Few things are constant, but management stupidity when it comes to retention is one of them.
Before Wall Street pulled the rug out of under the economy global demographics made the need to cherish workers at all levels obvious.
Estimates of the national shortage run as high as 14 million skilled workers by 2020, according to widely cited projections by the labor economists Anthony P. Carnevale and Donna M. Desrochers.
Then came the downturn and executive retention stupidity is once again running rampant.
Two-thirds of executives at large companies were most concerned about losing Gen Y employees, while less than half of them had similar concerns about losing Gen Xers.nearly two-thirds of executives at large companies were most concerned about losing Gen Y employees, while less than half of them had similar concerns about losing Gen Xers.
The assumption is often that Gen Yers are the least loyal and most mobile, says Robin Erickson, a manager with Deloitte’s human capital division.
However, a companion survey of employees found that only about 37 percent of Gen Xers said they planned to stay in their current jobs after the recession ends, compared with 44 percent of Gen Yers, 50 percent of baby boomers and 52 percent of senior citizen workers who said the same.
Everyone surveyed worried about job security. Gen X and Gen Y were most likely to complain about pay. But a ”lack of career progress,” was by far the biggest gripe from Gen Xers, with 40 percent giving that as a reason for their restlessness, compared with 30 percent of Gen Yers, 20 percent of baby boomers and 14 percent of senior workers.
Gen Yers, meanwhile, were more likely than the other generations to cite ”lack of challenges in the job” as a reason they would leave, while baby boomers more often chose ”poor employee treatment during the downturn” and a ”lack of trust in leadership.”
Let me spell this out.
The economy will turn around.
The Boomers may stay in the workforce for now, but they will retire.
Gen Y is being held back because of the economy and may never catch up, certainly not fast enough to run American enterprise when the Boomers retire.
That leaves Gen X, which is being ignored.
Stupid attitudes towards employees is nothing new for the folks running companies, but this one is really going to come back and bite not just them, but our country’s competitiveness.
One can only hope that the stupidity is global, so we’re not the only ones dealing with it.
Social media; stories about it are everywhere, but I find the most interesting are about what companies are doing and how its being used.
Let’s start with Twitter. Everybody has heard of Twitter, even people who have no idea what it is talk about it—like my friend’s great-granny. But it’s their smarts in innovation that is most impressive—they outsource it.
Twitter’s smart enough, or lucky enough, to say, ‘Gee, let’s not try to compete with our users in designing this stuff, let’s outsource design to them.’ –Eric von Hippel, head of the innovation and entrepreneurship group at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T.
If you run a business these days you’re probably using Facebook or thinking about it—I know I am. So I found this article in the NY Times of great interest, especially since it’s written for folks, not pros.
You need to be where your customers are and your prospective customers are, and with 300 million people on Facebook, and still growing, that’s increasingly where your audience is for a lot of products and services. –Clara Shih, author of “The Facebook Era” (Pearson Education, 2009).
Do you know the key ingredient that helps police nab the bad guys? Stupidity—theirs. It used to be that they flashed their loot around and bragged to their friends, not they flash their loot and brag on Facebook.
Maxi Sopo thought he had made an excellent decision when he ran away to Cancun to escape a Seattle fraud prosecution. He also thought it would be a great idea to add a former Justice Department official as a friend and gush about his exploits on Facebook.
I love it when stupid gets stupider.
Last is an item that falls in the smart or stupid category—you decide. It asks the question; at what point does a CEO’s Facebook sharing cross the boundary to TMI (too much information)?
Recently Chip Conley, CEO of Joie de Vivre, a $230 million company with more than 3,000 employees, got enmeshed in a bit of a 2009 corporate culture snafu. Conley’s not your average Harvard MBA pinstriped buttoned-down corporate chieftan. He’s an entrepreneur. He writes his own rules. So to him, it wasn’t so strange to post some pictures of himself at the Burning Man whatever-it-is in the dessert on his Facebook fan page. Or to tweet on Twitter about the demise of his 8 year long relationship.
When his employees got upset he wrote about it on BNET. Read both articles and share your thoughts in comments.
Today I have some great links to share that should bring a laugh, or at least a chuckle, to anyone who has worked in the cubes of corporatedom.
Of all business actions, the one that people are most prejudiced against is meetings. David Silverman offers a great idea that rings organizational bells in a positive way—sanity via the 50 minute hour.
Next is a question asked by a reader of the Boston Globe. Typically questions asked publicly garner a variety of opinions, but not when the questioner is looking for support for pursuing self-recognized unethical behavior—no matter how stupid the underlying policy.
And speaking of stupid, how ’bout the newest device to deal with interoffice romance? Read all about the love contract (yes, it’s legally binding) that some companies are instituting.
Stupid topping stupid today, but first prize has to go to the Burger King manager who invoked the “no shoes” policy when dealing with a barefoot six month old baby.
I love when my readers call with questions, situations or just to chat (you can reach me at 866.265.7267), so when Tony called I was delighted.
At one point he asked why I harped so much on the psych stuff that I refer to as MAP.
I told him that all coaches/consultants/mentors bring their own philosophy/approach/spin to a subject and I’m no different. My focus has always been on what I call MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™), because we are and do as we think.
I believe that how you think sets the stage for what you do.
In other words, if your thoughts and the actions aren’t in sync then you lose authenticity—and you can’t win success at any level if you’re not authentic.
Further, there’s no way you can implement the best advice on the globe if it’s not at least synergistic with your MAP.
A great example I’ve seen of this was a district sales manager we’ll call “Jim.”
Jim’s office was known for its individualistic salespeople and somewhat erratic production. It never won high office sales awards in spite of having several of the company’s top individual producers, while “Brad’s” office won top honors year after year without any stars.
On one hand, Jim craved an office like Brad’s, but on the other, he belittled the “rah-rah” tactics that Brad believed in and used to motivate his team.
Jim tended to hire people like himself (a common managerial tendency)—gregarious loners who also didn’t respond to team tactics and motivation.
When Jim paid for a professional, day long, team-building program it fell flat. His people thought it was corny and knew that Jim didn’t believe in it either; beyond that, Jim didn’t change his own style of benign neglect.
Simply stated, Jim felt that he could go through the motions; say the correct words and his people would join in. He had no interest in changing his MAP, so there was no authenticity in his actions.
But people aren’t stupid; proceeding as if they are is a recipe for disaster, whatever the size of your organization and no matter what you are trying to do.
There are way too many stupid bosses out there, but now and then one of them goes to extremes.
This is the first of an occasional series based on finding or receiving examples of extreme managerial stupidity. If you have a good one please send it to me at miki@rampupsolutions.com, subject “extreme stupidity” (so it misses the filters).
In her annual goal-setting meeting with her boss a woman with a track record building relationships across departments said that one of her goals was to increase her knowledge so she could help the company juice innovation by breaking down silos.
Her boss said, “This place doesn’t work that way. No place does. I think you’re confusing knowledge with ability and I wouldn’t recommend that you build a career based on knowledge. Do yourself a favor, don’t set yourself up for failure.
Focus on something you can really do. Work on your Powerpoint skills. Learn to manage your time better so you don’t have to work so many hours.
Let me explain something to you with an example, I believe in taking care of the customer and the shareholder. I don’t give a sh** about the employee. So I’d never put into my goals ‘build stronger relationships with my team members’ because I don’t care about them. I’d hate doing it and I wouldn’t be any good at it because I don’t want to be any good at it. See what I mean?”
There are multiple stupidities in his comments, so I’ll take them individually.
Obviously this manager doesn’t read the business news. There isn’t a CEO out there who isn’t looking for ways to break down walls and reduce silo mentality; there’s too much proof that doing so sparks innovation and raises the bottom line.
Skills are knowledge in action; knowledge is transferable between industries; in the 21st Century there is nothing else on which to build a career except knowledge.
A company is like a three legged stool with investors, customers and employees being the legs. If one leg is longer or more robust than another the stool will tip over. This type MAP guarantees sky-high costs due to extremely low productivity and excessively high turnover, since employees vote for their bosses with their feet.
Managers are not the front line in most companies—especially those large enough to have silos. This manager’s customers are interfacing with the employees about which he doesn’t give a sh**, so there’s not much reason for them to give much of a sh** about the customers.
Managerial raises and promotions are based on the accomplishments of the manager’s team; there is nothing a manager can do as an individual that will offset a non-performing group. However, how long it takes him to fall on his ass depends on how many levels above him have the same MAP.
If you find yourself in a similar situation here are some ideas on what to do
If possible change jobs; set your own goals and pursue them as openly as is safe and covertly when it isn’t; continue to build both knowledge and associated skills.
And what not to do
Don’t bother reporting him—unless he’s a very recent hire HR and his manager already know; don’t try sabotage—it’s likely to backfire; put it out of your mind—don’t allow it to eat at you or gnaw on it like an old bone; make a screen saver, sign, etc. that says, “This To Shall Pass” and get on with your life.
Considering what’s going on in the world I thought I’d republish a guest post byKevin Dwyer (I added some formatting) that really resonates with today’s headlines.So, without more ado, here it is…
“Since When Did I Become a Grumpy Old Man?”
By Kevin Dwyer
Something insidious seems to have happened as I have got older. The world as seen through the prism of popular culture continues to be dumbed down. Stupid seems to have become mainstream. This appears to have occurred both in general and business society.
Now, it may well be that I am just becoming one of the grumpy old men from The Muppet Show. I offer the following for you to judge.
CEOs and their executive teams who preside over share prices which fall, are involved in scandals, or are sold on to private equity firms because the executive team cannot get sufficient value out of the assets are given bonuses on top of extremely high salaries.
Politicians not only get away with plausible deniability, but seem to believe that it is a legitimate tactic in executing their responsibility to spend our individual money to build a collective future society for our children, better than the one we were born into. Promises become core promises and non-core promises. The truth becomes what people believe is the truth, not necessarily what is the truth.
People who would be lucky to have a serious following of friends at their local pub, gain national and international notoriety based on actions within a voyeur’s house that would have had them arrested or ostracised from a society with reasonable morals.
Buzz words dominate business. “Going forward” is used as a phrase relating to time used instead of next month or next year, a minimum of ten times in a morning television business news report. If they can do the opposite of going forward in time, then I’d really be listening. Phrases which confuse rather than inform become the norm, for example, “People” becomes “Human capital”, “Employees” becomes “Associates” and organisations “Push the envelope”.
Athletes who can perform their particular skill at a higher level than most others and are paid astronomical salaries to do so, become a protected species if they lose their way and succumb to repeated use of drugs, both legal and illegal. Compared with the “man in the street” they get repeated chances for redemption before the law is applied.
Leaders do not lead.They prefer to pretend that they are like us; so as not to scare us and possibly lose our support. They do not see their role as envisioning and building a better future, persuading us along the way by the force and logic of their idea. Rather they want us to see them as their mates, liking them and supporting them as evidenced by opinion polls.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
Few things are constant, but management stupidity when it comes to retention is one of them.
Social media; stories about it are everywhere, but I find the most interesting are about what companies are doing and how its being used.
Of all business actions, the one that people are most prejudiced against is meetings. David Silverman offers a great idea that rings organizational bells in a positive way—sanity via the 
I told him that all coaches/consultants/mentors bring their own philosophy/approach/spin to a subject and I’m no different. My focus has always been on what I call 
Considering what’s going on in the world I thought I’d republish a 
