A Happy Productive Workplace
Posted Under: conscious living, success, workplace success
Some workplaces are great, some are just ok, and some are downright toxic; I have worked them all. What makes one workplace stand above the others? The quality of the people you work for.
The manner in which you are treated by your ’superiors’ in the hierarchy of your workplace determines if you will rise in the morning each day excited by the challenges you are about to face, or barley able to drag your sorry behind out of bed dreading the crap you will soon be dealing with.
Workplaces can be either pro-active or re-active, and this difference falls squarely on the shoulders of the management. Re-active managers are those who really have no working knowledge of how to manage people, have no clue as to what makes a workplace function smoothly in terms of human resources, and look at management more as running the nitty-gritty of calculating margins and fiddling with spreadsheets rather than working with employees to grow the business from the bottom up. These managers have generally been promoted into their positions simply to fill a vacancy or they have been working long enough to warrant a ‘management’ position. Many re-active managers make themselves rare and hide out in their offices avoiding issues that involve human resources.
Pro-active managers, on the other hand, are well able to motivate and stimulate the people that work with them to perform up to their potential and to produce excellent work under their own initiative. Pro-active managers tend to have formal training, and if not, generally seek out information on their own through reading and enrolling in management courses and workshops. Pro-active managers leave the number crunching up to the accounting staff and approach their business holistically, embracing the big picture. They realize that the big picture may not even exist if the people who paint this picture are unhappy and not well looked after.
Below is a comparison of some common workplace issues, both positive and negative and the two possible responses of supervisors or bosses; either re-active or pro-active
1. Being Late for Work:
Re-active Response:
When an employee shows up five minutes late the manager/boss will scold them by tapping their watch and insist on a reason for the tardiness, whereupon yet another five minutes is wasted in this explanation to satisfy the egoistical overlord. This parent child relationship strives to increase performance through punishment and humiliation: it doesn’t work.
Pro-active Response:
If someone is late periodically just ignore it altogether, people are late sometimes, and as an employer it is really none of your business why. If the situation becomes chronic, have a stand-up meeting with them in private, to avoid humiliation in front of their working peers, and politely ask what’s up? Ask them from a standpoint of genuine concern and ask how you as their employer can help them out. Maybe they just need a bit of extra time this year to drop their kid off at daycare. So agree to let them have an extra fifteen minutes in the morning, and suggest they make it up through breaks or over lunch; in other words, work together to solve the problem. How is that going to hurt? You will have a happier more productive employee on your hands.
A re-active manager will begin to spout crap about “if I do it for you I have to do it for everyone.” That is simply nonsense. Of course they will have to do it for everyone! They need to stop being so lazy! Employee’s personal concerns must be addressed on a one-to-one basis. We cannot expect everyone in the world to be the same and fit into a nice little mold to make our working day as a manager more easy. Productive and happy employees can do amazing things for the bottom line, whereas employees with low moral can actually destroy a business; it can never be forgotten that they are the people doing the work.
2. Regularly Showing up Early for Work:
Re-active Response:
The re-active response is no response. The managers just take the good work ethic of the employee for granted. Nothing gets noticed because there is no problem.
Pro-active Response:
If an employee shows up early for work just notice and say thanks. That simple act of gratitude will cause your employees to like you as a person, and when people like you, they want to help you. In reality your employees are not working for you they are working with you. You work together as a team toward a common goal; the success of the business. When we like someone, we can’t help but want them to succeed.
3. Wasting Company Time:
Re-active Response:
If too much chatter at the water cooler is happening, or fifteen minute breaks are stretching into half hour breaks, managers will walk past wagging their finger and scolding people with that all too common sarcastic patriarchal statement, “OK people, get back to work now.” Or if Facebook and Twitter are consuming work time, the boss installs spyware.
Pro-active Response:
It’s true that some people chat too much and will abuse the internet while at work, but this is just a symptom of boredom. Make sure that people have interesting stimulating work that best utilizes their individual talents and interests. This will definitely take some work on management’s behalf but happy employees are worth it. When people get bored and begin to dislike their job the next natural step is to complain about their job, and this can poison the whole workplace. Employees will start to complain to each other within the workplace and gossip about how terrible the management is; then they will start to gossip outside the workplace, bad-mouthing both the organization and the management. Since word-of-mouth is apparently the best form of advertising, this can really effect the image of a business. When people enjoy their work they only have good things to say about it.
4. Going the Extra Mile:
Re-active Response:
Here again the re-active response is no response. The managers just take the good work ethic of the employee for granted. Nothing gets noticed because there is no problem.
Pro-active Response:
When an employee works hard and produces excellent result, take notice and offer congratulations and gratitude. This is generally all the reward that most people are after. Everyone just wants to be told that they have done a good job, that someone appreciates their effort, and that their accomplishments make a contribution. If people feel that their efforts do not matter, and that they are not contributing, they simply don’t care.
5. A Raise in Pay:
Re-active Response:
A cost of living annual raise is given, and that’s it, no matter how well the company has done this year.
Pro-active Response:
A cost of living raise can almost be a slap in the face. Its says, “this is all that I am required to give you, so this is all that you are going to get.” It essentially says, “here’s your raise, but you don’t deserve it.” Boost the percentage by a tiny bit and people will get the impression that you care enough and are appreciative enough to give them a little more than simply what is expected. Of course the business is not duty bound to give raises at all, but if a raise will be given it must be given from a standpoint of gratitude for the work that employees are doing.
6. Employee Mistakes:
Re-active Response:
When a mistake is made, as is done by everyone from time to time, managers insist that employees work for free to remedy the situation. They punish people by trying to claw back losses from sweat equity. They make people worry about losing their job.
Pro-active Response:
When an employee makes an honest mistake just eat the cost and move on; mistakes happen. When people are punished, their work will suffer in the extreme, they will be more stressed and less able to perform their jobs well. Punishment may also spark a revenge mentality and a worker may become down-right malicious and cause some real damage to the company. Punishment is incredibly bad for workplace moral. When other employees observe punishment they understandably become gun shy; they will essentially stop making their own decisions for fear of making a mistake themselves. This apprehension will slow productivity way down. If mistakes are caused by poor work practices or become chronic, they should be addressed matter-of-factly. If dismissal is warranted than the employee should be let go through the proper channels. Of course some employees are just not right for your business.
7. The Employee Bonus:
Re-active Response:
An annual bonus is given based on a percentage of wages and is given to all employees equally. Actually producing results that earn the company money does not achieve a bonus because that would be unfair to the people that have been employed the longest. A person receiving a higher wage will get a larger bonus than someone at a lower wage even though they may have contributed less to the company overall.
Pro-active Response:
Give bonuses where bonuses are due. If Joe Blow has worked for fifteen years and has accomplished nothing more than the basics of his job, should he get the same bonus as the new kid who has been with the company for only two years but who has presented new ideas that positively effect the bottom line? Of course not! Joe Blow may be angry if he finds out the new kid received a bonus, but that’s tough luck for Joe! Joe did not contribute as much, so Joe should not be rewarded as much. By all means Joe should be rewarded for his loyalty but not for being proactive. A bonus structure should be set up in a workplace that clearly states how, when, and for what bonuses will be given out. This keeps everything fair and above board and keeps people from crying favoritism.
These are just a few examples that I have experienced in workplaces that are truly counterproductive for the entire organization. Most issues can be remedied with basic good management and a fundamental understanding of personal relations practices.
An employer should strive to create a proactive well functioning workplace where people are happily employed and may actually enjoy coming to work.
Check out my recommended self help materials page.Click Here!
Reader Comments
Dennis, very nice article. I think it comes down to trust and respect. If management shows trust and respect for their employees, most of the rest of these things will follow.