You had no idea that a manager faced that much flack from below and above. You always pictured a manager as someone who had everything under control, with all the answers. You never imagined that a manager would have so much to handle. Perhaps, there is a reason why a manager makes a little more than non-managerial employees. Perhaps, managers don't really get paid enough – nothing is worth what they go through.

You are used to having to answer to the higher ups, but when you have to also answer to those below, you learn that being caught in the middle really isn't all that much fun. You get complaints, it seems, from all sides and angles. You can't seem to win no matter what you do. You can't please everyone no matter how you try. What's a manager to do? The manager has to use the old trial and error method to learn the most effective management strategies for the organization. You try this and you try that, but there seems to be no solution to the growing problems. You work late every night, because having to listen to griping employees all day doesn't leave much time to actually do the paperwork. Before you know it, you are ready to throw in the towel. You realize that you aren't management material. Sure, you have the education and maybe the experience, but you can't seem to win at any turn.

When you stop and remember what it was like to be an employee and not a manager, you find that you do have many of the solutions to most problems. Seeing yourself as an employee who can relate to those below, and seeing yourself as an employee of those above will offer you the insight to bring the two together. Remember, almost everyone in the company wants the same things. You can relate to the griping employee and the griping boss. You see both sides of the coin now, and have to appease both at the same time.

This is a daunting task and not one to be underestimated. It is the most commonly made mistake to discount those below in favor of those above. Pleasing the boss while irritating your employees is a tragedy in the making. You will soon find that your employee's productivity has dropped to almost zero. Sure, you try force to improve productivity and you never rule out a threat to get people motivated. You will always find that employees will be heard one way or the other. They won't be beaten into submission for very long. One day they will have to be heard. You are not their ruler or master, and cannot make them serve you as such.

The sooner you realize that your employees will make you or break you, the sooner you will be on the road to a winning management style that benefits everyone. Of course, the bosses don't want to hear the whining from below. You have to use all of your diplomacy skills to seek solutions as equitable as possible for both. The bosses generally don't care whether you are strict or lenient, as long as you get the job done and keep them out of court. Your finesse is required and your negotiation skills make it all possible. You will find that employees are far more flexible than management. Employees do understand that the job has to be done, and they will do their best if treated with respect. Simply allowing an employee to vent over perceived injustices, often is the solution. It may just be a bad day for the person and he may just need someone to listen.

Trend analysis is a very valuable management tool. If the trend is lower productivity, you have to kick into action at once. You do not whip the employees into shape and expect any improvements to last for very long. You go to the employees and ask for their suggestions on improving productivity. If there is a problem and you are truly open, employees will let you know what is going on, even if you are the problem. They may tell you that the way you treated Delores last month caused everyone to feel that they were meaningless and unimportant. The actions toward one can affect others in unseen ways. Don't think that Delores will simply sit down and keep her feelings to herself. She will spread the word and warn everyone.

Openness is vital and a sense of team and belonging is crucial to bringing the employees together for the common benefit of all. Don't ever underestimate the one. The one becomes many when the word spreads. A kindness or an appreciation shown can just as easily be spread, so even if you don't put the idea or suggestion or opinion into practice, it is wise to show appreciation for it. We've all had bad ideas, but we have had good ones as well. Simply discounting the opinions of employees for their presumed worthlessness will bring you rewards that you never imagined, and the rewards will not be the desired ones. The time taken to listen is by far the most valuable time that a manager can spend.

Employees are not so easily fooled by pretend concern or fake motives. You might fool one, but you won't fool the whole bunch. Don't fool yourself into underestimating your employees. I know that as an employee and a manager, I found that employees do drive the train and the manager has to make the most of the employees or both will fail. Remember, management is a specific function of operational control and is directly related to employee behavior. How the employees behave is a direct reflection of management. Of course, the one does not necessarily reflect the whole and there are isolated incidents, which do not reflect the overall employee pool. Overall, the performance of a manager's employees does reflect greatly the skill and style of the manager. A lazy manager will be reflected in the laziness of the employees. An authoritarian manager will have employees who behave accordingly.

Take some time to observe your employee's behavior. See how they reflect what they are shown. Don't be obvious in your observation so your results won't be distorted. Take an honest look and see what kind of manager you are. If you have the guts, ask your employees for their opinion of you. Oh, that can really hurt, but will give you much of the insight needed to quickly bring you to where you really want to be. It will make your employees feel appreciated and will let them know that you do care. Do not retaliate against employees who are honest – this will kill any future honesty and will do you the greatest possible harm. No one likes criticism. It hurts and can cause you to turn against yourself, if you are not wise enough to use the criticism for its intended purpose – self improvement.

You can't please everyone, so know this in advance. You really have to try pleasing the most people above you and below you. There has to be a middle ground and the majority have to buy in for the common good of the whole.

Chapter 7 - Management Strategies Galore

God might just have some management strategies to blow the others out of the water. Would we be wise enough to listen? Might His grasp of the big picture offer us the insight to rise above the circumstance and see what is truly important for business success? If God were like any other employee, chances are that His ideas would be given less than the merit that they deserve. Our businesses love to follow the crowd and feel that someone on the inside can't possibly have the solutions needed to propel the organization to new heights.

God is not a follower and would not be impressed by doing what others do. Just because someone else is doing something is certainly not a reason to follow suit. God is an independent thinker and analyzes the situation thoroughly. God has the benefit of seeing things from a broader perspective than we do, so He sees what we do not. His vantage point offers what others cannot. Are we smart enough to listen to Him and His advice?

The bookstores are filled with this leadership program and that management strategy. I say that we should throw them all away and spend more time focusing on our employees. There are companies flocking to SIX SIGMA and other such strategies. Big money is being spent on teaching problem resolution. The training costs are phenomenal and the time taken away from work to attend the training is costly. Would we not be better off to have invested in our employees, rather than our management? Having someone analyze something to death, can only compound a problem especially if the solution is so complicated that the average employee can't understand it

One of my supervisors had to attend SIX SIGMA training and was bored to tears. Needless to say, the training cost was wasted in the complexity of the detail. Especially in a service oriented environment where people are the product, much can be lost by overanalyzing the problem. The problem can be as simple as Florence doesn't like going to school, so she doesn't do well in school. Instead of working on the real issue, we are off on a tangent of how to fix the school, so that Florence will like it.

There are those who believe that ISO 9000 is the answer to all quality issues. Let me say that, having been trained on ISO 9000 and having been required to produce monthly reports, I found that it was nothing more than an exercise in producing paper to satisfy the bureaucratic documentation requirements. There was absolutely no improvement obtained for the effort involved. I guess there are those who find it to be useful, but when people are your product, I don't find it to be effective. Much more simple evaluation and problem resolution skills can be utilized with a greater degree of effectiveness. Having worked for large companies and small ones, I find that much of what is required by large companies simply serves to produce paper. We all like a big volume of needless information to justify our existence, but if no one reads it or uses it, what have we accomplished?

We like to think that we can theorize the answers to all problems, and that one day we will magically solve everything. Let's face it – people change and so do their problems and needs. No business that operates in a stagnant mode will survive. We have to change with the times and realize that all things go back to the individual. We can make policies and inflict our will ad nauseam, but until we get to the basic employee satisfaction issue, we will be chasing our tails. Why not shift our focus to the employee and just save ourselves the chase? Maybe we enjoy the chase and get lost in the chase, as a means to justify needless positions. Maybe we think that by chasing elusive solutions, we will one day master the employee problem. Maybe we just love asking questions.

Management strategies are as simple or as complicated as we choose to make them. We do seem to enjoy following the crowd. If the crowd decides to go with SIX SIGMA, then surely we will be left behind if we don't sign on. There must be something to it, if all the big companies are spending so much money on it. I personally have read some leadership books and have found some helpful info. I have found that no two employees are alike, so no one theory will encompass all. My experience has taught me that nothing surpasses a simple act of kindness. Most books don't bother to bring things down to this level. I have supervised and been supervised, and have learned that nothing beats good old fashioned conscience. If your conscience tells you to do something, generally this is the thing to do.

We discount conscience because it has no place in business. Only wimps take the time to have a conscience. Losers worry about employees – winners focus on acquisitions. Bigger is better, that is the core of current corporate conscience. Results analysis demonstrates that companies are getting larger and larger. Remember when Sears, Roebuck and Company was the only large business known to the masses? It hasn't been that long ago, but now we see Sears in a much different light. We see Sears as barely competitive with giants like Wal-Mart.

Let's take Wal-Mart as a quick example of employee focus as a key to success. Was Wal-Mart not one of the first to call employees associates? Was this not an employee oriented strategy, which has yielded amazing growth and corporate strength? Was the founder Sam Walton not focused on the employee when he treated all employees as one with himself? He didn't flounce around in shiny suits – he wore overalls and traveled in an old pickup truck.

There are many lessons to be learned by the Wal-Mart example. Certainly, since the passing of Sam, Wal-Mart just isn't the same in my humble opinion. I don't get the same warm fuzzy feeling that I once got from Wal-Mart during the days of Sam. It seems that without Sam, even Wal-Mart has lost some of its employee appreciation. We are beginning to hear about more and more lawsuits against Wal-Mart for overtime violations, etc. I love shopping at Wal-Mart and admittedly spend much of my earnings there. A return to the basic employee appreciation of the Sam days, would give Wal-Mart, its employees and customers a boost, when most don't see that Wal-Mart could use one.

There are many such examples and I haven't done the research to prove the case, but I know from personal experience that every employee is vital to the organization. The best management strategy involves the realization of this fact and operating based on this principle. Discounting employee contributions is the quickest path to bankruptcy. If you peel away the layers of a corporate downfall, you soon realize that employees were not appreciated for their individual contributions.

Sam started Wal-Mart, so he had an appreciation for it that no one else did. Any replacement for him will never truly replace him. What he contributed to the company is something that no other person can give. Think of all the CEOs that are plopped into companies for which they have no sweat equity investment. How much can they really care about the company for whom they have just joined? They may care about the bottom line or their paycheck, but they will never fully realize the value of the one employee who put his best years into the company. The board room is seldom a place where employees get much attention. Bringing employees to the board meetings may just be what the doctor ordered. Every company hates a union, but employees love unions. Why?

Labor unions exist for a reason and yes their influence is diminishing. Corporate America would stamp them out instantly, if possible. Employees realize that corporations are self-serving entities and most have lost sight of what keeps them in business. Employees seek belonging and protection where they can. Employees feel a strong need to belong and be appreciated. Employees have to worry about the family at home, not just themselves. Employees have to worry about mortgages and other bills. Employees just want to make a living, so that they can have the most comfortable lives possible. Are employees really any different than their supervisors? I guess only by degree.

The CEO wants what is best for the company, which in turn is best for him. When the CEO is contemplating his next big career move, does he really consider those beneath him who depend upon him? If the position were not seen as so important, then perhaps it would be more effective. As probably most of you have, I have worked at one place for many years. I have seen the contractor change and the owner of the contractor change. I have gone from working for one company to suddenly working for another with the former no longer existing. The banking industry is much the same. My checking account at one location has come under three different company names recently. When I opened the account, I enjoyed the personal service of the local bank. Now, my account is served by machines and people who do not care if I live or die. My account is meaningless to a bank that handles so much money. By staying in one place, my circumstance has changed all around me.

How does this happen? Remember that life and business are kinetic, and the only certainty is change. You will either embrace change or be left behind. You may be working merrily along and within a month be working for another company or have no work at all. When a corporate merger happens, Beth really doesn't factor in. A good friend of mine who worked for one bank which was bought by another, and then another, found herself without a job after fourteen years. She is an excellent employee, but valueless to those who see her as a number. We hear news stories about large companies laying off 5,000 employees at one time. It doesn't mean very much until you or someone you know is one of the 5,000. Suddenly, you have empathy where you formerly had none. When corporations have layoffs, the root cause is almost always evident – in spite of our best efforts to write it off to the economy or outdated merchandise – employee dissatisfaction will always be the bottom line. America didn't lose out to the Japanese because the Japanese are smarter. America lost out to the Japanese, because the Japanese knew the value of one employee. The worm has turned, and now Japan is realizing that it may have lost sight of the employee during all the boom times.

We need to return to our heartbeat and our conscience. If we serve a company, are we putting our efforts into something that can go away almost instantly? If we serve people, we know that there will always be people and our efforts will never be wasted. If we don't learn to run our businesses with kindness for all, then our businesses will no longer be there to run. When we fail to realize that working Tim nearly to death causes ill health and family problems, we fail ourselves and our employees. You can make Tim work more hours, but you cannot improve his productivity this way. The old adage "work smarter not harder" really holds water when you really consider its meaning. There are better ways, but the best way is to simply improve employee morale, and productivity will improve. Can it be that easy?

We are not in the business to make employees happy. We are in business to make a living and provide for our families. Just as our families are important to us, so are the families of employees. Do you really care if Robert's wife is in the hospital? Do you really care if Bertha has a broken leg? Do you really care? If not, your employees know it better than you. Just as school children flock to the teachers who do genuinely care about them, employees flock to where they find comfort. If your office isn't filled with employees just wanting to hang around you, then perhaps you have a problem with caring. I'm sure that you care plenty about you and your family, but is that really all that matters?

I searched the web for any reference to corporate conscience and found some great information about an organization which promotes corporate conscience. The organization is called Social Accountability International and is behind the creation of a program called SA8000. SA8000 is a measurement tool for assessing a company's commitment to its employees and the environment. I was inspired by the awards given out by the organization in recognition of companies that work toward improving their workplaces and improving the environment. Just when you thought there was no such thing as corporate conscience, a few companies are already making great strides to improve the worldwide workplace.

It is sad that I have worked in the corporate world for so many years and have never heard of such an organization or any like it. This organization was only recently started and I'm sure that employee rebellion against unjust and unfair working conditions was the spark that started the movement. Why aren't more companies buying in to self improvement programs in the best interest of employees? Sure, we will spend a zillion dollars implementing programs to improve cash flow and operating efficiency, but we would not even consider improving the workplace as a means of improving the bottom line. We don't funnel money toward employees for improvement; instead, we funnel money toward programs that someone else says is the way to go. Employees cost us enough already, and don't appreciate what they get in their paychecks. Why would we possibly invest more for employees?

Even if you invest in all the cool new management strategies, you still have employees to deal with. Besides, isn't it employees who implement management strategies? Hmmm, why not take a short cut for a change and make things less complicated? Why not take on a strategy for improving employee working conditions and see what happens? You might just get some goodwill off of the advertisement of the new improvement program. You really don't have anything to lose, except a whole lot of money. If you really want to go out on a limb and live on the wild side, call all of your employees together and ask them what strategies will improve productivity. I think that you'll be shocked at the great responses that you get, and the improved morale will be wrapping on the candy.

Be innovative and creative – let your employees tell you what you need to improve. Why hire experts who don't even work there to tell you? Go to the source – go to the employees. If the employees don't have any good suggestions, atleast they will appreciate that you asked. Put yourself in the employee's shoes for a day, and suddenly a wealth of creative ideas will fly out of your head. Sit at your secretary's desk and you'll understand how a rickety old chair can make your life miserable. Try operating a floor machine for some nifty insight on why a new one might be just what the doctor ordered. I once got a valuable lesson about a floor machine. We put some new batteries in it and wow – it worked like a brand new machine. We never thought that the four year old batteries may have affected performance. A couple of batteries made short work of a long hall.

Never overlook the obvious. Sometimes the simplest things can make the biggest difference. Once we won some incentive money for excellent performance and we could have used the money in any way we pleased. Having listened to plenty of complaining about old chairs, I encouraged the staff to use the money to buy new chairs for themselves. Excellent – killed two birds with one stone and everyone was happy. It was more beneficial to use the money for everyone's personal comfort, than to get an after tax payment of almost nothing. Be innovative and spread the wealth. A person who sits all day, really can't work effectively in a bad chair.

There are ideas that sound good, but in reality don't work. It was suggested that everyone should be able to listen to music. I said ok, until I was hearing at least four different songs at one time, and someone started complaining about not being able to work with all of the noise. It was a better suggestion that everyone have their own earphones for their music. Trial and error will usually get you to a workable solution. Of course, this presented a problem with answering the phones, but we worked around that also.

One of the clerks complained about not being able to get anything done for answering the phone. I suggested that she not answer the phone, but to check her messages two or three times a day. That was ok, but what if the babysitter called and she needed to go pick up her child? Her supervisor suggested that she give the supervisor's extension to the daycare center, and let the operator know that if there was an urgent message to patch it through to the supervisor. This worked out best for everyone. The people calling called less when work was being done instead of answering the phone. Simple solutions are often the best.

I find another disconcerting practice in business today. We continually add new policies and procedures, but rarely take the time to remove outdated ones. We find ourselves with impossible workloads, because we don't analyze what we are doing to see if we can not do what we are doing. Some policies were put in place back when Carter was in the Whitehouse. It is like outdated laws on the law books – we don't ever review and remove. We just keep adding and adding until we are ready to implode from impossible deadlines. Take my advice and review your policies and procedures often. You might find that you have to do much less work than you thought.

Don't just let management review your policies – let all of your employees review your policies. They have to live with and abide by them, so they should have the right to know what they are abiding by. Many times they can see improvements and time wasters which management can't see. Don't think that only management has the smarts to review policies. Remember, rules were meant to be broken, so let the rule breakers have a whack at them first.

Imagine if you can, that I was actually watching a chess match on TV between a master, Kasparov, and a computer. Yes, it was on TV. The thought occurred to me, that we often see our personnel policies as "Us Against Them." The company has to protect itself against ruthless employees, just as strategically as two opponents on a chess board. Let's assume that the company is the white pieces (the company always gets the advantage based on size) and the employees are the black pieces. Think of the company policies as the moves that a company makes to strategically maintain the upper hand. Think of the aggression facing the employees. Think of the war-like attention to detail that the company musters against the employees. If the employees gang up on the company, there is a special punishment for that, so the employees must fight individually. It is difficult for employees to get the upper hand, when they don't have the unity that the company has. All the pieces have to try to form a united front to stay in the game, while being beaten mercilessly by the company's well organized army. Imagine that the black pieces were each played by different employees. All players would have to come together to develop a strategy within the confines of the operating procedures. What happens if one doesn't follow the plan? How is unity maintained with so many individual players?

There is no doubt that companies do have the upper hand in dealing with employees. There is never a time when an employee gets equal rights. What has brought our businesses to the point that it truly is us against them? Why do we see employees as the enemy and seek to control them like robots? Do we imagine that robots have any creativity? Just as Kasparov has the advantage of creating strategies and planning moves in advance, the computer does not. The computer simply analyzes every possible move for greatest effectiveness. Granted, the games ended in a tie, but does this really mean that the computer is superior, even if it had won? Is winning the game the only possible outcome? What is the definition of winning? If you win the lawsuit, but lose one of the best employees that you have ever had, did you really win? Winning only counts if both parties win equally.

The only strategy that warrants our consideration is a strategy that equalizes company and employee. I might get some argument here, but if the employee doesn't win, then the company doesn't win. If the primary solution was a happy medium, then both come out winners. If the employee was satisfied and the company was satisfied, then both are content with the outcome. If at any point, one or the other feels that they have not won, then both have lost. I used to have a supervisor who said that only the ground loses when two elephants fight. This is to say that all around the two who are fighting are really the losers. You should consider that even if you win in your mistreatment of an employee, other employees are affected and you will potentially lose more than you won.

No one likes to see someone innocent mistreated. Employees have a special kinship to all other employees and by mistreating one, you mistreat all. Don't think that the other employees don't see what you did to the one, and know that you will do the same to them at your leisure. Think before you act and always act as fairly as possible. No one begrudges special treatment to those who need special accommodation. Everyone begrudges special treatment to those who are just seen as favorites.

There is no one strategy that works best for everyone. Be innovative and flexible, and realize that if the employees approve of the strategy, they are far more likely to buy in and give full support. Your efforts must be genuine and sincere, and must create strategies that produce a win-win situation for all involved. It is in the employee's best interest that the company performs well, just as it is in the company's best interest that the employees perform well. This is a win-win situation and should be the goal of every company. Excluding employees from strategy development and implementation will leave them feeling left out in the cold. And soon, you will also be out in the cold.

Chapter 8 - Employees Of All Types

God would never be so narrow minded as to type cast employees. He would see this as unfair and judgmental. Lumping someone into a category based primarily on one behavior is prejudicial and serves the best interest of no one.

God is not as we are. God would see the person as separate from the behavior. God understands that a person is motivated individually and is not the same as any other. He knows that one employee is happy and the other is sad. He knows that one employee is loving and the other is hateful. He does not place judgments on employees, as He knows that whatever an employee does is right for them at the time. He knows that people do things for reasons known only to them. He loves them all equally and does not judge them by their behavior.

Any employee can have a bad day, well, except God. There are always issues for the person that are unknown to others. God would give proper respect to every employee and know that one behavior does not the person make. We are not so kind and forgiving. We tend to see the behavior before we see the person. We will go out of our way to type cast employees and our treatment of them will be a reflection of their "types." It may serve us well to review some of our typing tendencies to demonstrate the error of our ways.

Every supervisor experiences the employee who seems to be a little too nice and can't wait to be of service. Beware! The butt kisser lurks ever near, seeking to self-serve by appearing to serve others. You think to yourself, how nice she is and what a breath of fresh air she brings. You feel important and inspired in her presence. You are lured in by her subservient demeanor and are wowed by her seeming worship of you. When you are new to a place and have a hard time making friends, isn't it nice to have someone suddenly appear, who seems too good to be true? She always seems to know what you need and is ever diligent to provide for your every whim. Wow, you'll love it here, as you have made such a wonderful new friend.

Soon, the sight of your wonderful friend starts to bring forth hesitance and trepidation. You soon realize that the friend's job just isn't getting done, because everyone else isn't doing her job. You find that your friend has nothing but bad things to say about everyone, except you. Of course, your friend always to be busy and working diligently for the good of all. As time passes, you start to realize that everyone is leery of you and your friend. You hear remarks in passing about what a butt kisser your friend is, and how she can't be trusted. You start to see that everyone is simply out to get your friend, and you can't believe that such a trusted ally can warrant such ill will. You reinforce your position and allegiance to your friend, and are met with laughter and ridicule. What is the joke that everyone knows, but you?

Before long, the wolf sheds her cloak and is revealed to you for what she really is. You find that you have given everything to one and nothing to those who really are working for the benefit of all. You hear that she was the same way with your predecessor, and will be the same with the one who follows you. It's not about you – but about the butt kisser. When a person's loyalty automatically gravitates to whom ever is in charge, there may be some lack of genuine feeling behind the one who appears to be so nice. Realizing your mistake, you instantly begin your damage control procedures. You start to be more open to the others and start by laughing at your own mistakes. Sure, you were easily fooled by one so skilled. Anyone can make an honest mistake, right?

Our need to be liked reigns supreme. We are so easily taken in by those who seek their own personal gain. Just as my grandfather used to say, "A leopard can't change his spots." A person's character is what it is and a sudden assault by everyone cannot be totally dismissed. There are those who are unpopular, and many are unpopular for reasons which are fully justified. But, if a person uses his influence to always draw near the boss, regardless of the boss, be weary. Untold misery can be spared by the one who wisely doesn't get too attached so easily. Remember, work is not a popularity contest, but is a place of business. It is good to be well liked, but it is not good to play favorites. I have seen a person sit behind the boss in every meeting and repeat almost verbatim everything the boss said. Did everyone think that the repeater was great or full of wisdom? No, but it did get him a terrific promotion to a position, which brought forth great failure for the company.

Using undue influence only pays dividends for as long as you can keep up the guise. When the curtain is raised, what will be revealed of you? Did you cater to the few for the feeling of self-importance and praise? Did you serve the masses and were liked because of your actions, not for yourself? When the time comes for you to face the boss, will your friend take sides with or against you? Always know that a butt kisser is in every business and he enjoys most an easy mark. You would be well advised to shy away from those who seem too good to be true. They usually are.

In the final analysis, the butt kisser is always revealed for what he is. He knows no limits to the songs of his own hard working diligence. If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times, "Hey boss, I work 24/7." I can still hear it now. The butt kisser works 24/7 trying to make himself look good, and that's about all he has time for. A person who is doing his job, doesn't have much time left to tell all about the wonderful job he is doing. Yes, many times the squeaky wheel does get the grease, and butt kissers are often rewarded for their ability to fool you by wooing you. But remember, when you promote a butt kisser, you will have to answer for it when he fails at his new job. Don't fall into the trap and don't be fooled by the wolf in sheep's clothing.

The Doomsayer is one of my favorites, as I have many times fallen into this class. When you are responsible for the bottom line reporting, there is often much doom to say. When the bottom line is in red, you have to let out some doom so that the problem can be resolved. I tell you, having to give out the bad news so often is not an enviable position. People do tend to kill the messenger as I have found. The accountant is not very popular in most organizations, unless the organization is very profitable. Producing the financial statements can bring forth happiness or misery upon the entire organization.

There are those who know that there are bad things ahead and bad news is never welcome. Those who choose to give bad news with the best possible spin are seldom appreciated. There are those who see everything as bad news and therefore have nothing positive to say. These are the people who are our current focus. They come to work with a frown, frown all day and leave with a frown. They are a blast to be around, and seem to make every day drag on and on. Luckily, these people generally aren't hired to interact with customers, so you hide them inside the organization and steer clear of them at every turn.

The doomsayer is almost as annoying as the idea person. Oh, I worked with an idea person who had an idea for improving everything, every time you saw him. I personally did avoid him at every turn. In spite of his occasionally having a good idea, the presentation of the ideas was enough to cause you to inflict bodily harm upon yourself. He went on and on and on. You had to fight the urge to run or atleast walk the other way.

As the idea man tried every possible avenue to have his ideas heard, he was relentlessly repetitious. He was anxious to please, and was ever so diligent in his efforts to fix things that really didn't even need fixing. What made him so smart, and why wasn't he running the place? He had a few problems with personnel and seemed to irritate everyone in his path. He had tremendous energy, but his overwhelming approach made him only to be avoided. He is the opposite of the doomsayer, but invokes similar responses.

More irritating that the current idea man, is the newly hired idea man. Does it not drive you insane when the new person insists that he has all the answers and can instantly solve all problems? Of course, you have to be polite, so you go through all the motions of implementing all the great ideas only to find, as you knew you would, that they didn't work in the past and aren't working now. New hires would be well advised to take a few weeks to inquire rather than insist. Much time can be saved by listening to those who have been in the trenches already. Never assume anything when walking through the doors for the first time. Listen, listen, listen. It is ok to propose ideas, but don't assume that you have ridden up on your shining white horse to save the day, unless you just want to give the doomsayer another topic.

The Do-Little employee is a standard at every company. You watch the do-little and wonder how he/she keeps drawing a paycheck. You are ever in awe of the skill, honed to a very sharp point, to appear busy while doing little to nothing. You can't even imagine such wonderment as someone getting away without even a slight effort. You work your fingers to the bone and can't imagine how you could remain employed if you did nothing. You watch to learn the secrets of the do-little. Everyone wants to know how to do less and get away with it. The do-little is the envy of all and the master of none.

The Can't Win For Losing employee is like many of us – our best efforts are often unrewarded. This employee tries, but fails at every turn. It's no wonder that he/she is so very negative – they never win. They are forever shuffled out of the way and never given a second thought. They are the hardest workers who reap the least rewards. Why can they never win? What do they do wrong?

The Trouble Maker employee is the most well known of all employees. Everyone seems to be aware of this special employee, who can bring the entire company to its knees on a whim. All operations stop to heed the attention of the trouble maker. It seems that this employee is always on top of things. This special employee is both a hero and a curse. The hero aspect is in the ability to create discontent for the management. The curse aspect is in the ability to create discontent for the employees. Every company has at least one and every company gives him/her all the attention that he/she needs to survive.

The Tattle Tail employee is dreaded by all. Why can't they just see themselves as others see them? They feel compelled to share every mistake made, as if it were their God given purpose. No stone is left unturned by the notorious tattle tail. Supervisors love getting the dirt on everyone, but find the method of transmission to be unnerving and painful to hear. The tattle tail does not play favorites, as their innate talent for spreading the news is without bounds. Beware of this most informative sort.

The Unscathed (Teflon®) employee is the one who can never lose. Regardless of how little effort is applied nor how little knowledge is had, this employee always floats to the top. Kenned to the butt kisser, this one knows how to keep the good attention pointed his/her way and the bad attention pointed elsewhere. Talk about amazing skill, this one is considered untouchable, as he/she can do no wrong. Don't bother trying to get ahead of this one – it seems as if the Gods are always in tow.

The Happy employee is the rarest of creatures and the least understood. Oh sure, everyone wants to be happy, but it seems impossible. The happy employee must not really know what is going on or must not be working hard enough, or else he/she would not be so happy.

The Loyal employee works diligently to serve the company, even at the cost of a personal life. There is nothing he/she won't give to the company, and no amount of hours not worth spending at work. This is a tireless sort who doesn't require much in return for giving so much.

The Not To Be Trusted employee is lurking around every corner. Sure, they smile in your face and rip your guts out behind your back. You imagine getting the upper hand by befriending this employee, but your friendship is soon met with a good dose of reality, when they turn on you also.

There are so many different employee characteristics and the characteristics change situationally. You can't type cast an employee, as the clever creatures are forever morphing. Just when you think you have them figured out – boom, they change again. One day you think you can trust someone, and the next day you find out that they are out to get you.

This is an amusing exercise which demonstrates our propensity to type cast and see an employee as only one aspect of his/her behavior. It is obvious that we judge employees by their behaviors. It is also obvious that, by judging people based on behaviors, we do the employees and ourselves an injustice. We would be better served to find ways of working with all types of people and behaviors. Employees deserve an honest shot at doing their jobs, without your needless judgment.

What's an employee to do? Keep all of the bad news to themselves and not share ideas? No, this is never the solution and employees may need a nudge in the right direction. A little one-on-one with the person may yield positive results, and may help the person realize that the approach and not the information, are what caused the undesired response. It is obvious that most employees care deeply about their company and their employment. But, the manner of transmission, often causes their information to fall on deaf ears. Constructive criticism can be vital if properly delivered, but is not appreciated by everyone. In the long run, a wise employee takes your advice to heart and works to make the changes necessary for the betterment of the overall operation.

Regardless of the method of transmission, you would be wise to heed the advice of the offensive purveyor. If the doomsayer is in charge of the bottom line, then perhaps the message should be taken in and carefully considered. If the idea man has had some good ideas in the past, you might save yourself some time and money by giving some thought to the ideas. You may offer both of them a gentler means of transmission. Perhaps a memo would be welcome from either, and you let them know that every memo is responded to promptly.

If you say it, mean it. Don't promise a response and then provide nothing. There is nothing more disheartening to an employee than a broken promise. If you don't give the employees their due, soon you won't have any idea what is going on with the bottom line, and there will be no ideas flowing. This is the worst case scenario in the long run. The temporary relief might just hit the spot, but the long run consequences of not having the information may hurt more than you know.

It is wise to listen to every employee in one way or another. Of course, time dictates all and you have to work in the best solution for all parties. You may have to make appointments at odd hours or solicit new ideas for making the time available. It is invaluable to both employee and employer that the employee be heard. Listening is your greatest use of time, if you think about it. When you cut your time down to what should be done by you, as opposed to what you are actually doing, you may find that you do have the time and you must use the time wisely. We tend to believe that listening to an employee is a waste of our time, but the opposite is true. Spend more time listening to employees, and you'll find that you have more time available than you thought. A satisfied and appreciated employee will work to lessen your load without even realizing it.

The indispensable employee does not exist. If you think that you are indispensable, you have other issues which should be addressed, so see your therapist at once!

Yeah, I once was an indispensable employee just like you. I was once wearing rose colored glasses and thought that I was an integral part of the organization and the organization was nothing without me. I gave it my all until suddenly either the organization was gone or I was gone. I have learned that I am not indispensable, nor is the organization. I have worked for places that no longer exist and I have worked for places that are running just fine without me. How can this be? I was so important while I was there, and I did so much to keep the boat floating. How can it possibly be that I am not what I thought that I was? How can it be that my contributions are not as important as I thought them to be? In the final analysis, is there anything that depends on me or my contributions? Actually no, and the sooner I realize this fact, the sooner I can get on with living my life.

It is difficult for us to imagine that life goes on without us and that no one is indispensable. No, not even the grand CEO is indispensable. Why then, do we put so much into things that really don't need us? Why do we lay awake at night plotting improvement strategies, that in the long run make no difference at all? It is part of our journey that we must put ourselves fully into, making our lives the best that we can. We contemplate how an employee can just float through employment and not really care one way or the other about the job or her performance. We give it our all, and just can't understand those who don't. How can this be? Where's the justice in the system? Why do some succeed while others fail? What's the real purpose for our existence? Should we simply not care about the outcome and simply live for the pleasure of the day?

Perhaps we would be wise to care less about the outcome and more about the process. This is not to say that we should not give our best to whatever we choose to do. This is to say that by focusing on the unrealizable, we lose focus on the now and the impact that we can have. If we discount our coworkers today, the outcome will be assured and it will not necessarily be the one that we wanted. If we behave as if we are only working for the organization and that employees don't matter, then rest assured that you will see an outcome that will reflect your input. If we focus more on the here and now, treating everyone with respect, the outcome will reflect our intentions, whether we see the outcome or not. Perhaps, the outcome of our efforts may be to make Justin feel better about himself. By helping Justin feel better today, he may make a monumental contribution tomorrow. One must realize the effect that he/she has on others. Without realizing your impact, you may make someone's life better or worse. A careless remark can haunt a person for the rest of his life while a kind remark can change the person's outlook entirely.

If we realize that what we do today is our best contribution, we will be more impactful than ever. We will not worry about the organization or the outcome; we will focus on our every interaction with every person we come into contact with. If we focus on our interactions as our primary focus, then our contribution will be felt in ways beyond our imaginings. By listening to one person, we can contribute much to the organization. If I meet every deadline, but fail to impact the people of the organization positively, then I have failed the organization and have affected the outcome. I may not be indispensable, but I do affect the organization. If I walk in and open fire with a machine gun, then I have dramatically affected the organization. This is not a positive impact, but an impact nonetheless. If you need to feel that you make a difference, there are certainly less dramatic ways of feeling your impact. Again, never underestimate the impact of bringing candy to work.

Seeing yourself in the proper perspective and relating your life to your work in a healthful way, can make your life and the lives of those around you much better. If you go to work and see that your every move is life or death, then you will bring such undue stress to the situation that everyone will feel your impact negatively. If you go to work and believe that you make a positive difference every minute that you are there, then you will probably have a positive influence on everyone. Realize that if you believe that by firing all those losers is the best way to contribute to the organization, then perhaps you may need to reassess your means of impact. Feeling that someone is a loser may just make you the most dreaded person in the place. One of the worst bosses that I have ever had did make a very wise insight once. He said that those who did not choose to buy in should seek opportunities elsewhere. This was very politely put and easy to understand, without directly telling people to get lost. Of course, other opportunities were sought for him, but he was courteous in his efforts to get people to leave.

It is not necessary to be nasty or hateful to get the job done. We often feel that we must make firing someone a terrible experience and seem to overlook the person. Realizing that you can be fired just as easily as the one you are firing, will help you to be more compassionate in your labor relations. It can work the opposite and cause you to be more bitter. But, as with all of life, we must learn to deal with people as we want to be dealt with. Yes, you can either choose to be compassionate or hateful – you have free will. Why on earth would you choose to be hateful, when it is generally more beneficial to all to be compassionate? Why would you treat someone worse than you would want to be treated? Oh, I forgot, you are indispensable and you could never be fired. There are those who have been fired just for being compassionate. There are those who have been fired for being hateful. There are those who have lost jobs for no other reason than someone just didn't like them.

Putting all of your eggs in one basket isn't really smart and will often leave you with an empty basket. Put your eggs in several baskets, so that you will have another to fall back on. If you give all of yourself to your work and suddenly your work is gone, then you won't have a support system to fall back on for support. When the job is gone, where will you turn? When the family is gone, where will you turn? When you have lost yourself, where will you turn? These things happen everyday and until they happen, we just seem to pretend that they never will. If your personal life is in order, there is nothing that can happen that will shake your foundation. If you are at peace with yourself, then being fired will have little or no affect on your life. If you are at peace with yourself, then nothing can really affect you. When you separate yourself from what you do, then you begin to live your life, in its proper perspective with appropriate priorities.

When you realize that your life is not what you have or what you do, you become more important. The job did not make you what you are, and your employer did not give you the work ethic that you have. The company did not make the person, so don't give too much credit to the company. Realize that the person is what is most important, and that you are no more important than any other person. If you give equally to yourself and to others, then you will live a balanced life which will be more satisfying.

Chapter 9- Buying In

How would you get God to go along with the crowd? How would you get Him to get on board and row along with everyone else? God is not one to paddle out of sync with others – He wants to do what is best for the business. Getting Him to buy in to a good plan isn't that hard. He has the wisdom to know that a good plan is worthless without those who bring it to fruition. God is a team player and works for the good of all. Buy in is easy when you have a good plan which holds much promise for the success of the business and its employees.

What if God were a hard sell? What if He were the skeptical sort who was always suspicious of new things? How would you convince Him that His part is vital to the success of all? If He couldn't be convinced, what would you do then? Would you show Him the door and wish Him a happy life? Getting employees to buy in can be either easy or hard. If the employees feel that they have been duped before, they will be more skeptical. If they can see the promise of the plan for their betterment, then usually getting them to buy in is rather easy. Trying to get them to buy in to something that is obviously not in their best interest will be much more difficult.

All of the great strategies known to business are worthless without employee buy in. But who needs buy in when rules must be followed, right? You pass down the law and it must be followed. Don't be silly – those days are gone. You can no more force an employee to do anything, than you can force your children to behave according to your wishes. Putting an employee in "time out" doesn't work either. So, what's the answer? Let's imagine that you know that the company is about to put in place a policy which will not amuse employees. How can this be best handled? You can wait for the policy to come down from the top and hide in your office, or you can let your employees know in advance, listen to the gripes, and then help everyone settle in to the new policy slowly.

It is common practice to slap the policy on them and leave them feeling powerless and unappreciated. Just as I have learned, letting employees know in advance and listening does help soften the blow. Better than all of this, is getting employee input before the policy is developed. I find that many employees have great ideas and can often bring better solutions than management. With employee approval, the policy will serve the company overall and not be a source of discontent. I know that I appreciate the opportunity to provide input, and I know that the person who is affected can have the greatest insight into the problem being resolved. Employee input is invaluable, and it is better to lay your cards on the table in advance, rather than face the wrath after the fact. Those who sit in upper management generally don't know the full impact of their policies. Let's say that the CEO feels that employee theft is a problem, and he decides that there will no longer be petty cash funds in the field. The CEO may not realize the effect of this action on the daily operations in the field. One would assume that petty cash really doesn't affect the business. But, if the customer doesn't have toilet paper in the restroom because the toilet paper order didn't arrive and there was no petty cash to buy any, then what impression does this give to the customer? Never assume that petty really is petty in the grand scheme of things.

The field employees will let you know why the petty cash is so important to good customer service. You will be amazed at what they know that you were completely unaware of. It is best for everyone to listen to employees, for they really do know what is best in the grand scheme of things. This is one of the downsides to company mergers, where the service is lost in seemingly insignificant detail. Remember the bank takeovers at my local bank and how my service was affected much to my lack of amusement? Think of how a huge company can truly give quality customer service, when they are so far removed from the customer. In reality, who gives the actual customer service? Is it the CEO or the bank teller? If the teller just got the policy that takes away several leave days, because the company is trying to save money, then the teller's attitude will be reflected right on to the customer. Never underestimate the one as a reflection of the whole.

If the teller had agreed to the new policy change in advance as she saw the benefit of the cost savings to her retirement plan, then perhaps she wouldn't take out her frustration on the customer. Assume that the customer has a large multi-million dollar account and the teller's attitude just cost you that account. Further assume that the lost customer takes all of his friends with him, because they don't feel appreciated either. The costs start to escalate to the point where the policy has actually cost money instead of saved money. Shortsightedness costs you in the long run. This is the nature of business, and I assure that locally owned banks are sprouting up everywhere due to the need created by the impersonal service given by the big banks. Currently, there are more locally owned banks now than there are large banks. Does the trend paint a picture?

Impersonal service does not reflect employee buy in, and in the long run is very costly to the organization. Many places talk about customer service, but generally it is just talk. The larger an organization grows, the more difficult it becomes to get good quality customer service. Remember, customers vote with their feet. It only takes one action to set off an avalanche of reactions.

I think that Wal-Mart is a great company, but find its customer service slipping. When I stood and watched an employee carry on a casual conversation for more than twenty minutes, while I waited for service, I was not amused. Imagine how Sam would have reacted. This common lack of concern for customer service is prevalent in big business today. Don't worry about the one, when there are many. We tend to overlook the one in all aspects of life, even in our personal relationships. We have become more concerned about what we have, than how we live. I'm thinking your spouse might appreciate just a little of the attention that you so lavishly afford your social group. If you took the time to think of your spouse as the most important person in your life, then perhaps you might not be going through marriages faster than you trade cars.

Our impersonal nature is reflected time and again, day after day. We don't stop to think of the importance of the one. We don't stop to think of the one spouse, one employee, one friend, one customer, one vendor, etc. We have lost sight of that which is truly most important. We have taken mass production to the opposite extreme and have begun treating everything in our lives, as if they were products on a line. Why do marriages and businesses fail with amazing speed? If you get out of something what you put into it, then you will realize that working harder doesn't necessarily mean working smarter. You can work you fingers to the bone, and still wind up with bankruptcy and divorce. It's not the amount of effort, but the amount of human compassion in the effort that makes all the difference. You must treat each person with respect.

I have known customers who drive 100 miles to go to a store with exactly the same merchandise, but which has excellent customer service, just to feel appreciated. You laugh – you'd never do such a thing. If you were a customer who needed good quality service in order to service your customers well, then maybe you would. Why choose one store over another, if all have the same merchandise? Good customer service is vital and it is so obvious that we overlook it all the time. This grocery store has basically the same thing as the other grocery store, but we choose the one that makes us feel good. I even shop where I feel good with less hassle, even if I have to pay a little more. We want the teller to remember our names and our grocer to know that we always like fresh produce. Why can't we get it through our thick skulls, it is not the place but the people who make the difference?

As the grocery store manager can't serve every customer personally, she must depend on her employees to serve them well. If she has a store full of angry employees, it won't be long before she has an empty store and she is looking for another job. What's the magic that so eludes us, that we spend more time thinking about customer service than actually providing it? We sit in meeting after meeting brain storming service solutions, when our time would have been better spent actually providing service. Duhhhh!!! Meetings don't provide good service, employees do. Happy employees = happy customers.

When I think of the hours I have spent in meetings listening to endless strings of pompous babble, I could just scream. Sure, we think that we are doing some big business, but all we are really doing is wasting time, which is easily justified by those great meeting minutes. But, did you bother to actually talk to an employee, a customer, a student, etc? Meeting minutes are nice, but not what a customer wants. When we let management run the business, we lose sight of the actual business. Believe it or not, even the Harvard Business School can't make a happy employee or a satisfied customer. We tend to think that education is the greatest thing ever, when if you stop and think of Colonel Sanders, Sam Walton and others who built empires just from good customer service, you start to get the picture that education isn't everything. We promote the most educated Johnny come lately into positions which are far above his level of customer appreciation. We think that by virtue of his education, he has some sort of customer service magic wisdom. An MBA doesn't make for a satisfied customer.

Sure, every employee has his place, but when we worship the management and not the employee, we will not be worshipping for very long. Our misguided appreciation for education will not help us, when the store is empty and the check book is in the red. Sure, education will teach you great principles, but may not cause you to realize the importance of being kind to Robert and thanking him for stopping by. We assume that intelligence is the magic remedy of all, when simple kindness goes much further. We get lost in the maze of business strategy and lose sight of the bank teller or the cashier who actually represents the company. Think about it and draw your own conclusions.

If your employees don't buy in to the appreciation for the customer, then your customers will suffer. If you haven't actually spoken to a customer in quite some time, you might do well to take the time to do so. Take the time to pull up a chair and work with the bank teller. Show them that you really care about them and are interested in what they do and how they are treated. You have no idea what effect this will have, but I assure you that it will do wonders for morale. Seeing the boss working in the cafeteria goes a long way in the eyes of employees and customers. I used to love to work in the various departments. It gave me an opportunity to learn what I didn't know and gave me a great appreciation for the employees. Taking yourself out of your comfort zone is a real eye-opener. Try leaving your office and working with the custodian. You'll never see that person the same again.

On the other hand, let one of your employees shadow you for a day or a week. Never has there been a greater education for one of my students, than to let him work with me for just a day. He was amazed and impressed, and said that he had no idea what staff actually did. He was forever changed by the experience. As the Indians say, "Walk a mile in the other man's moccasins," and you will be forever more appreciative of the other person. If you have never been a bank teller, how can you possibly appreciate the experience? If you have never been a manager, how can you understand how being caught in the middle is really not as much fun as you thought?

Employees are not enemies, out to get us at every turn. Employees are not blood suckers who simply are there for the free ride. Once you see employees for the innate good that they bring to the organization, you will begin to appreciate them and learn to effectively utilize their talents for the contributions that they offer. There are certainly those who seek to take advantage, but they are the few and not the majority. Shift your focus and treat everyone with respect, especially those who deserve it the least. This will demonstrate the genuine good character that you have, and the fairness that brings great respect. If you are only nice to those you like, then you will not be very well liked. If you treat everyone equally, then you will be seen in a positive light by all.

Chapter 10 - A Little Fun Never Hurt Anyone

I don't think that I've ever actually thought of God having fun. Have you? God may be more open to having fun than we think, after all, we enjoy it so much that He may like it too. There is rarely a time when fun cannot be had. Of course, all things are relative. Having fun at a funeral, if you are the only one having fun, may be inappropriate. But, as a general rule, we should have fun and enjoy life to the fullest. God would be the most fun at the party. He knows how to laugh in more ways than we could imagine. He invented fun and delights in our having it.

God wouldn't be the stick in the mud. He would be at the forefront of the festivities. He knows that a happy employee is the best possible kind to have. God loves to have fun and would find ways to bring the fun to others.

Certainly, God would not participate in inappropriate humor. God wouldn't crack jokes at the expense of others. He knows that, if properly used, fun can make a world of difference. He knows that employees suffer enough stress already and benefit from fun activities.

Once upon a time, a new contractor came in and the new director introduced himself. He was an elderly gentleman who appeared to have a scowl on his face and seemed to have lived a hard life. The only words I remember him saying were that we were going to have fun. As I rolled my eyes in disbelief, I thought about how much fun we were going to have with this guy. I laughed and went along with the group. In no time, we were having a blast and everyone was smiling and laughing. Gosh, he was right. He was tons of fun and the entire mood changed dramatically. He said some of the funniest things that I had ever heard. I just loved working for him and will always remember the experience. People were drawn to him like bees to honey. He was a simple person who never seemed to get rattled or upset. He had seen so much in his life having been in the Army, that he realized the importance of having some fun.

We get so self important and often fail to stop and smell the roses. We think that by being serious, we accomplish more than by having fun. If you don't enjoy your job, your entire life will be miserable. I have learned this lesson the hard way and hope that my future endeavors will be filled with fun. We let our jobs take over our lives and are completely swallowed up by them. We take our anxiety home each night, and share the anxiety with those who dread hearing our car pull up outside. We don't do it with malicious intent, but we do it none the less. Who gets your anger at the boss when you get home? Who worries when you do? Who suffers the most? Sure, it's your spouse's responsibility to share your concerns, and you don't give a second thought to blasting her when you get home.

Are we having fun yet? If you are not having fun, then you are in the wrong place or at least have the wrong attitude. If you go to work with the attitude that it will be fun, you can greatly affect the entire day. If you go to work with a black cloud over your head, then surely you are in for some rain. Attitude is everything in the final analysis. Would you rather work for someone who wants to have fun or someone who wants to be miserable? The answer is simple – anyone would choose to have fun. I don't think I know a person who is so thrilled with misery that they would knowingly choose the misery approach. When I think of the wasted years living in work place misery, I could just kick myself for my own stupidity.

If you have a meeting, why shouldn't it be fun? Is a serious meeting more meaningful? Is a serious employee interaction more inspirational? When you talk to your kids, do they enjoy it or do they dread it? Does your spouse tune you out? Maybe putting a little fun into life will draw some bees to you. I really don't know how to state it any more simply – have fun in all that you do.

If you are speaking to a crowd, is it not more inviting to be funny? Why do most speeches begin with a joke? People are drawn to humor. Most people list a good sense of humor as one of the most desired characteristics of a spouse. Why is humor so important? No body likes a sour puss and no one enjoys being miserable. Laughter is the best medicine and does make the day pass in a much better fashion.

I have a picture at home that says, "A person who can laugh at themselves will never cease to be amused." Laugh at yourself – people just love it. Don't focus your laughter at the actions of others, because they may not find it so funny. But, laughing at yourself will bring down the house. If you imagine yourself so important that you are not worthy of a good laugh, then you are living in a cloud of your own delusions. Everyone needs to have fun, and letting your employees know that you are only human is one of quickest ways to draw them to you. No one is perfect – no, not even you! Realize this and you will go far by being human and admitting your mistakes. Giving someone a laugh at your expense is priceless. You know that you enjoy a good laugh on someone else, so give your employees a laugh on you.

No one really likes a buffoon, but everyone needs a good laugh. Knowing when a good laugh is appropriate is wise. Making fun of the boss or an employee may not be in your best interest. Timing is everything, as any comedian will tell you. Induce some humor into your life and you will find that the laughter is contagious. NEVER tell an off-color joke and never make fun of someone else. These days of keeping lawyers in nice suits makes this practice ill-advised. It's hard to offend someone by laughing at yourself. It can be done, so use good judgment. Think before you speak, as is always the case.

How can you have fun at work, you ask? Think of the things that you would enjoy and ask your employees. If having a meeting outside sparks your interest, then ask if the employees would like to have the meeting outside. If taking everyone to lunch on you is what would make them feel good, then by all means ask. If bringing in breakfast peaks their interest, bring it on. Ask for suggestions if you fail to be able to come up with anything on your own. Employees have wonderful ideas and nothing brings people together quite like food. It even brings people from other departments. Wanda may make the best chili in the world and would bring some one day if you asked. Wow, that's great and everyone gathers around the pot of chili. Trust me when I say, a full employee works better than a starving employee. A happy employee is a good employee. Food brings happiness and gives a sense of family, gathering around the table.

Let your employee's talents be showcased. David may be the greatest singer and would love to share his talents. Jenny may write great poetry and would love to be heard and appreciated. Take the time to know your employees, and you may be surprised to find that you have some very talented staff. Allowing your employees to give something special to the group may bring the group together. It is not enough to simply have one gathering per year sponsored by the company. People need to be appreciated more often. Take the time to let them give more of themselves than is simply required by their jobs. People are not jobs or machines. Let people be people and let them have fun. Attendance improves dramatically when employees enjoy their jobs. This is but one side benefit of having fun.

Sure, you are sitting alone in your office smiling. Why? You just had a thought that brought a smile to your face. You realized that you can enjoy whatever you do, even if there is no one around. Does fun only happen with others? Do only others have fun? Why can't you laugh with yourself? If you think about it, you can have fun by yourself. You can scheme up fun things to do without any help from anyone else. Spending time alone is generally the best time to have fun. You sit at your desk and start to think about how to bring fun to others. You know that the job is dull and the schedules are energy killers.

You imagine yourself calling everyone together for a gripe-fest! Yeah, that'll be fun and will be enjoyed by all. Oh, but it will take time and everyone will gripe about having to take the time to come to the gripe-fest. It will be worth it and will make the time after more productive. Just as you are sitting there needing some fun, so are your employees. They would never just come to your office and have their own gripe-fest. That is what parking lot meetings are for. So, why not take the gripe-fest out of the parking lot and bring it to your office where you can be a part of the fun.

Doesn't sound like fun to you? It will once you start hearing all that you didn't know. Before you know it, you'll be griping with the rest and you'll all be one big happy (unhappy) family. After the griping starts to get monotonous, laughter will ensue. A bucket full of griping always gives way to a tub full of laughter. Once you have the laughter, then you have the fun that you desired, and you were able to share the fun with everyone. Nothing seems to bring people together like a good old fashioned gripe-fest. Try it, you'll like it. If you really want to let go and have a blast, start the gripe-fest off with a good dose of self-degradation. Announce to your staff that you just don't know how they can work for someone like you. After the shock wears off, you'll find that they will generally seek to tell you that you aren't that bad, but you do have some ways that cause some grief. They will laugh at themselves far more than they will laugh at you. Everyone knows their own weaknesses, and we all have weaknesses.

Allowing yourself to be fun and to have fun is one of the greatest things that you can give to yourself and to others. Work doesn't necessarily have to be devoid of fun, and fun makes the day pass more quickly. Employees can laugh and work at the same time. Imagine that. Just like you, employees need to enjoy their work. They sit at their desks and daydream about fun also. Ooooh, they aren't supposed to do that. Their productivity will suffer and the work won't get done. You better sneak around and make sure that no one is having fun on your time. Believe it or not, there are supervisors who think that work cannot be fun, and fun has no place in the work place. Work must be taken seriously or it won't get done. Hmmm, you better get serious yourself, and stop daydreaming about fun, before the boss catches you.

Sound ridiculous? Yes, but we have been taught that fun and work don't mix. Why? We associate fun with play and not with work. We never realize that the fun things that we do really involve a lot of work. Playing golf or tennis is hard work. Think about it. If golf and tennis were called work, then we wouldn't enjoy them. In fact, we would hate them just like work. We so look forward to getting outside and playing sports, without ever realizing the work involved. Just dragging around the equipment is work. If your boss told you that you had to drag a golf bag around all day, you would complain to the heavens. Who does he think he is, putting all that extra work on you? It's not fair, having to drag around this heavy cumbersome golf bag. Boo, hoo, hoo.

Now, that puts the shoe on the other foot. If we similarly saw work as fun, then maybe we would have a better time at work. If we saw golf as work and work as golf, then things could be very different. I guess Tiger Woods could relate. His work is golf, but he really seems to enjoy it and works very hard at it. If we put the same amount of effort into our work as Tiger puts into his, wouldn't we accomplish much more than we currently do? The shift in perception can change bad to good and good to great. If your job is grossly repetitive but you see it as fun, then you will have a much different experience than the one who sees it as repetitive boredom. Imagine that you are on the assembly line, a quality inspector of candy, and you are daydreaming of that trip to Mexico with your sweetheart. Will you be more or less willing to check the candies as they pass? If you stare at the candies and hate each and every one personally, then you will not really care if a bad one gets past or not.

How do we use our creativity to make more fun? We have to put some imagination into the mix and stir up some fun. One simple question can give hours of fun. Ask someone what they think of your idea for going to Mexico. Before you know it, everyone will have an opinion and will probably have talked you into going to Las Vegas instead. When you realize that a human being is capable of doing more than one thing at a time, you realize that if you don't fill the emptiness with fun, it will be filled with something besides fun, and the alternative could be worse. There are jobs that require total concentration, but most jobs do not.

We like to think that for eight hours a day, our employees are totally focused on nothing but the business at hand. Get real folks. It ain't happening. Even if someone types on a computer for eight hours a day, there is much dead mental time that is wasted. Someone who types for a living can still have fun. Listening to music can fill the void that is otherwise filled with misery. The person typing non-stop will be thinking of what they could be doing, if they didn't have this really boring job.

Just as you, and be honest with yourself, spend much time during a day thinking about the fun you could be having, so do your employees. How do you turn empty misery into a fun filled experience shared by all? You invoke a little creativity into the process and put smiles on faces. We tend to think of every thirty minutes in a day as extremely valuable. If we look at the reality, thirty minutes spent creatively can bring more than the idleness of a wasted thirty minutes. If you realize that there is much wasted time in a day, just by people who choose to take the long way over to the other office or simply chat more than is required to catch up on the gossip, you know that taking thirty minutes to bring the troops together is beneficial and serves more than those idle times that just slip away in the day.

Megan takes thirty minutes just to surf the web, while she really doesn't have anything pressing to do. Why not let Megan better utilize her thirty minutes, to plan a fun activity for the whole group? Why not call everyone in to have a wasted thirty minute gripe-fest? Why not call everyone in to simply practice stress relief? Why not gather everyone around the table to toss around ideas for making work better? These activities turn otherwise wasted time into productive time, and serve as great team building activities. We never would guess that our boss would call us in and close the door, to just relax and enjoy some good interactive time. It is a blast and you should try it. Call in someone and simply ask how they are doing? It's scary at first, but it makes you seem a little more human in the long run. But, don't turn the tables and tell the employee your life's story, as it will appear that you are just using them as your therapist and really don't care about them.

Fun can come in the most unexpected ways. Always bring food for a sure-fire mood enhancer. I find it so amusing when outsiders tell insiders that they need to hold team building activities. Why is the obvious so hard to see? Why don't we take the initiative and learn to build from within? I once had to attend a time management class for senior management staff. One of the best suggestions given was that the weekly meetings be held standing up. The weekly blabber mouth will cut down the commentary when his feet are killing him. Something so simple can make short work of the usual long boring meetings. When you realize that time is wasted by those who just talk to hear themselves, you can start to improve operations by cutting out the unbeneficial waste, disguised as important stuff.

Why do we seem to enjoy making work hard? If it isn't hard, then it can't be work. No pain, no gain. Even simple tasks are complicated to the extreme. We even hire experts to tell us how to save time. Before you know it, you are doing twice the work and producing half as much. Remember when computers were going to eliminate the need for paper? I don't know about your workplace, but computers seem to increase the need to produce paper, if for no other reason than to back up computer work, because sometimes computers just go blank. We never realized that computers could fail more easily than we could misplace a piece of paper. That was a hard lesson to learn. But, now that we have computers everywhere, we still produce paperwork just as we did, but in a more efficient way, right? For me, I produce more paper and more work. The more you can produce, the more you have to produce. In the old days before PCs, one spreadsheet was enough. Now we have to produce a myriad of spreadsheets to justify the one spreadsheet. The cycle just gets more complicated.

If you realize that the entire volume of work essentially stays the same given the number of people doing the work, then you realize that by not adding personnel you don't really accomplish more work. You may create more work for the same people, but you have not reduced your number of personnel, so where is the improvement? The fancy new software package, which was going to revolutionize the workplace, actually made simple accounting transactions so complicated that additional personnel was needed to make it work. The input requirements for some software are so complicated, that you actually have to work much harder to utilize it and don't really get much benefit from it. Sure, it is capable of doing some really cool reports, but if no one knows how to do the cool reports, you have wasted much input and received no return on the investment.

If you love complicating things needlessly, hire a consultant. You just thought you knew what you were doing before. Now you realize that you do everything wrong and with enough time and money, all of your problems can be fixed. You didn't realize that you had so many problems, until the consultant came on board. You are amazed that you actually stayed in business until the savior arrived with all the answers. I just giggle when I think of the money wasted on consultants. There is nothing quite as irritating as a know-it-all outsider, who magically sees how everything can be magically fixed with his wizardry. You laugh and laugh as you watch the money funnel down the consultant's toilet, and you realize that you are working twice as hard and haven't really accomplished anything. One of your most senior employees walks by and points out that he had given you a much better suggestion years ago, but you didn't listen. There's your slap without a hand, as you realize that he is absolutely correct.

Consultants have their place, but don't rush out and assume that they will save the world. Utilize internal resources first. You must be fully prepared to deal with the input of consultants if you choose to use them. Don't pay a consultant to ask questions which should have already been asked. Don't blindly take the suggestions of consultants either. Remember, you hire the consultant and he is there to advise you, not run your business for you. Consultants provide suggestions. You take the suggestions and use them as you see best.

Another resource which is often neglected, is advice from other businesses. Online research can often yield a wealth of information about similar problems and solutions. But, as with consultants, don't blindly utilize input from outside sources. Do your homework, or atleast have one of your employees do it for you. I'm sure they need the extra work.

Chapter 11 - Never Forget From Whence You Came

We wouldn't dare think of God as the type to step on someone's back to get ahead. He wouldn't knowingly harm another in His relentless pursuit of achievement at all costs. God would not be an employee to be feared. God would be an employee, forever grateful for the help and love of those who brought Him to where He now is.

God knows that an attitude of gratitude is the best and only way to properly demonstrate appreciation and recognition for the efforts of others. He never forgets to say thanks to others and always seeks to work in such a manner as is befitting a grateful employee. God doesn't work for the constant accolades of His employer, even though He does enjoy hearing praise. He is not above the rest and gives better than He gets. He is ever mindful of how He got where He is and remembers always the contributions of those who selflessly helped Him.

Now that you have obtained the position that is worthy of your presence, you may have a tendency to forget where you came from and how you started out in the business world. You are especially inclined to forget all of those you met or passed along the way up the corporate ladder. They are nothing to you now and will never again be worthy of passing through your thoughts. Hmmm, you really are full of yourself and do have delusions of grandeur. You would be well advised to reflect each day on where you started and on those who made you what you are. You are and never were an island. Your success is the culmination of the efforts of many, regardless of whether you give them credit or not.

Let's take some time to review those who made you what you are, lest you forget. Your parents, teachers, co-workers, mentors, friends, loved ones, family, supervisors, employers, etc., to name but a few. Wow, there are so many who have contributed to the you that you are now. You did not magically ascend to your present position and your hard work alone did not give you what you have. Think of the great and small contributions which comprise the entire package of you. Think of the teacher that told you that you could be anything you imagined. Think of the friend who supported you when you needed it most. Think of the co-worker who stayed late with you working on your special project. Think of the wise elderly person who gave you a wealth of advice. Think of the parents who raised you to have a good work ethic. Think of the supervisors who shared their wisdom with you. Think of those who appreciated you and helped you along the path that has brought you to this point.

If even one of those people had not impacted your life, you would not be where you are. We don't like to give credit to those we don't like or those who threw stumbling blocks in our way, but if you think about it, they have also contributed much. If there were no hurdles in your life, you would not be the person that you are. Never underestimate a person's contributions, whether perceived good or bad. Tenacity is developed from the struggle, not from taking the easy way out. Perseverance is built within the person who faces difficulties, and chooses to stay in the race. An easy life is not one that brings great rewards. A person who inherits millions is generally not the best one to run a business.

The one who starts at the bottom and works his way up is the one who appreciates the business from the ground up. The one who worked in the mail room and moved up the ladder, is the one who really knows what's going on inside the company. The cooperation of other employees is what causes you to move up. If you were not appreciated, then you wouldn't be where you are. You did not suddenly advance to where you are. Think about what it took to get to where you are. If you think that you are somehow smarter than all of those whom you passed on the way up, you are only kidding yourself. There is nothing that you have done, that is not possible for others. Perhaps, not everyone wants the same things you want, and are not willing to make the sacrifices that you have to get what you have. Not everyone wants to go to college. Not everyone wants to be in charge. Not everyone wants to be a millionaire. Not everyone is so wrapped up in material things.

Don't underestimate those who are not as you are. Appreciate those who didn't fight you along the way. Appreciate those who have appreciated you. You don't give a second thought to appreciating the new boss, but you don't even reflect on those who lifted you up along the way. Our illusions of our own greatness cause us to miss out on valuable opportunities to appreciate those who have appreciated us. Have you ever picked up the phone and thanked someone who you used to work with for all of their help? You are too busy kissing the behinds of the new bosses to bother with those who truly helped you. You don't have time to look back – you are a mover and a shaker, and have to focus on the future. I'm not suggesting that you live in the past, but simply take the time to appreciate those who helped you up.

I had a friend once tell me that if I had not taken the time to listen to her sob story about school and not offered her encouragement to continue, she would have dropped out of medical school. One simple kindness for a friend, that I really didn't see as any different from any other conversation, changed a person's life direction. Wow, that felt good. And if I think of all the people helped by that one person, I really do feel good. A simple kindness helped many. I reflect on all of the those who made me what I am, and this is not to say that I am great or even good, but I have appreciated those who made me what I am. I remember often the advice of a man on my very first job. I remember the employees who helped me when I needed it. I remember those supervisors who taught me how to supervise, both good and bad. I remember those who thanked me for my help as well. Conversely, I remember also the really tough lessons and do appreciate the efforts of others.

If I stop and think about it, I am more of the teachings of others, than I had ever imagined. We have a tendency to listen and draw our own conclusions. We often forget that many times, our conclusions are exactly the same ones that were told to us by someone else. Textbooks aren't written by machines; they are written by people who have gained experience and have taken the time to put their experience into books. Think of all of the books that you have ever seen. How many people are behind those books? You don't give much credit to the name on a book, but you tend to believe in the words inside. Have you ever thanked an author? Have you ever called up a publishing house to thank them for publishing the book that you enjoyed? Do you even know that a publisher is behind the book?

We go to the doctor for all of his expertise, but do we realize without the lab tech that his wisdom isn't enough? Do we thank the nurse for contributing to our well being? Do we thank the receptionist, without whom our insurance would not have been filed? No, we go to see the doctor and he is the object of our appreciation and our money. Why are we so appreciative of some, and not of others? Do we give the same credit to the secretary as we do the boss? Never, because the secretary is not seen as important. The secretary only provides support to the ever so important boss. Hmmm, does the boss type the work and file the documents and retrieve the documents when they are needed, so you have a copy of what you requested? No. Does the boss make sure that the operation is flowing smoothly by handling all the calls and foot traffic? No. If the boss didn't have the secretary, then things might not be so good for the boss. But, it is our nature to overlook the one, for the one who hired them.

Ask any boss who runs the office and they will often tell you the secretary (certainly, if the boss is really wise.) A boss knows the importance of the secretary, but does she take the time to let the secretary know? All of the good intentions in the world will not make a person happy. One compliment will make the world a happier place. Think about how good you feel when you get a compliment. Why are you the only one who needs a compliment? I guess you are so important that you are the only one who counts. If this is so, compliment yourself often, as you are quite the one. I do understand that we can't stand around all day passing out compliments and can't hang around the crock pot sampling the wonders of someone's cooking. We have to be more cognizant of our actions and take the time when we can. Often, there is more time available for compliments, when we take the time to be complimentary.

Every action creates a reaction. Every compliment causes a warm feeling which can change the outlook entirely. Compliments generally don't cost you anything, but a few words can be passed out while doing something else. While hunting a file, you may blurt out that the filing system of Betty is great. Betty will not miss your words and may even offer additional assistance. Betty won't be able to wait till lunch, when she can let everyone know about her great filing system. Others may even want to know Betty's secret system, so that they can be more efficient. Everyone likes to know what works, so everyone will just have to try Betty's filing system.

I used to do something to improve morale that I absolutely hated. If the office filing got behind, I required everyone to pitch in and get it done – and yes, I included myself. I felt that if I didn't support the cause, I was putting myself above the others. Sure, I could have eliminated myself from the filing, but it wouldn't be fair or appreciated. The difference between a good supervisor and a bad one really comes down to a person's willingness to appreciate the efforts of others. If I just put all the really hard work on the employees and did the easy stuff, I would be totally without respect. One can be respected for his position, but he may not be respected for his actions. Getting out and picking up trash with other employees, demonstrates my commitment to them and the company. Management by example is the best possible management style.

If my boss always has on shiny shoes and is not willing to get in the trenches, then I can't fully respect him. I appreciate a supervisor who can get in the kitchen and cook, or go outside and pick up trash. I like someone who knows and appreciates people at all levels. I enjoyed immensely when my boss put on a tool belt and helped build a wall at work. Certainly, he didn't have to and anyone could have done it, but employees and students alike very much appreciated the selfless effort for their benefit. Imagine yourself taking the time to do some filing. Why not show your secretary your appreciation by doing her job for an hour? Now, that paints a picture worth a thousand words. She will know that you aren't a good secretary, and will forgive your mistakes.

Have you ever taken the time to unload a freight truck? Have you ever taken the time to operate a forklift? Have you ever pushed a broom? Have you ever mopped a floor? Don't underestimate the talent required, until you give it a whirl. Having done these things gave me a greater appreciation for the efforts of others, than I could ever read about in a book. Operating a forklift looks easy, but the reality is different. It was easier to research and purchase a forklift, than it was to back it up without hitting something. It didn't take me long to realize, that I needed to get back to the office before I did some real damage.

Take the time to do the job of another, even if for an hour. It will do wonders for you and the other person, and will demonstrate your support in ways that words never can.

Chapter 12 - Happiness Matters

God doesn't have to spend time analyzing His life as we do. God has no regrets and makes perfect decisions. He is always happy. He is forever full of comfort brought forth by His love and kindness for all. He sees that He makes a difference each and every day. He knows that He is contributing to the world with every minute that passes. He is never not giving to others. He is only motivated by love and can never not be satisfied by His life.

What if you were God? How would you see your life? Would it make you smile or cringe in despair? Do a little pretend game of "if God were me" and watch for His reactions.

Take five minutes to analyze your situation. Take a day or a week if needed, but take the time to prioritize you life and your job. I received a call today from a friend who is absolutely miserable with her job. It's really not the job, but the working environment. This is profoundly sad, as the job is in the health care field. Should a person who is so good at doing her job, not be happy with her job especially if the job involves helping others? This is thought provoking in that I remember the enthusiasm with which she entered the job and the career. This is not a job that I would ever even imagine that I could do, as it takes immense skill and technical expertise. This is a job that I would never want, as it is in many ways very gross and yucky. But, loving the work and hating the environment is sad. If only her employer could realize how much the environment costs the employee and the patients, perhaps a simple change in environment could make a win-win for all.

It is easy to see employees as machines, and this is yet another case of employee treated like machine. I know in this case that the injustices perceived by the employee make it difficult to perform well, when she is treated as unimportant and easily replaceable. Would it not be better to have the employee be appreciated and treated with respect, knowing that you would both be happier and more productive? I assure you that salary increases have not made the situation any better. What I find with salary increases is it makes the prison bars more impenetrable. It is easier to leave a job that pays much less than a job that pays more. You become more stuck as the raises come down the line. Your misery is never decreased and somehow increases, as you know it will be more difficult, to get what you are getting salary wise, somewhere else.

We see others who have tried to go other places, return time and again to the place that they were so anxious to leave. Why is this? Is money more important than happiness? It seems that paying the bills is most important, so we give up our happiness so that we can pay the bills, as we know that not being able to pay the bills brings misery also. How is a person to win? If you know that you have to work, then you must make the most of the situation or find another. If we consider that the difference between happiness and misery is what is between our ears, then we can choose what we want, given what we have. There are certainly situations where we will never find happiness, and we know that we must move on. There are those employers who will make us miserable our entire lives, if we let them. It is just not possible to find happiness where supervisors are not interested in employees.

If supervisors are willing to make a better environment, and a simple change in attitude can cause a great change in employee happiness and performance, then you are in a place where happiness can be had. The trick is to learn if you are in such a place where change is possible. There are people who can find their own happiness within themselves, and can do their work as if nothing affects them. There are those who realize that happiness comes from within, and those who can put aside the effects of others. The kind of person that you are depends on how you achieve your happiness. If you are a person who is bored with what you are doing, you won't be satisfied until you have found your challenge. If you feel that you have done all that you can in your present position, then you need to seek opportunities elsewhere. Sure, it may not be easy. You may have children or family depending on you, and it isn't easy to just pick up and move. You have to work within your ability, and must seek outside the known.

If you know that you aren't happy, you are obligated to do something to find your happiness. If you don't seek your happiness, your misery will manifest itself in ways that you never imagined. Your health can suffer; your relationships can suffer; your total life experience will be damaged, if you are not living for your happiness. This is a powerful lesson in life that is typically only learned after great tragedy. Having a heart attack should not be the only way for us to realize that we are not happy. We should wake up before our health is damaged. If you have ever seen someone who is unhealthy, you know that something inside is causing misery. We may not even realize our misery, until something jolts us to take a look. Once we take the time to realize that all is not right, we can see just how much of a dark cloud we are carrying over our heads.

If we realize that we are unhappy and know that we must make a change, we are suddenly caught in the "I don't even know where to begin looking" stage. Of course, you don't know where to look or else you wouldn't have to look. You would be in the finding stage, which is followed by the getting stage. Once you realize that you want something new, you have to begin looking for the object of your satisfaction. Look at the overwhelming number of career changes that occur when people are middle aged. I remember meeting an auditor who had just started a new career, after realizing that nursing wasn't his bag. We seem to learn in our forties, that what we thought in our twenties, wasn't exactly the direction most suited for us. Or, I guess we learn that we need something different after becoming bored with what we have previously done.

The only constant in life is change, and we constantly need change whether we realize it or not. Boredom is awful and no one wants to be bored. We want to experience more and more, and learn all that we can about what life has to offer. Have you ever met someone who is satisfied with what they've learned and no longer seeks anything? If I have met such a person, the person is elderly and has experienced much. I haven't met someone in his forties who is finished learning and experiencing. We all crave to know and learn more. We want to experience what we have not. We may want to learn to sky dive or deep sea dive, but we definitely want to do something different. Remember when a person got a job at and retired from the same company thirty or forty years later? Those days are pretty much gone and it is partly due to our nature of discovery. We change jobs far more often, so that we can get more experience. We feel stagnant if we don't keep the moss from growing under our feet.

As we grow older, we learn that our lives are more important than our jobs. In fact, when once we thought that we were our jobs and took them so personally that they became our lives, we now find that our jobs are only a means of support for our lives. This is certainly a huge lesson for me, as I had given everything to my jobs and suddenly found that my job was gone. What I am left with is my life without my job, and a bunch of confusion about what to do now. What I do now is to realize that I am not a job, and that I have to find an occupation which supports my life and my dreams of purpose and fulfillment. I do need to pay the bills, but I need to give myself the life that I deserve. Let me be honest and say that even though the electric company appreciates my prompt payment, they do not care if I live or die. Do you think that the cable company will not go on without me or my job? They may appreciate my business, but I do not keep them in business. The job that I had will go on, whether I am there or not. Why then, do I give so much effort to a place?

I have placed a greater priority on my jobs, than I have on myself. Isn't this a sad fact? Oh, stop crying for me – I can do that for myself. But, crying doesn't help, so I have to change my priorities and realize that what is really important is me, my life, and finding my true happiness. If my happiness lies in watering flowers all day, then I should water flowers and figure out how to support myself while watering flowers. Remember the old days when farming was actually an occupation, and people really enjoyed farming? Today, farming is nothing more than a corporate enterprise or a weekend pastime. If you love farming, by all means farm. Realize that you may have to farm as a hobby and not as a career. There are opportunities for farmers such as organic farming, but the opportunities are more rare than ever before. But, it is vitally important that you find something that you really enjoy and that you don't live to work, but work to support your life.

There are those who like me realize after twenty years that there must be more to life. Suddenly, you realize that you have given up opportunities for happiness while chasing the dream of more and better. There does come a point when you realize that you will never find happiness in more and better, and that you should spend more time concentrating on less stuff and more quality. There is nothing in life that is more worthwhile than the love of another. All of the money in the world will not compensate you as well. Imagine yourself as the lonely old millionaire, with only yourself and your money to keep you company. Are you any better or worse off than someone who has everything but love? There are those who have found great love and have needed little else in life. We tend to judge those people, and just know they are miserable doing without material things.

There are people who have chosen to live in cabins in the woods in remote places. We can't even imagine such a thing as not having a mall within ten minutes of our homes. Our lives have become so much about things, that we can't even see the person in the mirror or touch our own hearts, because without the necessary accoutrements, we are not worthy of living. Think about Henry David Thoreau and his time in the cabin. Did he not learn more during that time than he learned during the rest of his life? Do you not learn more about life when you are with only yourself? Can someone else really tell you what you need? Oh, you need this car and that house and that man and that jewelry. Sure, our friends mean well, but they are telling us what they think we need, and not what we are telling ourselves that we need.

I have found that nothing is more important than realizing for yourself what is important to you. If happiness is most important to you, then you must put happiness at the top of the list, and all things will flow underneath. If your job is your top priority, then happiness may be well down the list or maybe not on the list at all. Your job can not bring you happiness!!! Know this and you will start to realize that you are a person hiding behind that desk, seeking to live a life of happiness and freedom. If you suspect that your job is your happiness, think about your attitude at quitting time. Do you really want to stay over and work some more? Or, do you want to get the heck out as quickly as you can? Your attitude at quitting time will offer you some insight, which might just let you know what is really important to you. Like the saying says, "If you don't believe in resurrection, be here at 5:00 PM and watch the employees come to life."

If you experience profound sadness at the thought of leaving work each day, perhaps you do think that your job is the most important thing in your life, and maybe it's time for you to give yourself entirely to your job. Get a divorce, put the kids up for adoption and just stay at your job, because that is where your heart is. You have found your calling and are exactly where you are meant to be.

If you experience great joy at the thought of leaving work each day, perhaps you realize that you do not live to work, but work to live. You need only assess the level of your happiness and make adjustments accordingly. If your job serves your purpose well, then by all means stick with it and make the most of it. If your job does not serve your purpose well, then perhaps you should either change jobs or find ways to make your job more enjoyable.

Our jobs can bring us great satisfaction – I don't mean to underestimate the value of gainful employment. I have been fortunate to meet some of the most wonderful people at work. My life has been enhanced by working, but working should not be the purpose of my life.

Many of us have blurred the line between life and work. We have often fallen into the "working rather than living" mode. After the years stack up, we find that it is even harder to separate ourselves from our employment. That sudden wake up call instantly opens our eyes to the reality of our circumstances, revealing the starkness of our choices.

The most important thing is to realize your priorities in life and live according to them. Don't let the priorities of others control you – you are in control and you must choose your own priorities. Make the most of your life and make the most of your employment, as it has a great influence on your overall life experience.

Chapter 13 - Give And You Shall Receive

This is one of God's greatest lessons to mankind – if you give, you receive. God, the employee, knows this very well and is constantly giving, but not for the purpose of receiving. Receiving is the side benefit of giving.

Giving does not necessarily mean material gifts. We can give love, kindness, gratitude, compliments, wisdom, fun, etc. God knows that sometimes, we are more prone to give undesirable gifts such as misery, dread, fear, etc. He knows that everything that we receive is a gift, regardless of our appreciation. Bringing light to others is an invaluable gift. There is no more priceless gift than a smile. Simply being in the presence of others, is in itself a great gift for which we seldom show any appreciation.

Being mindful of the gifts received from others, we are somehow more prone to give. If we are comforted in our time of need, we are more prone to comfort others in their time of need. Giving and receiving promote each other in a cyclical fashion.

Is it more important to give or to receive? This causes much debate, but I find that by giving you also receive. We really do like to get, but we also like to give. What would Christmas be, if we didn't enjoy seeing the delight of a gift in the eyes of a child? We often get caught up in our own selves and forget that we can receive by giving. What we receive when we give is a win-win situation, instead of just a win. Think of the time that you spent coaching a little league team. Think of the time that you spent working for a charitable organization. Think of the time when you mentored a kid or a coworker. Think of what you got in return for what you gave. As any teacher knows, working for the benefit of others is priceless. There is not one teacher who does not enjoy having a former student return or to call and thank her for what she gave. We know that teachers teach for a paycheck. But, if a paycheck were the only reward, then the reward would be rather hollow.

We have all had teachers who didn't put forth their best effort, and did do just a little as they could to call the job done. Those teachers are simply employees and aren't the ones who affect the lives of those who are being taught. It is the teacher who showed a little extra kindness or effort to her students, who jumps to your mind. It is the teacher who let my sister comb her hair as a reward for good behavior, that helped inspire my sister to become a teacher. Who would have guessed that being able to comb the teacher's hair would inspire?

I guess we underestimate the little things and never realize the extra effort is very rewarding. It is a shame that the teacher who inspired my sister never knew of her inspiring behavior. It is a shame that we don't take the time to thank those who have inspired us. Do you ever take the time to thank those who inspire you? Do you thank your spouse for taking the time to cook for you or give you a special gift of his time? Nah, we take all of that for granted. We assume that by being married to us, we deserve what we get and they should do more. Why don't they do what they should and give us more? Why don't our teachers stay longer and care more? Why don't our employees give 110% everyday? Why don't we do all that we can, just as we expect others to do? Why do some give more than others? Why are we the ones who seem to care, when others couldn't care less? Why is the world so very unfair?

If you want to really be miserable, try to make everyone care just as you do. That will keep you busy, but will not serve a purpose. There are those who care and those who don't, and it is not for us to judge or change. You can only affect those who wish to be affected. You can only impact others to the degree that they allow your impact. How many times have we said that someone made us feel bad? It isn't possible, so stop blaming others. No one has the power to make you feel anything except yourself. Period. You are the only one who can affect your feelings. You are the only one who can choose to be happy or sad. No one else can make you anything and we waste precious time blaming others.

Sure, our lives can be impacted by others, but only to the degree that we allow. If a supervisor gives you a bad annual review, you can either be mad or happy. If you realize that you are a good employee regardless of how your supervisor rates you, then you will be less affected. If you feel that your supervisor's opinion of you is all that matters, then you are in for some sleepless nights.

It is no one's job to judge you, the person. It is not your job to judge others. As a supervisor, you may have to offer your opinion of a person's performance, but you are never asked to offer an opinion of the person. We tend to see performance as the person. As a person, we tend to take performance evaluations personally. We must separate the person from the performance, and realize that one is not the same as the other. Our work is not a personality contest and we should keep personal things at home. We tend to mix the two interchangeably and mistakenly create personal issues from business situations. Think of an employee as a person and a performance. Separate the two and see the differences. Imagine yourself as two separate entities. We find this almost impossible in reality, and often judge one by the other.

A person's performance must be accurately evaluated. If you never stop to remember that Cynthia wasn't trained on ISO 9000, then how can you really assess her ISO 9000 performance appropriately? You see Cynthia's performance as below standard. Is Cynthia really below standard or is her performance exactly a reflection of your investment? You didn't train Cynthia, so her performance and her ability are exactly what you should expect. But, before you know it, Cynthia is on her way out the door as a worthless employee. Think about it, you have made this very mistake.

It is also our special gift to assess one area of performance as bad, and relate all others areas accordingly. Well, Jeremiah can't seem to clean up his work area, so his work is totally bad. Jeremiah does excellent work, but your obsession with area cleanliness causes you to only see the messy work area and not the excellent work. You determine that Jeremiah will never be a good employee and must go at once.

Jumping to conclusions seems to be the best exercise for supervisors. How else do they stay in such good shape? Giving Cynthia and Jeremiah the opportunity to have the needed training and the opportunity to improve will generally reward all of you in ways you never imagined, because you didn't think that either of them was worth saving. Your erroneous assumptions would have cost you two employees who only needed a little extra training. It is generally far more cost effective to give your best, so that you can receive the best from others. I really don't think that there is a person alive who wants to be a bad employee. There are people who give less than others for reasons that are their own. We cannot judge as bad that which we do not understand. We do not know what has caused the person to be as they are, and we should not assume our omniscience, condemning for what is done as it is done.

On the subject of employee performance evaluations, it is wise to remember that we are evaluating performance and not the person. The Golden Rule applies here as well as everywhere else. We must be fair in our evaluations. We tend to believe that we can objectively evaluate employees, when in reality we tend to be more subjective than we may realize.

Being allowed to have input in the specifics of the evaluation details can make an employee feel better about the entire process. Every employee should know in advance the expectations for his/her performance. Better yet, employees should be allowed to provide input into the duties to be evaluated. It is my experience that employees are more satisfied and perform better when they are offered the opportunity to participate in the evaluation process. The best supervisors allow employees the opportunity to evaluate themselves first, based on the criteria set and understood by both. Once the employee has evaluated himself/herself, then the supervisor can provide oversight input and finalize the evaluation. This method provides both satisfaction and fairness.

If you really want to live on the wild side, offer you employees the opportunity to evaluate you – and do be open to what they have to say. If employees don't feel comfortable being honest, then don't waste their time. If you truly want to enhance employee performance, offering them the chance to be honest with you will do wonders. You might just find that employees don't see you at all like you see yourself. You might be pleasantly surprised!

Is it not better to have exhausted all possible remedies before determining that an employee does not fit in the organization? Remember that the cost of hiring and training an employee is very expensive, a little more training could be the most cost effective solution. Simply getting more and more employees to replace those you are constantly terminating, creates chaos in the organization and really defeats the purpose. Unless you work for an employment agency, I can't see that rapidly getting rid of employees is in your best interest.

On the other hand, our lawsuit happy society causes us to often keep employees past their usefulness. This is very disheartening to those who really do try. Just this morning, I was listening to a complaint about someone calling out sick for the fourth time this week. This makes the ones who show up quite unhappy with the system that allows such things. Certainly, the specific circumstances should be examined, but there must be fairness in our treatment of all employees.

An environment of fairness is crucial to keeping the team together. There is nothing worse than playing favorites. It happens everywhere and causes more discontent than you can ever imagine. Of course, if you are the one receiving special attention, then it doesn't seem all that unfair. If you are on the short end of the stick, then it seems very unfair. It seems most unfair when the one getting the attention is the one who does the least work. (See Butt Kisser Section.) This infuriates good employees more than almost anything else. If you want to quickly turn a good employee into a bad one, do special favors for a really bad employee. Faster than a star can fall from the sky, your formerly good employee is a lost cause. I guarantee it.

Giving is the best way to receive and receiving a good return on investment is wonderful. If there is no other reward than the satisfaction received from having done a good deed, then the reward is worth the deed. Think of those times when you were able to experience the happiness of someone who received acknowledgment for having done well when you recommended them for the acknowledgment. Is there anything greater? Yeah, you feel good and they feel good. It's the classic win-win situation. Why would you not want to share the joy?

Chapter 14 - Business Ethics: A Contradiction In Terms

God's honesty may conflict with many of today's business practices. Would God be the whistleblower where He works? Wouldn't God have the courage to insist that others be honest in all that they do? If God saw that His employer's business practices were unfair to employees, would He be obligated to try to make things right?

God is not the type to sit idly by. He is the kind of employee who takes very seriously the organization and its employees. He is not one to make trouble needlessly, but He is motivated to do what is morally right, even to His own demise. You wouldn't catch God standing at the shredder the day before the audit. He would have no part in the criminal collusion ordered by His bosses.

God knows that there is often a fine line between doing the right thing and simply allowing wrong things to happen. He knows that no employer really wants an employee to hang out the dirty laundry. He knows that actions bring consequences, and that it is very difficult to put yourself on the line and do what you consider to be right.

If more employees felt comfortable being honest at work, then perhaps more employers would operate in a more honest fashion. If a news program crew showed up at your work, would you invite them in or lock the doors? This simple question reveals some stark truths about our businesses.

We've all been taught about business ethics and we've used the buzz words, but do we really understand the concept? Is there such a thing in today's fast paced world of acquisitions and mergers? Have we lost the person in lieu of the thing? What is ethics and who really cares? It is my personal opinion that when we think of business ethics, we automatically imagine the means to keep the business operational. We think of how we can work with other businesses to increase our own business. Business ethics has come to mean how we do things to make the business grow and prosper. Business ethics has become something of a religious mantra for doing what is best for the business, even to the total exclusion of employee rights and feelings.

We don't seem to care if we hurt an employee – employees have become things with which to make our businesses operate. We put no more value on a human being than we do on a piece of machinery. In fact, the price of a piece of equipment is often more prevalent in our minds than the cost of the employee. Our whims drive us to do what we see best for the company and do nothing for the employees. If we can't justify something in real dollars, then we are not going to waste our time. Even if we know that doing something for the employees will not cost anything, we will still not take the time to do it for the employees. Why are we so anti-employee these days?

If all things were equal, we would spend twice as much time getting rid of employees rather than trying to save them. The only thing that stops us is our fear of lawsuits. Why are we so anxious to get rid of employees? Are they going to sabotage the company or trash the place? I recently spoke to an employee who was terminated after 14 years and she was not even allowed to clean out her office. This was a woman of slight build, only five feet tall and never known to cause problems. Why was this fourteen year employee treated like a criminal? This was not an isolated incident and the adversarial mentality was prevalent in the organization. Ironically, the employees who were trouble makers per se were untouchable in spite of being hated. The lesson was almost that if you had a lawyer, you were afforded greater rights than those who were simply good decent employees.

What has caused this skewed vision of employees? Why are we so anti-employee in the workplace? Why have we gone full circle against employees? Why are some employees protected while others can't catch a break? The anti-employee mentality is not without consequences and the need for more lawyers seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why are lawyers so respected in the work place, yet employees get almost no respect? There are those who would argue that the current state is a creation of the employees who have chosen to take advantage of employers. To some extent this is true, but the pervasive anti-employee mentality has been taken to the extreme resulting in organizations full of hatred or disdain for employees. Granted, a lawsuit is a powerful thing when you are on the receiving end. But, is this worse than for an employee who is wrongfully abused and or terminated? I guess we can justify that the entity is more important than a single person as it employs several people.

The entity is protected at all costs and the employee is left without recourse. A little research on the instances of wrongful termination and the dramatic increases in reported incidents would suggest that there may be a trend for employers to treat employees as dispensable equipment. It seems as if it has become the right of organizations to treat employees any way they choose. I have read horrible stories of employees being mentally tortured for doing what they consider to be the right things. Ask any whistleblower how they feel and how they are treated. It seems that the organization takes personally the presumed attack and reacts with a self-preservative reaction. The one employee was treated like the arch enemy and was not in receipt of accolades for great honesty and fortitude, but was black-balled and treated like an enemy within. Why does the organization not appreciate an employee's conscientious honesty? By treating the whistleblower badly, companies suffer much more damage than if they had responded appropriately.

Should an organization not appreciate a person's integrity and reward the employee accordingly? Of course, in theory we know this should happen, but rarely does. No one really wants to know what an employee thinks, and don't dare be so bold as to disagree with company actions or policies. The organization is seen as most important and it must be held in the highest esteem. It must be protected at all costs and can not bear scrutiny from within. Do kill the messenger and don't let employees get away with insubordinate acts of treason. Why has the organization risen above the persons who made it?

Think of the grief that could have been avoided if companies listened to the whistleblowers before they were compelled to go outside the company. As a general rule, a conscientious employee who disagrees with a company policy or action will first notify his supervisor. If the supervisor ignores the issue and minimalizes its impact, then the employee will take it to another level. Then, the employee starts to receive the retribution. The supervisor pretends that he never heard about the issue and makes excuses for taking no action. Suddenly it is a case of the employee who just has an axe to grind, and should be quickly hushed. After the situation escalates needlessly, the entire organization is harmed, when the original intent was to help the organization.

The conscientious employee knows very well that if the situation is investigated, one of the first questions asked is, "Who knew what?" The second question is usually, "Why didn't they report what they knew?" Have we ever heard of collusion or contributory negligence? If the employee says nothing, there is no guarantee that he/she will avoid prosecution. The employee is caught in a no-win situation. We would be well advised to keep our doors open and listen to our employees. Ignoring the warnings of employees, as some former company owners can attest, is a great mistake.

It never ceases to amaze me how we turn company actions into personal issues. We can no longer seem to separate the company from its perceived personality, and we tend to give more protection and credit to the company than we do the employees who work for the company. It's almost like the robot created by man being suddenly in control of the man. We rationalize the personification is justified due to the overall employee benefits received. Were it not for the robot and its ability to stay in control, the employees would have not jobs. Our creations have become the creators and we tend to serve the masters created by us. There is no company that ever just simply spontaneously generated itself and needed employees to function. All businesses were started by people for people. Why then have we suddenly taken the people out of the picture? When we think of IBM, do we suddenly envision the thousands of people who made it what it is or do we see it as the logo only?

Think about the importance we place on a logo. It represents an entity and not the people behind it. An object of our own creation has suddenly transformed itself into the creator of all who experience it. We watch the stock market listings for companies such as Xerox and never see the guy in the shipping department, nor consider his impact on the bottom line. It is not until the one employee bucks the system, that we draw attention to him. As long as he contently does his job for the company, he is in his rightful place and not even a single thought is sent his way. But, let him share his thoughts about what he feels is being done wrong by upper management and suddenly he needs to be terminated. Why are we more anxious to criticize than to appreciate the employee? We will stop at nothing to fire the loser if he makes waves. If he makes no waves, then he can stay. There are employees who are protected simply by their anonymity. The squeaky wheel does get the grease and it usually isn't the type that the wheel would want.

It is rare that only the guilty are punished. Think of all of those who fall by the wayside due to the improper deeds of others. A company forced into bankruptcy, due to corruption at the top, leaves many without jobs. The person who exposed the corruption is suddenly worse than the corrupt higher ups. No one likes a tattle tale and we make an example of him every time. We don't appreciate honesty and we really don't want to know who's cooking the books. We like our books to remain as they are, and will turn a blind eye until someone has the nerve to let the cat out of the bag. Why do we so enjoy keeping the cat in the bag? What are we so afraid of? Retaliation, of course is our greatest fear. It is often easier to keep our mouths shut than to face the consequences of exposing wrongdoing. Isn't it sad that this is often true? When the SEC asks who knew what, it is generally only then that the cat comes out of the bag. Yeah, I knew but didn't have the courage to come forward. But, weren't you also one of the ones who dished out punishments on those who tried to get the cat out?

Oh, but I thought that it was in the best interest of the company to not say anything. No, what you really thought was that you didn't want to catch the flack that would come from telling what you knew. You were protecting yourself while knowingly hurting others. Your conscience isn't clear and all of the rationalizations in the world won't change that fact. Why can we simply not tell the truth? Well, if you think about what happens when you tell the truth, you can certainly understand why so few people actually do tell the truth. If you've been subjected to giving depositions or testifying in court, you can relate to why it is better to keep quiet. But, when do you have to give in to conscience? Is there a time when you have to do what is morally right? Is there such a thing as morally right or is it simply subject to interpretation?

What is right for one may not be right for another. Everyone has their own set of standards and no two are exactly the same. When do we cross a line of moral correctness that is beyond reproach? What I consider wrong may not be wrong to another. I may think it is my obligation to be truthful and to do all that I can with integrity and honor, but the CEO of my company may have a different view. I may see that the CEO is bleeding the company for personal gain, while the CEO may see that he is simply reaping the rewards of his efforts. Who is the judge? If a CEO is taking money from the company in accordance with the operating charter of the company, then technically he isn't doing anything wrong. If the CEO is giving himself huge bonuses while the company is laying off large numbers of employees, then perhaps a little grey area is created, subject to interpretation.

If the CEO really has the best interest of the company at heart, then he will suffer along with the company. He will not prosper in the face of dwindling prosperity for others. I guess one could reason that layoffs will save money for the company and thus increase the company's bottom line; therefore, the CEO has improved the company and is deserving of greater rewards. But, is this just a rouge to hide the real need for the layoffs which is lessened product demand due to poor sales? There are two sides to every story and in my mind, laying off employees is never a good thing.

Laying off employees should be a last resort, even to the exclusion of supervisory bonuses. To me, it is an insult for upper management to get bonuses while people are losing their jobs. I just can't rationalize it any way I look at it. It happens everyday with our "dispensable employee" mentality. We don't stop to think that the bonus that we received could have supported an entire family for a year. When we really didn't need more money, we took the bonus which kept someone on unemployment needlessly. Wow, that makes you feel good when you look in the mirror. Figure out how much is paid in bonuses to those whose companies are laying off employees. You would be so mad, if only you knew. The fat cats are smiling while the ones who actually need the money are suffering needlessly.

Where is our conscience when we do such things? Do we even have consciences left? Are we so hardened and unfeeling that we would allow a family to suffer starvation and sickness, just so that we can put a few more bucks in the bank? Apparently, we are just this hardened. Until we have to face the consequences of our actions, we plunder the masses for our own personal gain. If you saw a family's picture printed on your bonus check, then perhaps you would be more prone to think about the family that is doing without, while you are just getting what you deserve. You are smart and you've worked hard for what you have. You have run over people with a total lack of attention to the feelings of others, and have trampled those who helped you get where you are. You are the man!

I remember my parents teaching me an important lesson about ill-gotten gains. They assured me that if you get ill-gotten gains, then the gains and more will be taken from you in return. This is a lesson that some would call Karmic Debt. Is there such a thing? Did the devil make you do it; therefore, you are blameless? Does God punish sinners for their wrongdoing? Or, are there simply consequences for our actions? It often seems that if you do something wrong, something wrong will be done to you. But, this only seems to happen those who pay attention to the wrongs being done. There are those who seem to float through life in the total absence of conscience, doing wrong and winning at everything. How can this be when you always reap the just desserts for your actions? How are some never punished, while you get punished at every turn?

It seems that there are those without conscience who go merrily through life leaving destroyed persons in their wake. How do they get away with it? They treat employees badly and seem to rise above the rest. They are unscathed, while the masses are left to wallow in misery not of their own making. Surely, these people are simply gifted and blessed above all others. What is their secret and why does justice turn a blind eye to their deeds? We've all worked for these kinds of bosses and we are never left with a good impression. How are their deeds simply not noticed and why are they rewarded for their unkindnesses? It amazes me to this day why some are never held responsible for their unethical behavior. Why is there protection for those who do wrong? Are we simply punishing ourselves by presuming that morality counts? Are we so blinded by conscience that we can't see that it has no place in business today?

Is there such a thing as Karmic Debt? It would seem that there is for some and not for others. Karmic Debt is justice only for those who care about its existence. For those who don't care, it seems to not exist. Perhaps those who operate under conscience are the ones who are susceptible to its power and punishment. Remember Edgar Allen Poe's THE TELL TALE HEART? It was only the conscience that told the story. It was only the conscience that punished the self. If you don't have a conscience, then presumably there is no crime. I guess this is the moral of the story.

I find that a business operated without conscience does suffer from Karmic Debt. The business that I referenced that terminated a fourteen year employee for no good reason and would not even allow her to clean out her office, did lose its government contracts. Suddenly, a business with multiple contracts was left with none. The business's reputation suffered at the hand of its deeds and the business was totally lost. Karmic Debt (consequences) does happen, whether you realize it or not. I won't assume that terminating one employee caused the demise of the entire company, but I will say that the uncaring attitude toward employees by upper management did cause its demise.

Treating employees with total disrespect has a way of bringing to light underlying operational values which cause others to take notice. When employees don't matter and you are in a service industry, your business is bound to suffer. You can't discount employee contributions when employees are the very operational asset of the company.

When profit is more meaningful than those who create the profit, profits will fall and companies will fail. Imagine if McDonalds Corporation displayed an uncaring attitude toward employees. Do you suppose that you would get a smile when you go for a burger? You'd be lucky to get the burger, much less good service. We must refocus on the importance of employees in the business and treat them with appropriate respect, if we expect our businesses to succeed. Customers are important and they return when they are treated respectfully by employees. Who wants to go to McDonalds to get served by a poorly dressed employee with an attitude to match? Stop and think about the importance of the smiling cashier at McDonalds. Think about the importance of hot fries provided by the conscientious attendant. Fries don't cook themselves and surely don't jump in the bag by themselves. Who do you think gives you what you want? The employee, of course!

When you go to buy a car, do you ever imagine all of the people who helped to make the car? Do you ever imagine all of the people who work behind the scenes at the hospital? Do you care about the lab tech who took a great interest in your results, taking the time to rerun the test just to make sure of the results? Nah, you don't care about that – you just want to see the doctor. The doctor wouldn't mean very much if your hospital room was dirty. Imagine overflowing trash cans and soiled linens on the bed. How much confidence would you have in the doctors, if the hospital wasn't clean? Get real – the doctors don't make the hospital any more than the custodial and maintenance staff does. You don't get a bill for the maintenance costs, so you don't consider maintenance staff contributions.

Imagine seeing a car invoice which listed separately the contribution and cost of each employee. Wow, that would be a long list. Think of the assemblers and parts suppliers and idea engineers who would have a listing. You would be shocked if you knew the number of people who had input into your new car. Perhaps, if we put people's contributions plainly in black and white on the billing detail, then we would start to see that people are behind the service and the product. Maybe this would put people back into the business. Yeah, think about it – your billing invoice could list every single employee's contribution so that the customer could see who gave what to the product or service.

I have seen tags on aisles in Home Depot stating, "This Aisle is maintained by _____." This does give some credit to the contributor. It also holds the employee responsible. If your name is going on something, you care about what is represented. If your name is on the financial statement, then you care what is inside.

Do customers really care who contributes to their products? I guess that some do and some don't. Some customers would actually see the name and find a way to punish the contributor. Sarah made my fries and they are yucky! I want Sarah punished accordingly. It happens, so don't be fooled. In a way, I guess that anonymity protects the employee. By remaining nameless, they are also blameless. Is this a good thing? I don't know for sure. As for my work, I have no problem putting my name on it. Some may see it as good and some may see it as bad. Putting yourself on the line can be risky or rewarding. We often hide behind the corporate walls and try to keep ourselves out of the fray. If we aren't responsible, we can't be blamed. That's really the name of the game – keep me out of the fire.

Giving out a disciplinary memo and blaming its issuance on the higher ups is a great way to keep your butt off the frying pan, until the employee asks to speak to the responsible party. Oh, then it gets ugly, when you realize that the higher ups won't take responsibility for their actions and pass the blame down to you. The __it rolls up hill and down hill with great speed. You think that you have covered your behind, but find that if your name is on the memo, you will take the fall. You are no better off than the one you are presenting the memo to. Beware of the bosses who never take responsibility. Their motives are not honorable and you will never win. They are out to protect themselves and will win at all costs. Fairness is not a word in their vocabulary. You are on your own.

Never put your faith in an employer that has a history of disrespectful treatment of employees. If there is an obvious trend to abuse employees, get the heck out quickly. Jobs are hard to find, but once the finger is pointed at you, you will have no choice but to get out. Be proactive and don't continue to work for a company that does not treat employees properly. Don't think that suddenly the company will develop a conscience and will magically begin to treat employees respectfully. You can choose to fight the system, but you will rarely win. It takes a huge effort to change the operating policies of a company, especially if a company is unwilling to change.

A company's reputation for abusing employees is generally built upon a heap of very disgruntled employees. Employers underestimate disgruntled employees and their advertising abilities. Further, a bad reputation can be built upon less obvious means – if your company receives a great number of job applications from a single company's employees, there may be a problem at that company.

Have you ever called a company and the employees sounded as if they were less than satisfied to be where they were? Have you ever walked into a store and felt a cold wave of dissatisfaction flowing from the employees? Remember the last time you went to a restaurant and felt that the Board of Health should immediately close the joint? It may be to your company's advantage to send out some undercover customers to get a true feel for your company's unsolicited advertising program.

Chapter 15 - Abusive Employers

God would have to beat a path to the exit of a business which abuses its employees. God would not be able to overlook this at work. He would have to seek opportunities elsewhere, as abusing employees is never the right thing to do. Ever!

God cannot even imagine that anyone could or would abuse employees. Why hire them in the first place if all you are going to do is abuse them? Often, abuse is unintentional, but still very real. Abuse can be vicious or simply uncaring. If you treated your children the way that you treat your employees, would they be happy? If you were treated the way that you treat your employees, would you be happy?

Perhaps you are treated badly, so you don't mind rolling it downhill. Everyone gets equal treatment, even if equally bad. In the business of our lives, we may not take the time to consider the feelings of others. In our greed, we may not care whether someone loses their hard earned retirement as long as we get our bonus right now. Motives vary, and we are not here to judge motives. We are here to improve our business behavior to improve our business.

If God were given the opportunity to speak freely, He would offer us important insights into our behaviors which would bring to light how we affect our business without even realizing it. He would give us the chance to know our business from both sides of the fence, so that we could bring our business into alignment with appropriate business ethics.

A larger movement must be had by the bulk of the world's workforce to demand fair and appropriate treatment in the workplace. If businesses were run properly, then the EEOC and other such organizations would find themselves out of business. It seems that the need for governmental protection agencies is ever increasing. The EEOC reports a dramatic increase in the number of charges filed with the agency. Can we simply dismiss all the charges due to disgruntled employees seeking revenge for uncaring employers? I don't think so. Some charges are without merit, but there are far too many that are very justly merited. I know first hand that people are subjected to untold cruelty in the name of the company. I know that people are used and abused with absolute disregard for the person who is the employee.

Abusive employers do exist and cause great harm to people who are simply trying to make a living. It is not always the employee who is to blame for problems within a company. The decisions of reckless management are more often the blame for most problems suffered within a company. Employees don't get to choose their managers – managers are chosen for them. I remember a company president who was hired based on his resume' and the qualifications listed. After wreaking havoc on the business, his background was investigated and it was found that many of his references were false and his education was non-existent. He was the president of the company. The fate of all employees rested in the hands of one who was so dishonest as to lie on his resume'.

Companies tend to hire based on qualifications and not on character. Why is it more important to be well educated than to know how to treat employees respectfully? Honesty isn't a characteristic listed on resumes and is not sought after by large companies. We tend to associate honesty with conscience, which is a sure sign of weakness. We want power and control, not honesty and compassion. The moral decline in our businesses has created the dog-eat-dog operating environments of today's world. It is kill or be killed – eat or be eaten. Only the strong survive and only the ruthless seem to levitate magically up the corporate ladder.

Think of those who have supervised you and separate them based on your perception of their character. There are those who were ruthless and power hungry. There are those who are kind and compassionate. There are those who are chicken and always in hiding. There are those who are verbally abusive and never satisfied. There are those who bring a comfort to the place and make working a delight. There are so many different kinds – just as there are many personality types. If you are a supervisor, how are you seen by your employees? How would you like to be seen by your employees? Can you be honest and courageous enough to ask your employees? Do you even care what your employees think?

Perhaps, you are one of the supervisors who is jaded by employees who have sought your demise. Perhaps, you have been the victim of an abusive employee. Perhaps, you used to care, but after being thrown to the wolves you can't seem to muster any concern for others. These things happen and people are forever changed. If you have ever been falsely accused, you know what I mean. You can be falsely accused by an employee or employer. If you have a conscience, then you care. If you don't have a conscience, then you don't. If you used to have a conscience, it is hard to now work without one, but it seems as if it is your only option to be able to deal with all of the sharks.

Sometimes management seems like the loneliest job in the world. You catch the flack from all sides and can never seem to win. Achieving the happy medium seems impossible, so many just choose to please the boss and to heck with the employees. But, this modality has its downside also. Unhappy employees can make your life miserable. You can't really please the boss if your employees are working at 50%, because they know that you don't care about them. This is evident more quickly if you are the abusive sort – your behavior will come to light much sooner than you can imagine.

Why do we suppose that it is our right to treat employees like slaves? Didn't we get the memo that slavery had been abolished many years ago? Why do we feel that we can just do as we please and whip employees into submission? We don't give a second thought to putting the hammer down on someone who dares to kick the traces. It is our right to do whatever is necessary to keep employees in their place. Yelling at an employee in front of others is almost accepted in today's workplace. Letting someone know who is boss is very effective in the grand scheme and keeps the mutiny at bay. We do operate under a slave mentality and we do tend to behave like slave masters, if not kept in check.

The first one to demand respect is generally the first one who doesn't give it. I have worked for people of many difference ethnicities and I find that all have an equal tendency to abuse or not abuse employees. I haven't found that gender makes a person more or less compassionate. I find that it is not the gender or ethnicity, but the person who creates the environment.

The very ones who cry loudest for equal rights are generally the ones who actually believe that equal rights mean that they have more rights than everyone else. No longer is it satisfactory to have equality, but some want more than others, and are not satisfied with anything less. The ever increasing Hispanic community in this country will have a profound effect on society, and soon the quiet mass will erupt into the largest minority in America. When once I had never even met a person of Hispanic origins, I now see Spanish versions of magazines at the local stores. It is America in action and again, we see that our diversity expands further. We must change with the times and offer real equality to all. We must expand our diversity programs to include all cultures and not be so focused on one minority or the other.

During my lifetime, I have seen cultural shifts with profound effects. I remember desegregation while I attended elementary school. During my college years, I attended school with Iranians during the hostage crisis, when there was much animosity between Iran and the US. I have known great people of many different ethnicities and have experienced some cultures very different from my own. I can't even imagine a society without diverse cultures. I have always tried to embrace all cultures and often cannot understand why all people can't just get along and work together.

Cultural diversity is so much a part of our American Heritage, that I can't believe that we still have a need to provide cultural diversity training. However, I do know that there is still a need for diversity training. There is a trend developing called "reverse discrimination." Would you laugh in disbelief if I told you that there is discrimination within the Hispanic community between different Latin cultures? Sometimes, it seems as if we love to hate.

I just can't imagine why one people would assume that others do not have equal rights. I can't believe that after all we've been through as a nation, that there are still people who perform acts of hatred against others. I guess I am naive and want to believe that we are a more advanced society than we actually are. Why do we still have to teach tolerance when our very country was founded on the belief that all men are created equal? Why did an Iranian student feel it necessary to commit suicide due to the hatred displayed by Americans toward her? Why does the EEOC exist if its existence is not justified? Why can't we all just get along? Why can't we treat everyone with the respect that every human deserves?

As long as we ponder these questions, there will be a need for programs to fight discrimination and to promote diversity acceptance. If we treated all employees respectfully, then cultural diversity programs would be a thing of the past. It seems to be in our nature to not let things which cause hatred be resolved or done away with. We seem to enjoy keeping the pot stirred and are forever treating people based purely on appearance. I once learned a valuable lesson about judging a book by its cover. My maintenance supervisor hired a guy who had long hair and tattoos galore. I would never have hired him, based solely on his appearance, because I thought that he would not be a good example for the students. But, I let my supervisor hire his own employees and I went along, as long as he met the dress code. I have never worked with a more pleasant employee who brought so much technical skill to the job, than the guy with the long hair and tattoos. He was absolutely marvelous and a joy to work with. Everyone loved him in spite of his appearance. Before long, no one noticed his hair or tattoos and they just saw the man. I am forever ashamed of the mistake that I made.

We can all learn lessons from such experiences. We can all see our own shortcomings and realize that our performance can always be improved. The day that we feel certain that we have learned everything that we can possibly learn, had better be the day that we die. If we feel this way, we will surely find that we are not as knowledgeable as we once thought. As soon as I'm sure that I know something, it is exactly one minute before I learn that I don't. I guess this is nature's way of keeping us modest.

I do know this for certain – if I treat people with proper respect, I will never have regrets.

Chapter 16 - Abused Employees

If you could hurt God's feelings, would you? If you could make Him cry, would you? Or, would you just ignore Him and hope that He wouldn't bother you?

If we believe that we are the judge and jury for every employee under our supervision, then why on earth would we care about whether or not they felt abused? What's the harm in hurting someone's feelings? What can they do to me? All employers may be well advised to be more courteous to employees – revenge is a dish best served cold. An employee who feels abused will stop at nothing to seek retribution, often using the same ruthlessness used by his/her employer.

I checked out a website called the WORKING WOUNDED. There is much truth to the notion that the working can be wounded – both supervisors and subordinates. The treatment of employees seen as unfair, causes the employee to be affected in ways greater than we have ever considered. I know that one incident of unfair treatment can have devastating effects, and realize that over time an employee can be tainted by continual mistreatment. Knowing that there is no such thing as reality – there is only perception - opens the door to understanding that actions are only relevant as they are perceived. I may see that my action is harmless, while an employee may perceive it as very damaging and thoughtless. When confronted, you explain that you didn't intend to be thoughtless and are shocked that your behavior is perceived as such.

How many times have you been surprised to learn how your actions were perceived? You consider yourself to be fair and don't intend to dish out preferential treatment. You believe that you treat all of your employees the same and work to placate each one individually. Like bricks falling on your head, the realization that others don't see your actions as fair is a real eye opener. You can easily see how other managers play up to favorites, but you make a special effort to always be fair and just. This is one of those cases when it is the smart manager who puts on a brave face and solicits input from employees.

It is the truly unwise manager who doesn't care about perception and boldly dishes out unfair treatment and employees can like or not. I have sat around a table and watched the supervisor dish out nastiness unending on an employee in front of senior managers. What's worse was that no one jumped to the defense of the person, as it was well known that retaliation was a favorite tool of this supervisor. Talk about feeling defenseless and ashamed – it was awful. Sure, doing the right thing seems cool, but it is seldom welcomed by those who are inconsiderate enough to dish out such treatment in the first place. You can't reason with an unreasonable soul.

Good conscience obligates you to right the wrong. Common sense tells you to keep your mouth shut. What should a person do – what he feels is right or what he feels won't get him fired? If he does nothing, is he not just as guilty? Each person must decide for himself/herself. If action is taken, make absolutely sure that you do it in the least offensive manner, strictly according to company policy. Do not make a scene in front of others – this is the worst thing that you can do for the cause.

The TIME MAGAZINE cover showing three whistleblowers on it, brought to light the plight of those who seek to do right. The stories of the three women are not for the faint of heart. Not only were they not congratulated for their bravery and corporate conscience, they were treated very badly. These women were very well educated and held high ranking positions. These were not new kids on the block. They tried earnestly to do the right thing and received most unpleasant rewards.

Guess how often the tainted employee will again try to seek appropriate treatment for employees? It will probably never happen again and the employee will forever feel that trying to do what is right only leads to misery. Why bother doing what is right? The whistleblower knows this first hand and usually doesn't make the same mistake twice. After catching the bad end of the stick a couple of times, your social morality seems to somehow get lost in the back seat, while survival takes the front seat. We are taught all of our early lives that we should do the right thing and always treat others with respect. When you discover that doing the right things comes with a very high price, you start to see things from a different perspective.

A very clever employee might figure a way to make the suggestion seem like the boss' idea. Tricky, yet a boss who has a great idea will stop at nothing to advertise its greatness. It is the wise employee who lets the boss take the credit. It is the wise boss who gives all the credit to the employee.

I often giggle when I read the mission statements of some companies that I have worked for knowing full well that they do not in reality follow the mission as stated. Stating that employees will be treated with respect does not guarantee that this is so. I could give you one example of a huge company that has no idea how its employees are treated, as the ones who wrote the mission statement are so far removed from the actual subsidiaries, that they are not even aware that there are employees at that level. One would imagine that the least that a CEO could do is visit annually every work site under his company's logo. Simply mailing out videos for employees to watch really is impersonal and demeaning. It's hard to buy in when no one really knows you or cares if you live or die in the organization.

We once believed that bigger companies were better and that they provided greater long term benefits for employees. Recently, we are finding that the larger the company, the more employees have to lose. The size of a company in no way guarantees its success nor the employment of any employees. Sure, it sounds cool to work for a FORTUNE 500 Company, but in reality most people in the organization are not even known to the organization. When you become a number, you lose the personal contact that makes you a human deserving of respect. A number needs no respect. A company brags about employing 50,000 people, but it can't name but a few who are at the very top without a payroll listing. If you think your company cares about you, demand a visit with the CEO. You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery.

If we consider that one of the worst kinds of child abuse is neglect, imagine this to be true for employees also. Not considering that employees are people with very real feelings, can only make employees feel neglected. It is difficult to get the most from an employee who feels that he/she is less important than the business itself. How you respond to an employee daily says more than any mission statement. Any promise in writing is meaningless unless you back it up with action. Put the employee back into the proper place of importance and you will have a satisfied employee who will do his best to make the company prosper.

How can you expect that your employees will give more to you than you give to them? How can you expect that your family will give more to you than you give to them? There comes a time when you do have to take a look at your actions and realize that perhaps your priorities were in the wrong place. Will it be too late for you when you do stop and take a look? The sooner we assess our priorities, the sooner we can put our lives into proper perspective. If we are giving everything to work and nothing to family, then family suffers. We must find the happy medium, so that both get what each deserves of you and your time. If you visualize employees as a sort of family, then you will tend to treat them with more respect. Every one needs someone to look up to. Are you the sort that anyone would feel comfortable approaching? Are you the sort that only pretends to care when you really don't? If you have the chance to do something good for you or good for your employees, which will you choose?

Think about the bonus check. If by your getting a bonus you caused someone to lose her job, would you accept the bonus? This is not to say that you have a choice, but imagine that you do. If you can make a decision which will improve the employee's working environment or improve your personal office, which would you choose? You know, you've always wanted that fluffy office chair which ironically costs the same as the air conditioning unit requested by the employees. Are you looking out for #1 by getting the chair or are you looking out for #1 by making your employees happy? I assure you that your getting the new chair is not as important to your employees, as you might have fooled yourself into believing.

I once had the opportunity to spend the annual equipment funding of $5,000 in any way I saw fit. I went to each of my five managers and said that each department could spend $1,000 each. I asked if they could possibly save enough money for me to get a new chair as mine was very old (the oldest in the area) and was too high for me. They all agreed and later returned with their lists of equipment. I remember that one department saved .29 cents for my chair and another saved about .90 cents. We all had the best laugh and I certainly continued to sit in the same old chair, but my managers and I were very pleased with their purchases, as they had chosen wisely.

I did not begrudge my employees what they needed, because they requested equipment which was far more beneficial to the overall operations of the business. They were more focused on getting the job done than on my personal comfort as they should have been. They didn't ask for needless things or frivolous things, they asked for necessary business machines to make the work go faster. I was impressed and they were happy. Win-win situation!

When you have the opportunity to do good for others, you should do it. Put others on an equal plane with yourself or even on a higher plane, because your employees work to make you look good. You've all seen the managers who take care of themselves and just forget that they have employees who are sitting on unsafe chairs. Some managers never give a second thought to the comfort of others and really can't see past the noses on their faces. Working for someone who is selfish really isn't very rewarding or fun. In fact, it is no fun at all.

If we realize also that no action is an action, no response is a response, then we can see that employees perceive our inaction as disinterest in them or their needs. This is another means of neglectful behavior. Telling someone that you'll get back to them and you never do, says more than you're telling them that you'll think about it. When you tell someone that you'll get back to them and you don't, you send a powerful message that you don't consider it important enough to respond. It is ok to forget occasionally, but when you demonstrate a pattern of forgetfulness that mimics a lack of concern, you are doing a great disservice to yourself and your employees.

Worse than inaction is dishonesty. There is nothing more damaging to morale than telling a bold face lie. You might assume that no one will ever know, but I assure you this isn't true. Employees see you when you don't see them. Always know that they will be aware of your untruths and will see you as a liar and not the sort of person to be trusted. Talk about a no-win situation. Working for someone who has absolutely no integrity is the worst possible situation in many ways. If you can't trust your boss, then how will you ever be the best that you can be? When you know that your boss will lie about you, you can't be open and trusting. It is almost impossible for a person with integrity to work for someone who has no integrity.

There are supervisors and employees who think absolutely nothing of telling what my mother used to call an art lie – one with great creativity and emphasis. The worst possible liar is one who lies for no apparent reason – lying, when telling the truth would have had fewer consequences. Those who lie to cover for themselves are almost justified as at least there is a reason for the lie. However, there is never a lie that is justified or honorable. If you've ever been on the short end of a big fat lie, you know how frustrating it can be. I would rather someone tell me the awful truth, than a fancy lie.

Today's eat or be eaten mentality causes people to lie to save their butts. If you felt that telling the truth would be appreciated, then you wouldn't feel as compelled to lie. Saving face puts people in situations where they feel as if lying is their only opportunity to maintain some measure of dignity. I once had a boss chew me out for doing something that he had told me to do. Knowing that I was faced with a difficult choice – I responded by saying that I guess I had been stupid in doing what I did. He didn't argue any more on the subject. I managed to skirt blaming him or feeling obligated to lie. I find that no one will argue a stupidity defense. Note that for future reference.

I personally appreciate an employee telling me the truth. It is easier to answer for a mistake than to try to cover for a lie. If you didn't get it done, just say it. If you are honorable enough to admit your shortcomings, I am honorable enough to deal with the consequences. In order to get employees to be honest, you have to allow them to be free to be honest. If you kick their behinds every time they do something wrong, then they will learn to be less honest. This creates an environment where blame comes in to play. Well, I didn't get finished because Teddy didn't do his part and Jane didn't make him, etc. If you have an honest employee, you can save the blame game for more important uses like blaming everything on God or the corporate bosses.

Be open and honest with your employees, if you expect them to be open and honest. The same goes for your bosses – always be honest. Sure, you may catch some flack, but not like you catch when the truth comes out, and it always does. Honesty is the best policy at home and at work.

Some corporate folks will lead you to believe that employees are just trouble makers and malcontents. This may be true in some cases, but during my working life, I have found that supervisors take advantage of employees in the most unbelievable ways.

The latest trend is to create documentation unfairly. If you don't like someone, just "put paper on them" and get rid of them. Railroading an employee also comes back to haunt. You are only fooling yourself if you think that your narrow minded attempt to railroad someone will be seen as legitimate. What is more fun than having an employee scorned? Having the Department of Labor scorned. Try explaining your actions while facing the Department of Labor and they realize what you have done. A sudden astronomical increase in the number of terminations may raise a red flag that just might be hard to explain. Would it not be better to simply try to work honorably with the employees that you have, rather than face the scrutiny of outside agencies?

It's time to put the person back into the word personnel. It's time to treat employees with respect. It's time to take the supervision out of the court system by eliminating the need for it. Let's put lawyers out of the workplace by making them obsolete. Let's go back to a time when a person's word meant something, and people were trusted and respected for their character. If you take the time to hire and train someone, then why not treat them with respect due someone that you've invested in? Why waste money by assuming that everyone is inherently bad and will file a lawsuit just because they can? Why not give employees the benefit of the doubt and not give them reasons to file lawsuits? Sure, not every lawsuit can be avoided, but many can be avoided by simply taking the time to do what is right.

Trust me when I say that an employee scorned is one who will come back to haunt you. You may fire them or pass them off, but one day you will see his/her name again. Most people are reasonable and will do the right thing. If a person is not doing his/her job and all efforts at improvement have failed (and all efforts were honorable attempts at improvement,) the person will generally resign when all of the assessments are presented. This is not to say that all will – I have been in the presence of those who blame everyone else for their shortcomings and cry foul to the highest. There are those, but proper documentation and follow-up make the cries fall on deaf ears.

***NEWS ALERT***

The greatest costs associated with employee dissatisfaction: .............................Health Care Costs!!!!...............................

You realize that health insurance premiums are rising at the speed of sound, but you never related the increases to employee dissatisfaction. This was shortsighted on your part, don't you think? Happy employees are generally not hanging out in doctor's offices or the emergency room. You defend your position and blame the increases on employee's families. Ok, I can see that up to a point. But, let's get real, unhappy people look for comfort, even if it is in the doctor's office. Stress is becoming our greatest contributor to health problems. Many stress related ailments are not even associated with stress. Are you certain that stress doesn't cause cancer or atleast give it a fertile growth environment? Stress may be the number one reason for current health insurance rates today.

It is almost impossible to verify all of the health related effects of stress. Under great stress, I may be more accident prone. I may have stress related heart failure. I may suffer stress related eating disorders. The list is potentially endless. Our families suffer much of the stress that we bring home and relish upon them. If we are stressed at work, we will be stressed when we get home and we will pass around our anxiety, knowingly or not. Stress is powerful and is becoming more and more expensive.

Under great stress, we are more prone to addictions. Check out the latest statistics on antidepressants, alcohol, drugs, smoking, and overeating. The intensity of our lives is driving us to health related crises at alarming rates. Whether real or imagined, stress is a major factor in our lives. A job that has more pressure than a steam kettle will have devastating effects on you mentally and physically. If we stop to realize the amount of pressure applied to today's employees, we would feel stressed by the results.

Our bottom line emphasis causes us to force fewer workers to work harder for more hours. There is a limit that an employee can handle. The most diligent employee in the world has physical limits. You can't push a person but so far, before the person's health starts to suffer.

Deborah works in a hospital lab and recently told me of her working conditions and how currently five employees are doing the work that previously was done by seventeen employees. Suffice it to say that the lab director gets a bonus for each eliminated position, while the remaining five employees get the bonus of having to do three times as much work. The remaining employees find it almost impossible to get any time off and are stressed to their limits. Luckily, the hospital is self insured, so it won't have to pay increased premiums like other businesses. I guess the hospital can afford to work its employees to death. The dead can so easily be moved downstairs to the onsite morgue. Convenient, don't you think?

Payroll reduction programs are prevalent today. Even the government uses contractors so that labor costs can be reduced. In order to win a contract, contractors bid using the lowest possible number of employees for the contract. This number is bare bones, but add to this vacant positions during the contract, and employees find themselves working unbelievable schedules. Exempt employees don't get overtime, so use 'em while you got 'em. Contractors require exempt employees to cover hours which should be covered by additional employees. This may not be true of all contractors, but I have experienced several.

For those fortunate enough to atleast get overtime, still the excessive hours worked take their toll. Businesses must realize that they are literally working employees to death and there is an associated cost.

Accidents are very costly and a tired employee is a dangerous employee. Employees aren't machines and are prone to stress related failures. It is easy enough to require a person to work 12 hour days, but the malpractice costs can be astronomical.

Employers have adopted the mentality that if one quits another can be hired, the dispensable employee theory. There are costs associated with this also. New employees are less productive and require expensive training. The costs compound exponentially.

Employers would be wise to hire the appropriate number of employees to work reasonable shifts. Instead of loading the upper levels of the organization with intellectual bloat, companies would be wise to cut the fat at the top and implement sensible employee counts at all levels. Ten managers cannot overcome the financial effects of even one injury. All the intellect that money can buy will not eliminate accidents in an overstressed working environment.

Let's return for a minute to the hospital example – one genius cannot even calculate the potential liability being incurred on a daily basis at the hospital. How many patients are poorly treated, if not killed? The potential for malpractice lawsuits is beyond belief. Who was the genius who thought that cutting staff by one third would save money? This policy constitutes contributory negligence in the most obvious way.

Penny wise and dollar foolish, it would seem is the norm. We have cut operational costs to the point that even our hospitals aren't safe. If a patient knew that staffing had been cut by a third, do you think that he would be so prone to put his life in that hospital's care?

We have used our management analysis to the extreme and have cut corners past what is acceptable. All businesses feel the pinch of increased costs and consumers take hit after hit. So, if you didn't have enough stress at work, there's always time to get some after work when you try to pay your bills.

Realizing that our employees are working hard already and have lives outside of work, just as we do, should cause us to be kinder gentler employers. If we don't, we are sure to suffer more and more consequences of our actions.

Chapter 17 - Abusive Employees

Does even God have an alter ego? Just for giggles, let's imagine that you have unknowingly hired the mythical Satan. You were wowed by his charms. He is the clever one who seems to have the perfect answers to all of your questions. You could not be more pleased with your new employee. How did you ever get so lucky?

Faster than a speeding bullet, you find that your favorite new employee has turned over a new leaf – and it is not the sort of new leaf that you wished for. Soon, you cannot even believe that you were so fooled by this person. You are in shock more and more by the fact that you have hired evil incarnate. Now, what do you do? He has turned against you and will let no one stand in his way. All he needed was a foot in the door and all hell has broken loose.

You are no longer the one who made the wise hiring decision, but are the one who is trying desperately to save his own behind from the ruthless attacks from below. Your great employee has a way of ingratiating himself with your bosses and you find yourself on the other side of the fence. The coin truly does have two sides, as you have found out the hard way.

In fairness to employers, it is recognized that there are abusive employees. There are those who fake more accidents than a movie stuntman. There are those who are living comfortable lives on workers compensation who really have nothing wrong with them. I've seen "disabled" employees, do at their homes, what they weren't able to do at work. There are employees who do abuse the system and there are valid reasons for employers to protect themselves. I knew of an employee who was on workers compensation at one job, but was working at another. But, I have to say that the abusers are the few and the decent employees are the many. We tend to become tainted by the few and treat everyone with the same disdain that we treat the abusers. Suddenly, everyone out on sick leave is just taking advantage. We can only see that employees are out to take advantage of the company.

There are those who will play the race and sex discrimination cards to the fullest. Try to get someone who doesn't want to work to do something, and they will deal you a discrimination charge with maximum haste. We've all seen it and know that it is a business reality. It is a reality of abuse in all aspects of society. There are those who just simply take advantage and really don't want to work. Fact of life – get used to it! But, never make the mistake of using this as an excuse to be discriminatory nor to treat all employees with anything but absolute respect. If a person chooses to find an out, they will. Don't operate your business as if all employees will. There's a reason why every company pays workers compensation dues and carries liability insurance.

Let the abusive employees hold their proper place within the company and let the lawyers deal with them. Deal respectfully with all employees and don't have the mentality that someone is out to get you. If you do everything perfectly, someone will still take advantage. Just as if you burglar proof your house, someone can still break in. So, don't let the burglar control your life, live your life and deal with the burglar when he comes. You can't live in fear of the one who will get away with something. This will cause you to treat good employees badly. Do what is right and those who have dishonest motives will be dealt with at other levels. You cannot guard every employee, every day so that they will not be able to have or fake accidents. Don't even try. Promote your safety program and deal with injuries according to the law. Don't suffer needlessly and don't cause good employees to suffer needlessly.

We spend so much time dealing with the exceptions that we almost totally ignore the rules. It was the same way with the students. I only knew the names of the students who caused trouble. I almost never knew the names of the 99% who didn't cause trouble. The squeaky wheel does get the grease, but it's time to reverse the trend. Instead of focusing on the trouble makers, let's appreciate the ones who work diligently. Let's spend more time appreciating and less time trying to safeguard ourselves. Once you realize that some will take advantage, you will see that there really is nothing that you can do to stop it, short of treating everyone respectfully. If you have done all that you can and have done what is right, then you can do no more. If you concentrate on the good behavior, then the bad behavior will melt away into the background. Not many happy employees file suit against employers. Note to self.

Chapter 18 - Unsung Heroes

What if God, when He showed up for the interview, showed up in a wheelchair? Would you care? Would you automatically assume that He couldn't work for you as His limitations would be too great? Even if you knew that He was perfectly capable, would you still hire Him?

Tell the truth, no one will know (except you and God.) We discriminate all the time. A beautiful actress recently dressed up as an obese person and was shocked to find that people treated her much differently, just based on her outer appearance. We tend to hire those who look good, somehow equating looks with performance. This can be good or bad, depending on whether you work for in a modeling agency or a cubicle.

How much courage does it take for the handicapped person to live, knowing that the majority of society treats them differently? Instead of running from them, we should embrace their courage and welcome them in to our businesses. Their courage should, if nothing else, motivate us to do better. We can learn much from those who only seek a fair shot at life. Would you hire God, even if He were different from you?

We say that someone is innocent until proven guilty, but rarely is this the case. We prosecute people everyday by our treatment of them. We rush to judgment and convict those who are in reality very innocent. We don't stop to realize that age affects physical performance and we expect people of all ages to perform at the same level. This is not a matter of age discrimination, it is a physical reality. I know that I can't do what I could when I was twenty, so I must also assume that an employee who is seventy years old can not perform as if he/she is twenty years old. We are quick to say that the person is not doing his job, when in reality we know that the person is doing the best that he can. There have to be different standards for different age groups. This is not to say that elderly employees should not be treated like all other employees; this is to say that we must be fair to the employee who cannot perform like a young person.

I think that this is one case where we must be especially considerate of age. This is not to say that we should not hold such a person accountable and that she must not have to do her job. This is simply to say that with the increases in the overall age of society, we must not put people in positions beyond their physical capabilities, nor should we not give the elderly the opportunity to produce to the best of their ability. I, for one, know that a person who is advanced in years is far more likely to show up to work than a young person. Just as my mother was more likely to go to class than I was, mature people take their responsibilities more seriously than the young. The young just seem to have so much going on in life that they easily become distracted.

Recently, I had the great pleasure of working with a lady who had been an employee for twenty four years after having retired from the school system. Now, I have never had a more loyal employee or one who desired to be at work on time more than her. I also had the pleasure of working with an elderly gentleman (and a gentleman he is) who had retired from the phone company many years before. He worked harder and better than almost any employee. Knowing that his wife was very sick caused me to be considerate of his need to work different hours. This was not a problem and I did all that I could to accommodate his needs. I guess I have a special affinity for the elderly and especially for a person who works hard, even though they don't have to. Neither employee asked for special treatment – ever. I was smart enough to realize that they were two of the best employees that I had, and that their special needs were nothing in comparison to their contributions to the company.

These two didn't sit around griping and complaining – they worked to the best of their ability. There were some young employees who faked accidents just to keep from working. There were those with a special talent for hiding to avoid work. There were those who stirred up trouble at every turn. There were those who spent more time complaining about work than actually working. I've seen it all. I do believe that it is in a company's best interest to hire the elderly, and I do believe that a person who appreciates a job is a far better employee. Think of how hard a disabled person works when given the opportunity to work. Why don't we hire more disabled persons? Are we afraid that they will cost us more than a half-hearted employee? We tend to not see the person in a wheel chair. We tend to be afraid of those who need a little extra accommodation. We want young and healthy employees who aren't as interested or as responsible.

Go to almost any fast food restaurant in your area and you will see elderly employees. This didn't used to be the case. This is a fairly recent development which has come about by management's realization that the elderly show up to work far more often than the young. They may not be as fast, but they are generally more responsible. Ok, so this may cause me to be seen as discriminatory, but I think that equality should mean equality. Give a willing soul a decent opportunity to prove himself, and he does or doesn't. Don't disregard someone who is capable, because you are not comfortable with her disability.

I learned a great lesson once about needless discrimination. There was a student that was so delightful that everyone was impressed by his personality and he was very successful. He was always respectful of staff and was always pleasant. After he graduated, I learned that he was HIV positive. This was about the time that I saw the movie PHILADELPHIA for the first time. The movie helped me to realize the great physical and mental suffering of a person with aids, and this student showed me how powerful it is to be successful while facing the adversity of such a dreaded disease. He didn't sit around and have pity parties. He resolved himself to continue his education and have the best life possible. I have great admiration for that student. He provided me with a life-altering experience of how great some people really are.

Did I forget to mention the tax benefits of hiring the handicapped? Ever the penny pinchers, we look for ways to save a few bucks here and there. You might just create yet another win-win situation by hiring a person who would love to work and the tax folks would love to have you hire. Do everyone a favor and research the tax benefits available to employers. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Conclusion

If it were acceptable to list employees on a company's balance sheet as assets, perhaps companies would put more value on their employees. We often think of the expensive CEO as having a wealth of talent which is seen as extremely valuable. We, in turn, under value the other employees as if they were meaningless disposable property. Imagine for a moment that your employees could be listed on the balance sheet. Think of their experience and education as real dollar items purchased by the company. Add to their value the company's investment in hiring and training. Don't forget to put a price on a positive attitude and creativity. It seems impersonal to put a price on an employee, but it seems that unless we perceive the investment in real dollars, we will not see the value of what we have.

Just as with the one company that used three different valuations of an inventory item, putting different values on employees can give you a totally different view on the real impact of the employee on the organization. We don't give a second thought to putting contingent liabilities on the books which are caused by employee lawsuits. Why don't we use the same theory to analyze the true value of the employee? This is not to suggest that we start overstating our assets on our company's financial statements. There would be accountants and auditors coming out of the woodwork. The GAAP folks would be so creeped out that their hair would be standing on end. No, this is simply for an imaginative way to visualize the real importance of employees.

Visualizing employees for their value in education and experience can help us to put our priorities in the right place. Think of the asset value of your employees:

Employee - Education - Experience - Attitude \- Value

Michele - 4 year degree - 10 years - Great - Priceless

Craig - 2 year degree - 1 year Average - Priceless

Bob - None - 20 years - Good - Priceless

Take the time to realize the vast talent that is brought into the office every day. Think of each person's real contributions to the overall organization. We can so easily lose sight of the great employee within our company, if we fail to look at the true value of the individual. We have a tendency to let one action determine our overall impression of the employee. Remember the employee with long hair and tattoo example? If I had taken the time to get to know the person, perhaps my valuation would have been more accurate. Too many times we let our first impression be our only impression. Our shortsightedness costs us much in the long run.

Let's consider that we are interviewing two candidates and one is well dressed and the other is not so sharply dressed. We automatically assume that the better dressed candidate will make the better employee. We automatically assume that the person with the best grades will make the better employee. Once you realize that the person so focused on the outside may not be the person who can give more to the company than to himself/herself, you may be in for an eye-opener. Once you realize that the person with average grades may be the person who can see beyond self and is by far the more creative person, then you may be in for another shock. It is not necessarily the one who puts on the best appearance that is the best employee. Some of the laziest people I know are some really sharp dressers. Some even believe that they bring more to the company than the company brings to them. They are the ones who are worried about having the best office with the best view. They are not the ones who are kind toward others; they are the very ones who can't see past their own noses.

This is not to say that all fancy dressers are bad employees. I think that personal appearance is important, but it in no way determines the overall value of the employee. Generally, the hardest workers are the ones who are not so selfish or self centered. You won't see them spending time in self worship and aggrandizement. You will see them clearly focused on work and getting the job done. A clean neat office is important, but is not a measure of a person's worth. Our materialistic view has taken over and we are absolutely certain that making employees dress in suits is a symbol of success and power. Are we really that simple minded? Yes, you will see it at almost every turn. Granted, there are times where dressing up is important, but in everyday situations it may not make a real difference.

If you are sitting in an office unseen by the outside world, does it really matter if you wear a suit or nicely pressed jeans? We have put things above people and appearance above working efficiency. Always employees should be neat and clean and a standard of proper attire should be set. But if it doesn't matter, don't worry about it. Just as our old outdated policies remain on the books, let's throw out the trash and get down to basics. If you don't have a showroom at work or you don't deal with the public, let your employees be comfortable. It does make a difference. If suits were comfortable, people would just be begging to wear them everyday. Let your employees have some freedom for goodness sake. We have policed employees into a prison like mentality long enough. It's time to give some freedom back and improve morale without costing your company a dime.

Take the time to realize that employees are not prisoners or slaves. They need to feel appreciated, just as you do. Incentive programs that are really hollow and ineffective are not appreciated. If only the favorites get the assigned parking places, then the other employees will not be impressed. Bonuses are a double edged sword. They can be motivating or non-motivating. Think of the hired gun CEO who is offered an exorbitant bonus for improving the bottom line. There is nothing he won't do to reduce costs. There is not one employee who really matters when his bonus is on the line. Thousands of lives can be devastated in the pursuit of the all mighty bonus. Generally, there are short term gains and the CEO gets his payoff, and moves on to another bonus making opportunity. No one ever realizes the human devastation left in his wake. We praise his skill and his ability to make great changes. Five years later when the entire company folds from within, no one holds the great CEO accountable for his quick fix. Employee's lives are devastated and homes and families are lost, all for the benefit of the one who has all the answers.

I am amazed at some of the salaries and bonuses given to CEOs. Why are they seen as godlike and magical? If their salaries and bonuses were spread over the entire payroll, would the company not be better served? Just think, what if the employees had to approve the bonuses of management? Perhaps management would be a little more considerate of the employees. Isn't it better to serve the many than the few? Granted, there are companies where management becomes overly large and needs some reduction. No one will argue this point. But, when employees are laid off as a means to pay a huge bonus to one or two people, something is wrong with this picture. Sure, you may be the one who started the company and you may feel that you deserve more than anyone else. There does come a point when you have to realize that you are not the only one who deserves to profit from the company. You are not an island, your excessive bleeding of company assets will not only cost you, but will cause many to go down with you. When your materialism causes employees to lose their jobs, you have to look in the mirror and realize that you have put yourself above those who depend on you.

Your arrogance will cost you much. The large homes and fancy cars won't do you much good when your employees realize that they are losing their jobs. Who is the better person in the final analysis: the one who serves to help self and others; or the one who seeks only to serve self? It is irritating to see only the CEO on the cover of TIME MAGAZINE, when the one does not make the whole. If a company is performing well, why not put a picture of all employees on the cover of TIME MAGAZINE? Is it really the general who wins the war or the soldiers who actually do the real work? Napoleon might argue that the leader controls the outcome, but his soldiers may have a different point of view. If the general doesn't appreciate the soldiers, then the general will soon be all alone with no one to command.

I honestly believe that if businesses don't return to morality, then businesses will continue to suffer needlessly from the effects of abused and neglected employees. We spend so much time focused on the policies rather than the performers, that we lose sight of those who really keep the business in business. If you don't believe that treatment of employees makes a difference, then set up two identical businesses with two different types of management. One business appreciates its employees and the other does not. Look at the results and you will quickly see which business is more successful. On a smaller scale try this with two different offices within the company. It will work the same way. You can even take it down to a smaller scale and do a comparison between two employees. Size doesn't matter in this comparison. You will quickly see that how you treat your employee, makes a difference in the employee's performance.

Think about how you feel when you work for a cruel and uncaring supervisor. It is no different for the rest of the workforce. Respect is a free commodity that makes a world of difference. Attitude is truly one of the most influential free motivators. Kindness is priceless. Sincerity is without compare. Why do we not utilize our free motivational tools? Asking someone's opinion will not cost you a thing. Thanking someone for his efforts is very cost effective. We simply must treat people better in our organizations and outside our organizations. I don't think that you can find a single fault with being kind.

Let's hope that we change our view of employees and realize that they are people too. How we treat our employees does make a difference and they do understand when we make mistakes, if we acknowledge them. Simply trying to treat employees better is appreciated, but actually treating them better is rewarded. Never be so shortsighted as to underestimate the one employee. Every employee is vitally important to the overall organization.

When we see employees as we see ourselves, we are on the road to better business practices. Just as we worry about our mortgages and our car payments, all employees do the same. It is not us against them; it is all of us joined together to pay our combined mortgages and make our car payments. Your employee's mortgage may be smaller, but it is just as important as your mortgage payment. Remember this, and you will go far in getting the most return from your investment. Realizing that your employees are your greatest assets is the best thing that you can do for you, your business, and your employees.

Bibliography

Poe, Edgar Allen, The Tell Tale Heart. 1843.

Rosner, Bob. www.workingwounded.com.

Columbia/Tristar. Philadelphia. California: 1993.

Twentieth Century Fox. 9 To 5. California: 1980.

CNN. Pinnacle. Georgia, Atlanta: 2003.

Time Warner, Inc. Fortune 500. New York: 2003.

Time Magazine. The Whistleblowers. New York: 2002.

Motorola, Inc. Six Sigma. Japan: 1987.

International Organization for Standardization. ISO 9000. Switzerland, Geneva.

Social Accountability International. SA8000. New York, New York.

The Scribe Described

This scribe did not intend to be, yet was somehow chosen. Destiny played its part, shifting me to we, from I to all. I have always had a great curiosity about God and had studied much on the subject, but my primary focus was my career. Learning about God took on a new twist when God inspired me to write the words heard. "Hearing" is not how the words actually come, for it is more of a "knowing." When the mind is quieted, the emptiness is filled with inspired knowledge.

I write as and when instructed, either with pen or keyboard. The vehicle does not matter, but the content is to be kept sacred. Always, I understand that I must keep the sanctity of the gift given. Regardless of my own judgments about the content, I understood that the content is not about or for me. The content is to be presented as received, for the benefit of those seeking to have their questions answered.

I cannot profess to be specially qualified, except that I am able to simply bring the words received to print. My credentials really do not offer credence to the work, except that they are verifiable and do demonstrate the normality of my life. I do hold degrees in accounting and education and have thirty years business experience.

K. C. Boone

