Saturday, July 31, 2010

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.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

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.

Monday, July 26, 2010

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.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

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.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

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.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

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.

Monday, July 19, 2010

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
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Unique Rich

My husband is entertaining me with eccentric bequeathals from the odd and money-laden. One man left his sizeable fortune to the woman who could prove she had the most children in 10 years. 4 women split it, but were the 9 kids each worth it? One left his fortune to 10 people picked randomly from the phone book in Lisbon, Portugal. A female author is leaving a portion of her fortune to a publisher that took the time to send her a handwritten rejection letter. All I can think is that there must be some great advice in that letter and that his handwriting is more legible than mine. It is interesting how simple human things inspire those with resources to share them. The hard-working middle managers of the world strive to fully utilize the limited resources provided to them in their daily work and some are uniquely rewarded with additional resources. The trigger is different for every company and the resources could be business ones to share or personal ones to enjoy. One thing is sure, there was an actual path to those resources that is less convoluted than just having a phone in Lisbon. Many times the path to resources is showing you are a good steward and that the additional resources you request come with a rock solid plan to acheive financial results. If you have ever asked for the money and didn't get it, did you give up or come back at the next budget cycle with more back up, ready to fight? Remember that "no" means three things in business. It can be not now. It can be ask differently later. Or, it can just be no. Learn to differentiate and more resources will come your way with the asking. If you are tired, shy, defeatest or lazy, don't worry, maybe a nutty rich person will randomly select you to share their fortune with their dog, Gunther.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

There is an End to the Money - Payroll Rant

Let's cover the walk through on managing Payroll, maybe you can use this one at work.

The word Budget indicates a finite amount of resources to which one is limited. However, in my experience in management and in HR most people consider a payroll budget a guideline. They know that the company must pay their employees when they work, so they creep over the edges of the budget. Where do they think the money comes from the magic money fairy? If you only have $100 bucks for groceries, let's call them payroll, and the total is $120, $20 worth has to go back. Now, let's get complex. Say you are paid by the hour and this week you only work 36 hours, instead of 40. Now your intake, let's call it Sales, is less than your your expected intake, let's call that Plan. Now you can't even pay $100 for your groceries (payroll), you only made $80. This means you have to adjust to your Sales and spend less on Payroll. Let's replace this whole analogy with one succinct statement. You can only spend what you earn!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Corporate Bystanders and The Moving Target

4 weeks into a new job and the most critical document according to the boss has changed 4 times. We were hired as high level professionals in our field capable of "hiring, motivating and retaining high-performing team members." (Wait just a minute while the gag reflex calms down.) We talk to our operational partners, gather performance data, analyze our recruting processes/statuses and provide a comprehensive report of the status of our folks. Two other people consolidate the data, fail to expand the cells so the updates aren't visible, and remove some of the data because they created extra criteria unknown to the professionals managing the report. I am and will always be a sharp shooter. Tell me which way the bad guys went and they will be stopped in their tracks. Right now, that target is moving in dimensions that are yet to be found. 16 corporate bystanders go down for every hit we make for a good promotion or righteous termination. For the love of money, which you all know you love, glue the target to the wall and let your folks hit a bulls-eye.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Balance of Powers....Really

Regardless of party, our Congress should be outraged that the President has now made 16 recess appointments. Siting obstructionism on the part of the Rebublican party, Obama had already done 15 unilateral appointments before June of this year. However, that just wasn't enough, he decided that he needed a Medicare chief during the most recent recess. What will it take for our representatives to step up and call him out on this? Now the person responsible for managing one of the most expensive social programs in existence today was hired without the protection of our bicameral legislature. If the President wants to do this, then maybe he should go public and let us look over the resume and decide whether or not this guy is qualified. Obviously, he feels Congress can't do it, even though we elected them thinking they were qualified. Are we still a Democratic Republic? What about the checks and balances our forefathers put into the system to protect us from the tyranny of dictatorship that we suffered under as colonies? If your representatives in Congress are not outraged and publicly angered by this behavior, you need to elect new ones. When did we quit believing in the principles for which our country was founded? If you want socialized medicine or other socialized stuff get a NAFTA visa and go to Canda. If you prefer obvious corruption, that isn't shielded in politic games, get a NAFTA visa and go to Mexico. I knew there was a reason we needed NAFTA. The rest of you can go to Venezuela, because he doesn't like the U.S.A. either. The rest of us owe it to OUR posterity to get this crap fixed before they live in an oppressive dictatorship.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Bus Def of the Week: Corporate Perjury

Spell it any way you like, it's a lie. For the nerdy whimps in the group, we'll say intentional inaccuracy. It all starts with good old fashioned accountability. A task goes out to the managers. It requires they reply that it is complete by a specific date. There are some specific documents to explain what to do. They reply by the due date with some prodding from their bosses. Victory! They are 100% complete! Now, the detail audits. Looks good on the surface, then documents are missing, the checklist was not followed and no one knows why. A follow up audit is scheduled and managers are strongly encouraged to follow direction and be accurate in their reporting. Thank you to the businesses that document and terminate for this crap. Shame on the rest of you. There is no excuse for corporate perjury. Do what it takes to be right and on time. If it can't get done, own it and have a plan. Try some managerial courage, folks! If this H R ran the company, the pejury would be defined as document falsification and some purgery would occur. Now you know the meaning of corporate perjury.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Road Warriors

A brief tribiute to those that work all over the world and still take a family call at 3am Poland time, whatever time zone that is. Congratulations on your mastery of over the counter sleep aids and customs interrogations, I mean reviews. Thanks for feeding free enterprise and being someone that truly understands and appreciates the phrase, "God bless the U.S.A."
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Friday, July 2, 2010

Motivation from a Spiritual Standpoint

What motivates? How often is it a desire to have what we see in the possession of others? We do what we do to succeed, which is a competition. This is a human contrived process to create division. Think of the musical savant that could not operate under the contrived expectations of others. He is homeless and quirky, but still plays like a virtuoso. He is as much a genius as the man in the tux at the performance hall. There is enough for everyone. We create limits on how many people can succeed to fit our brains limit to conceptualize the world. These limits are false. Like the movie where a boy spends his whole life in an idyllic small town. Once he is grown up, he wants to see more of the world, but is discouraged by everyone around him. He sets off in a boat to find new shores. He docks on the other side of the lake to discover there are painted trees and a utility door. He exits the door and finds himself on a TV set. His life was a highly popular, scripted TV show. We have a spirit to guide us; we need to stop giving ourselves scripts to help us fit in. Motivation guided by integrity is an instinct. It fits that others envy people who are willing to be self-guided. Pick where you are going from the inside and pursue it relentlessly.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
 
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People Platform HR by Marti Nelson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.