From the Economist:
A survey by the Centre for Work-Life Policy, an American consultancy, found that between June 2007 and December 2008 the proportion of employees who professed loyalty to their employers slumped from 95% to 39%; the number voicing trust in them fell from 79% to 22%.
At France Telecom, 24 of the firm’s employees have taken their own lives since early 2008.
What’s up with this craziness? Of course, the recession is partly to blame, and industries like the automobile industry and the telecoms are under real stress. But to decide that you can’t live without your sorry job?
Everyone needs to get some perspective.
Sure, the Great Cycle of Failure is spinning away as fast as it can go at your company, but don’t let it mess you over.
Ask yourself, if I was starting today, would I join this company? If the answer is no, then you need to rewind and reassess. What do you really love doing and are good at? Are you better at it than just about everyone? Then go do it.
Sure it sounds simple, but it’s a lot of work. Back in 2004, I ended up quitting my steady corporate job to start a new company with no prospects and no customers in hand. I wasn’t even a good salesman. And yet, I survived. Not because I was so clever, but because I did what I thought was best for each customer. Sometimes I even told them that what they wanted wasn’t the right thing. And now I have a handful or two of loyal customers who work with me through rain and shine. I really do see their successes as mine. And that’s my job description: help my customers succeed.
Will They Never Learn? Hyatt goes down the Circuit City Road to Brand Destruction
Stupidity is not learning from the mistakes of the past.
Now we see Hyatt Hotels destroying themselves in much the same way that Circuit City did before them.
What is it with these management decisions?
Paul Michelman describes the two-step process:
1. Make the decision to fire a very important yet modestly paid sector of your workforce. Fire the entire lot of them.
2. Outsource their positions to a third-party vendor who will bring in contractors to do their jobs at a lower cost. But — and this is critical — before you fire them, trick your workers into training the people who will replace them. How to pull this neat trick off? Tell them they are training vacation replacements. (Best to leave out the fact that the vacation is permanent).
Nice job.
A while back I had written about similar stupidity from Circuit City and the results of their brilliance. Same plot, same results.
How can a company compete when they turn their employees into disengaged zombies? This is an old management problem. Peter “The Great” Drucker believed that employees are assets and not liabilities. Too bad there are so many businesses that haven’t yet learned the cost of treating employees as costs.
And once again, I’m sure these executives are paid “well above the market-based salary range for their role.”