Loyalty - The Mini-series

Part 1 - General Loyalty. Dictionary.com defines loyalty as follows: loy·al·ty   /ˈlɔɪəlti/ Show Spelled[loi-uhl-tee] Show IPA
–noun,
1. the state or quality of being loyal; faithfulness to commitments or obligations.
2. faithful adherence to a sovereign, government, leader, cause, etc.
3. an example or instance of faithfulness, adherence, or the like: a man with fierce loyalties.

This includes supporting your favorite ball team even when they are playing your sister's favorite team, GO Tigers!. This makes me loyal to my boys, but not disloyal to my sister. I root for her team every game except when they play mine. We also root for each other's teams rivals to lose. We defend each other in public and only offer feedback in private. She's right, even when she's wrong, if someone is on the attack. The fun part of this is that very early in this story, there were qualifiers to loyalty. Choosing one group over another under certain circumstances. Whether it is family, close friends, or professional contacts we prioritize and manage our loyalties with "logical" justifications for our choices. For the most part, one loyalty never overlaps another, so the priorities aren't tested. Once a conflict arises, we pick where to sacrifice credibility and someone else's loyalty to remain unwaveringly loyal to another. Like so many other words, the general application fits the definition, but personal perception doesn't. When we think loyalty, we see knights dying in battle for the love of their king. We believe that it is more than the circumstantial or consequential product of a commitment or obligation. In Parts 2 and 3 of this mini-series, we will investigate employee loyalty and business loyalty. I welcome your thoughts.

The Space Between Moments of Clarity

When the light of understanding finally dawns in our eyes, we remember that moment of clarity with awe and pride. Our best ideas and actions come to us in those brief periods. Based on that, most of our lives is the space between moments of clarity.

Campaign Finance Reform and EFCA

We need to remember that it all runs together. The new Campaign Finance Reform Bill currently teetering on the brink of law in our unpredictably balanced Senate includes a piece that once again gives unions new rights. It allows organizations with a particular number of dues paying members to be allowed to put that cash into campaigns of the organization's choosing. The difference between the usual dues collecting organizations like the NRA or the AARP and unions is that in Closed Shop states union members are required to belong to the union within a fixed period of time or lose their job. This means that Campaign Finance "Reform" would allow the money that these folks are required to pay to keep their job to be used at the union's discretion to further candidates sympathetic to their "needs". Impressive, the crafters of this legislation were crafty enough to get the unions lumped in with organizations people join voluntarily out of passion for their mission. Yes, there are passionate union members and there are tons more that pay dues to keep working in their industry. There isn't a method for union members to vote on where their money goes or insist that it goes back into supporting them in employment related issues, which is why the union is there in the first place, right? If you are wondering where EFCA comes into this, let's go back to the "card check bill". EFCA allows a simple majority of employees signing union cards, possibly under duress because the unions can visit their homes, schools and children's soccer games, to certify the union. No vote, no democratic process, no room for the employer to tell their side. In a Closed Shop state, this is tantamount to impressment. 50% less one of the entire employee population are required to join the union because the other 50% plus 1 signed cards, no option, if you want to keep your job. EFCA is struggling for now, so let's put a little gift to the unions, traditional supporters of the Democratic Party. Let's make sure they can continue to support their favorite candidates legally through the Campaign Finance Reform. Who said power doesn't have it's priveleges? While this is disturbing, I am truly surprised that there is this much creativity in Congress. Could someone up there put this creativity toward balancing the national budget, instead of finding ways to tip the balance on their campaign war chests? All else fails, quit getting creative all together and focus on using Ramsey's envelope system to get the country back on its feet. When the budget is balanced, you can go back to screwing with working class America.

Executive Enema

Managers eventually come across the underperforming department, facility or business unit during their career. We have a resonsibility to help these teams turnaround for the sake of the employees, the company and our bonuses. We gather some other mid-managers or executives to pool our expertise and apply it to the problem (yes, problem not challenge, issue or opportunity). We all agree that we have to make some scheduling sacrifices to micro-manage the place and get the team together or line them up to be replaced. Then the "team" goes to the facility. We pull together the facility's upper management with the "team", then squeeze them into the biggest office we can find. There is an agenda and outline of responsibilities. We cover all of the ways that each "team" member will support the location with visits at least once a week for the foreseeable future. Each visit will involve specific managers from the facility, a checklist (yay), and accountability to action items on the next visit. It is a management dream with all of the components intended to make the facility feel important and supported. After all, we want to protect their morale and motivate the team. (Read: cover our butts, if the place self-destructs and we have to terminate folks.) The final results: 5 members of upper management will but up the behinds of the management team in that facility until they improve or remove - the executive enema. Welcome to the cleansing.

Unemployment and the Welfare State

For a bright moment, Congress decided to take unemployment back to it's roots and stop extending benefits indefinitely. It sounds uncaring to say that unemployment needs to remain a finite benefit of the formerly employed, but let's think this over. Unemployment insurance is paid by employers based on people that are working and paying taxes. When those folks are no longer working they, through their employer, have paid into the system and it pays them back. The time frame is finite and meant to encourage folks to seek employment of some type and pay back into the system again. When there are more people drawing unemployment than is paid into it, the states go into debt with the federal government for the difference. When this happens, the companies in that state pay more unemployment tax to the federal government and it goes up every year until the state pays the debt and is in the black. The only way the state can pay the debt and get in the black is if the unemployment rate falls low enough to have enough people paying in to offset those getting paid plus make payments on the debt. In the State of Michigan, this is not likely to occur for at least 6 years. Therefore, employers in this state will be paying 2.6% to the feds on a bill that is normally .8%, in addition to state unemployment insurance. What a great way to attract new employers (read sarcasm). In the meantime, the folks that are working are paying 2 and 1/2 times over and above the lovely unemployment taxes already levied into general taxes diverted to pay additional unemployment. Since our government wants to spend our taxes to support the long-term unemployed, why aren't they on Welfare? There is already a government program funded by our taxes for this purpose. Since we never got rid of that program after the Great Depression, let's quit using programs for things they weren't intended to do and get back to the process of helping people work. Many generations of well intentioned politicians and bureaucrats have created programs to help people that ended up being long term tax burdens on the general populace. Each program was meant to end and no one had the guts to pull the trigger on them. Now, once again, Congress is unable or unwilling to cut off the program we are misusing to create a false sense of security. Could someone in D.C. please take the same amount of time focusing on encouraging business growth that they spend on debating extending unemployment? We would all rather see America working than waiting in suspense for the approval to get their next handout.

Social Media Dilemma

A group of current colleagues have started sending invitations for Linked In. I accept, because I like these people and this is social media. However, I was concerned about giving work connections access to my blog posts and personal thoughts. There are things that I learn during a work day that contribute to my blog material. Now the challenge is to use the thoughts and energy without insulting my employer or coworkers, every business does crazy stuff from time to time. Truthfully, I like where I work and what I do. Nothing is going on at this company that hasn't happened before at other companies where I have worked. We all apply our personal knowledge and sensibilities to the things we do and strive to control the environment to match these expectations. The level of militance we apply to changing the environment depends on the strength of those sensibilities. The company isn't the target, it is the springboard of thought and action. We'll see how I do in getting the points across with the clear understanding that what I blog represents the opinions of the author and not her day job or employer.

Fatigue continued

i!  Ghost Writer here.  Marti likes a few of my ideas from time to time and is letting me haunt her blog.  So here's the word for the week:  Fatigue."Webster's Dictionary" provides more than a few definitions, but I like these two.1. Weariness from bodily or mental exertion.2. The weakening or breakdown of material subjected to stress, esp. a repeated series of stresses.So let's have a show of hands?  How many of us feel this way?  Right now?  And we drag our fatigued selves into our lives each morning using coffee or sugar or something to convince our weary minds and bodies to not feel fatigue?What if we stopped?  What if, for a second, we considered stopping?  Marti posted three blogs this year on the topic - "The Value of Time", "The Point of Exhaustion", and "Willfulness".  All three great.  All making salient points on the scurrying world of work.  Marti wrote in the Exhaustion post, "The most important product we present is ourselves, yet we fail to get enough sleep, talk to our families at dinner (at the dinner table), and remind people why they are important."  This is sadly true, and the worst part is, we don't talk because of the fatigue, when talking with our loved ones is one of the best ways to cure it.  She then says in Willfulness that we in turn rebel against our jobs.  We call in sick to get a day off, when really we just needed the day off to combat the fourteen weeks of 60 hours a week before that.  And as she says, is it just "the small rebellion that allows most of us to continue to be something we really aren't to achieve things we think we want"?So why do I feel compelled to beat this drum again when she's done it so well it three times?  Because in a conversation with a friend, he used the word "fatigue" and in my mind, I could see my life as the bridge from the high school Physics film.  You know it -- the Tacoma Narrows bridge that in a normal wind for the area virtually disintegrated from fatigue.  If a bridge, a physical entity just like a human being, can fatigue to the point of crashing, what's to say we won't, too?  Humans, and based on my international travels I would speculate American humans in particular, are the only animals that knowingly, consciously, and with almost ridiculous focus, work well past the point of fatigue to failure.  And to what end?A former boss once said to me, "The difference between doing a good job and a great job is 3%.  Make your choices."  Really people.  Let's get honest with ourselves.  How do you manage you?  How do you manage others?  Do you manage them in a way that protects against fatigue?  Or do you drive to work, slurping coffee, reading the Blackberry, listening to talk radio, and somehow not managing to kill others while you tell an employee to do more?  In the world of "my job used to be three or four people, now it's me on a pay freeze", isn't it time for a different style of human resources leadership (notice, not management) in the workplace?So as I wind this down, I leave you with one last People Platform HR quote. "I recommend putting away the time saving devices and doing something that takes time and creates something you can hold in your hands. This will be time you cherish like a child rather than save like a dying house plant."  Quit reading this blog for the day and go take a nap or whatever restorative thing you do!  Marti and I will be here when you want a distraction... like when traffic is at a dead stop for 10 minutes when you're running late
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