Worst Places to Work

Having personally responded to over 50,000 emails from workers and bosses, as you can imagine, I’ve received screenfuls of emails about awful workplaces—or should that be screamfuls of emails?

A few examples from my inbox—there was the guy who got a daily soaking trying to spray clean dumpsters with a pressure washer, the woman who had to work next to the guy who would have loud, long conversations with his wife totally in baby talk, the guy who had to inventory used underwear after fashion shows, the guy who wrote to me that he just goes to work hoping that he’ll come home with all of his body parts intact and the woman who worked for a boss who asked his assistant to type her own termination letter.

Ouch!

Woody Allen once said that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. And I think this is also applies to work. For every horrible, outrageous, over-the-top and borderline cruel workplace like the ones above, there are millions more that are miserable. Note I didn’t say “merely” miserable, because I believe that miserable workplaces have a way of building up in your system, like mercury in a fish. Over time this buildup can be just as toxic.

Still not seeing the distinction here? I like to think of horrible as a meteor that crashes to earth destroying everything in its path. Miserable? That is the pebble in our shoe that most of us must walk around in day after day after day. After being miserable for twenty years, admit it, there are times where you wish that meteor would strike, if for no other reason than to put you out of your misery.

Examples of miserable at work would include the boss who is always looking over your shoulder and second guessing everything that you do. The coworker who always manages to go AWOL so that you have to answer the phone or cover their work just when you are facing your own big deadline. The customer, who even after they’ve bought your product, is still pushing you for a discount or some swag. The accounting department that rejects your expense reimbursement requests on average three times. The coworker who is an expert on all parts of your job but dumber than a rock about doing his. The company that announces that it will be laying off thousands of workers, but not saying who for another six months. You get the drift, heck, you have your own stories of misery and woe at work.

So how do we survive? I’ve developed a simple litmus test. Are the problems that you’re facing the “right” kind of problems or the “wrong” kind of problems? Sorting out that distinction, to me, is the key to a satisfying career.

At least a couple of you out there are asking, why all the focus on problems? “Sure, work has it’s downside, but it also has a lot of virtues too.” And to that line of reasoning I would say, sure, life is good when you have a parking spot right next to the building, an expense account, a fancy title and a corner office. Yes, work can have its privileges. But for the overwhelming majority of us, work is a minefield of problems.

What are the “wrong” kind of problems? Demeaning bosses, unsafe working conditions, crying on a regular basis, getting lied to—yes, when people write to me describing any of these circumstances, I always say the same thing, start networking and cleaning up your resume.

The right kind of problems? Being frustrated because your bold new idea isn’t quite ready for prime time. Having to scramble each day because you are always learning and adapting to new situations. Feeling the weight of the responsibility and authority that your boss has entrusted in your hands.

If I had a magic wand I would put everyone in a position where they had the right kind of problems and a nurturing workplace community that would provide support during the search for solutions. But since I don’t have a magic wand, it’s up to you to escape the horrible and the miserable in search of the right stuff. Good luck in your journey.

Employers Just Aren’t That Into You

Nothing surprises me at work anymore. After personally responding to over 50,000 emails from the corner office and the cube and 14 years as a workplace advice columnist, I thought I’d seen it all. I was wrong.

CareerBuilder asked employees how often they arrived late for work. At the end of 2007, 15% confided they’re late at least once a week. By the end of 2008, with a million people being laid off all around them, you’d imagine that the percentage of late arriving employees would decline dramatically.

And you’d be wrong.

The number of workers routinely showing up late for work increased to 20%. With 12% admitting that they showed up late more than once a week.

Suicide. That’s what leaps to mind because being consistently late for work is seen by many most managers, and Human Resources, as the easiest excuse to fire someone. In fact, 30% of companies say they have.

Anyone who is a regular reader of Workplace911, knows that I see former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain as a human piñata, an example of wretched excess that just can’t be poked enough. Unfortunately, management doesn’t own a monopoly on stupid.

Take the California State employees who recently protested a cutback in their hours, Please! Too bad so many newspapers are going out of business, because these state employees need an easy way to learn that their plight ain’t so bad. They still have jobs.

Yes, Workplace911 is an equal-opportunity criticizer. We take on CEOs and employees when either deserves a trip to the woodshed. Unfortunately this is far too rare, in a country where one political party seems to spend all it’s time fawning over leaders, while the other party idolizes followers. Isn’t it time for everyone to take off the rose-colored glasses and see how both sides have contributed to the nightmare we find ourselves in today?

Back to the increasing number of tardy workers, not only are more and more of us late, our excuses are getting exponentially dumber. You just can’t make this stuff up.

"I just got locked in my trunk by my son.”

· “"My left turn signal was out so I had to make all right turns to get to work.”

· “"I was attacked by a raccoon and had to stop by the hospital to make sure it wasn’t rabid.”

· And my personal favorite, “I feel like I’m in everyone’s way if I show up on time.”

I understand that the current economic headlines can drain the life force out of the most optimistic person. But seeing 1 in 5 workers choosing to be late stunned and depressed me. Let’s remember the context here, according to a recent poll by the Associated Press, 47% of workers fear they could be laid off, 71% know someone who has been and 63% report having trouble paying their bills. And the number of people late for work increases. Ouch!

I have a simple philosophy. I try to make it hard for my company to fire me, to make them work at it. Clearly I’m old school in this regard.

This survey reminded me of a boss who once wrote to me about one of his employees. She was sitting at her desk reading a People Magazine. He asked her to put it away and to get back to work. She began to cry and went on disability for two days. That’s what I’d call people who really need people.

Entitlement. That, unfortunately, seems to be the one thing that far too many bosses and employees share today, the belief that 90% of work is just showing up, perks included. We need to replace that “E” word with a new one, empathy. More employees who take the time to see the world through their boss’s eyes and more bosses who take the time to see through their employee’s eyes.

Our collective excesses got us into this mess. I believe only our collective empathy will allow us to dig our way out and to build a more humane and productive workplace. In the coming weeks I’ll outline strategies on how to accomplish this…

A few years ago Workplace911 did an online poll. It asked, “Which movie title best describes your relationship with your boss?” Sure, the question was light-hearted, but the results weren’t:

Little Shop of Horrors, 20%

It’s a Wonderful Life, 24%

The #1 movie title describing the relationship between employees and bosses? House of Games, 56%

To all the bosses out there, I have some bad news, in the “good old days” your people didn’t like you that much. Given the recent economic meltdown that occurred on your watch, I’m sorry to say, it’s really hit the fan.

Welcome to “Velcro” management. Where every stupid statement uttered by the former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, sticks to YOU. Where every corporate jet, sticks to YOU. Where every million dollar bonus payment, sticks to YOU. Think about it, who was the enemy in the last movie you saw? Odds are it was a corporate villain. Is it fair? No. But populist anger against you is growing exponentially.

I discovered how angry people are on a recent flight to New York City. I asked my seatmate if he minded if I practiced some of my observations on him. After doing a riff on the $35,000 executive commode, I paused and asked if I’d gone too far. He said, “NO. That is exactly what I’m feeling and so are most of my friends. Please speak up for all of us who don’t have a voice.”

Wretched CEO excess isn’t reserved for just “a few bad apples” anymore; it’s the norm, in the eyes of most of the people that I hear from today. I’ve got six words to help any CEO who is ready to lead and wants to really escape being tarnished by other CEOs, “one dollar a year in salary.” Only truly bold action will separate you from the tawdry norm that has become current CEO standard operating procedure.

And you ain’t seen nothing yet. According to a recent Associated Press poll, almost half of us now fear losing our jobs. And almost two-thirds of us are now concerned about being able to pay our bills. And more than seven in ten of us know someone who has been laid off.

Mr. and Ms. CEO, it’s time to smell the coffee. This economic mess didn’t happen despite your best efforts. It happened because of them. Same-old-same-old layoffs and lecturing everyone about tightening their belts won’t work anymore. You either need to lead, or you need to leave.

As more of us lose our jobs, I think we’ll start to see this anger spilling out into the suites, and streets. If for no other reason than people suddenly have time on their hands to make their feelings known and little to lose. It’s our job to speak out. Start with your next corporate proxy statement. That’s safe and won’t threaten your job. Anonymous blog postings are next. Look for every opportunity to add your voice of displeasure about our current crop of leaders.

However, there is a white knight out there for all of us, Donald Trump. When the peacock and The Donald are done with celebrities, the Apprentice needs to take on CEOs. Imagine the huge ratings as Trump says, “You’re Fired!” to executives from banking, the auto industry, etc. The people are ready for someone to say those two magic words that you’re famous for to corporate leaders across the land. You go guy!

Workplace911 community's favorite mindsets at work

Last time I discussed the top “mindsets” that we bring to work. For those of you who like things defined, here goes—mindset is “a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations.”

Most of us bring some “habits” to work on a regular basis. After doing a lot of interviews and research, I came up with five. What I like to call the 5 M’s. Machine, military, motivation, measurement and entrepreneurship (okay, that’s not an “M” word. I put it in because that is one of the problems with mindsets, they tend to lock us in to a limited way of viewing the world).

According to your votes, the mindset that you most often bring to work is machine. 35% of you chose it. Next was military with 27%. Followed by motivation, the choice of 17%. Measurement, 15%, and entrepreneurship at 6%.

Each of these mindsets served a purpose at one time. The problem is that they tend to live on long past the point they continue to provide value. Take the top response, machine. A smooth running machine is a very effective way to run a business. The problem? Machines don’t do so well when it comes to creativity and initiative. And those are two things that most businesses can’t do without today.

In addition, all of the mindsets share two basic problems. First, they tend to struggle when it comes to handling complexity. A new competitor, a worker shortage or a lawsuit against your company aren’t things that any of the 5 Ms can really cope with. The problem is that today’s workplace is all about complexity.

But there is an even bigger problem—control. All of these mindsets do best when there is a heavy hand running the show. And that heavy hand may have helped 60 years ago to make the trains run on time, but today many businesses are starting to realize that the brains of their people are a terrible thing to waste. So rather than trying to produce a certain result from people, more organizations are realizing they have to create a place where the best efforts can flow out of people.

So we need to develop a new mindset, one that gives more control to the people who actually do the work. Not for some soft headed share the wealth idea, but because organizations need to extract everything they can from their people’s hands, heads and hearts (okay, that will be the last bit of alliteration for this column).

Ultimately I’m not going to try to sell you on exactly what new mindset to adopt. My point is simply that we need to become more aware of the mindset we bring to work each day. And not forget the creativity and control as we go along our journey at work. Just realizing this should help us all to better navigate our workday more successfully.

Bringing the Wrong Mindset to Work

Mindset. What is the context that you bring to work each day? Your personal way of seeing the world that influences your problem solving and decision making at work? I think mindsets are one of the most important, and least talked about, issues in today’s workplace. Why? Because I think most of us go to work each day with the wrong one. Here are the 5 most common mindset “M’s” that I see in today’s workplace along with a few of the problems that are associated with each.

1. MILITARY. Max Weber believed that the most efficient way to get a job done was through a rule-driven, impersonal bureaucracy. His most influential book title tells you everything you need to know about his world view—“The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.” It’s easy to make fun of Weber’s rules. But look around your workplace and you’ll see that the only thing more resilient than a cockroach is a bureaucracy. Ironically, even the US military is encouraging the troops to show more creativity and initiative these days.

2. MOTIVATION. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is the landmark title from Dale Carnegie that says everything you really need to know about motivational management. Carnegie was a master salesman who created the fundamental techniques of handling people (don’t criticize, condemn or complain, give honest and sincere appreciation and arouse in the other person an eager want). What is pure gold in the hands of a master like Carnegie, unfortunately is distinctly un-motivating in the hands of a novice.

3. MACHINE. This is one of the most popular ways to look at work. With proper fuel and maintenance, well, work will work like a machine. The “father” of the machine mindset at work is Frederick Taylor. For example, he broke down the process to make Ford’s Model T into 7,882 steps. He then determined that of these steps, 715 could be done by men with one arm and 10 by blind men. The only problem is that Taylor’s world really has no place for creativity or intelligence. Oops.

4. MEASUREMENT. Walk into the Toyota building in Tokyo and you’ll see three portraits. The first is of the company’s founder. The second the current chairman. And the third is of an American mathematician, W. Edwards Deming. Lean production, quality and reducing waste were all hallmarks of Deming’s teachings. But my favorite lesson from Deming is number eight of his famous fourteen points. “Drive out fear.” Deming’s measurements can do a remarkable job of improving quality but once again this philosophy is extremely limited when it comes to creating new markets and products.

5. ENTREPRENEURIAL. [Yes, this is not an “M” word. And that is another aspect of “mindsets,” do your box you in and limit your flexibility?] Do you know when the word entrepreneur was first coined? J.B. Say, a French economist, first coined the word in the early 1800’s. Peter Drucker talked about how systemic entrepreneurship is the secret behind many of the most revolutionary innovations in the workplace. The only problem is that most organizations can only maintain an entrepreneurial environment for a relatively short period of time before bureaucracy begins to gum up the works.

Next time I’ll talk about an entirely new mindset that you can bring to work. One that is complex enough to allow you to tackle those really tough challenges at work.

-----

Bob Rosner is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist. For free job and work advice, check out the award-winning workplace911.com. Also check out his newly revised best-seller “The Boss’s Survival Guide.” If you have a question for Bob, contact him via bob@workplace911.com.