Quitting your job is not something most employees would consider doing in light of today’s weak job market. Of course, fewer still would choose to hand over their two week’s notice to the accompaniment of a marching band. And yet, this is exactly what one hotel employee recently did as seen in the aptly titled video “Joey Quits”, which has been viewed over 2 million times on YouTube.

While the manner in which “Joey” went about quitting his job might be the focus of most news reports and discussions, where greater attention should be placed is looking at why these stories are being cheered and celebrated by the general public, transforming these employees into this era’s version of the everyman folk hero.

Granted, it’s easy to dismiss the popularity these individuals attain in the public eye as simply being the result of their unique and at times over-the-top antics, if not also the ease with which such incidents can now be captured and easily distributed anywhere in the world.

However, a deeper look reveals that these incidents are serving more as a lightening rod for the working masses; that seeing others openly expressing their frustration, discord and the fact that – to paraphrase the character Howard Beale from the film “Network” – they ‘are mad as hell and are not going to take this anymore’ resonates with so many employees who also feel they’re being pushed beyond the bounds of what should be considered acceptable treatment in the workplace.

Perhaps one key reason why there’s less discussion about this point is due to Click here to continue reading »”Are Your Employees Mad As Hell and Not Going to Take It Anymore?”

A few days ago, my oldest daughter came home from school with a bit of a dilemma. She got back her latest math assignment and noticed that one of the problems she had solved correctly was marked as incorrect because her answer wasn’t rounded up to the second decimal point. As it wasn’t stated in the problem’s instructions that the correct answer needed to be rounded up to a given decimal point, my daughter was confused as to why her response was marked wrong and asked me if I could look it over to help her figure it out.

Looking over her assignment, I saw that my daughter not only solved the problem correctly, but she was right that the problem didn’t ask students to round up their answer. So, I told my daughter that all she had to do was point this mistake out to her teacher so that she could correct the grade she got on her assignment. However, my daughter felt uncomfortable with the idea of talking about this mistake with her teacher and asked me if I could bring it up instead.

Given how my daughter has a really good rapport with her teacher, I was a bit puzzled as to why she was so reluctant about discussing this with her. As we talked about it more, it became clear that her hesitation arose from feelings of discomfort over having to tell her teacher that she had made a mistake in marking her assignment.

Now one of the things my parents taught me was the importance of showing respect and appreciation for our teachers given how they help to build our knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Naturally, this is an attitude I want instill in my children as well. However, I also want them to feel comfortable with approaching authority figures to point out when errors are made.

To help encourage my daughter to deal with this herself, I made her this deal – that she try to talk to her teacher about this error and if she finds herself struggling, she can give her teacher a note I’ll write to explain what we discussed. Although not exactly thrilled, my daughter nonetheless accepted this approach to resolve her dilemma.

Of course, it’s not just children who can struggle with having to point out mistakes being made by others, especially when it’s an authority figure like a teacher or parent. Employees can also feel uncomfortable bringing to the attention of others problems or mistakes they see being made, particularly if those responsible for them serve higher up in their organization.

But this is where leaders can make a difference by providing Click here to continue reading »”5 Questions To Figure Out How Well You Manage Mistakes”

Have you ever worked on a team project where you had concerns that the limited efforts being made by some team members was going to negatively impact the final outcome? It’s a situation my younger daughter found herself in a few weeks ago while rehearsing with her skating group for their end-of-season figure skating show. Watching how she ultimately chose to deal with this problem brought to mind an important point leaders should consider when trying to encourage their employees to aid their organization in reaching a specific goal.

Since last September, my daughters have been enrolled in a figure skating program at the end of which, the students were invited to perform in a figure skating exhibition show. For this performance, my younger daughter was placed in an intermediate group with other kids who were at the same level of skating proficiency as her.

At the beginning, most of the kids were having a hard time with the skating routine, both in trying to remember which manoeuvre came next as well as in how successful they were in performing a given move. However, after completing half of the practices before the show, it was becoming clear that while most of the kids were trying their best to get the routine down, there were some who were less than interested in paying attention and following the directions of the choreographer/coach.

While this was clearly frustrating for the choreographer, this lack of attention and focus among some of the kids was also having a negative impact on my daughter’s perception as well. Following each practice when I’d ask her how it went, instead of talking about the improvements she’d made since last time, my daughter complained about how these kids were delaying the group’s progress or made various mistakes which caused certain sections of the group to fall out of sync in their choreography.

Rather than simply telling her to just tough it out, my wife and I tried to encourage her to Click here to continue reading »”Helping Employees Reconnect With Their Sense of Purpose”

A few days ago, one of my daughters shared an interesting story about a recent event that happened at her school. My daughter and a few of her friends had noticed that Peter*, the school’s custodian, wasn’t out in the hallway greeting the kids like he usually did every morning. They went to their teacher to ask her if she had seen Peter and she told them that he no longer worked at their school. As it turned out, Peter had quit his job following a meeting he had with the school’s administration regarding his work schedule.

Essentially, over the last few months, the school’s administration had been assigning Peter more and more tasks which he was expected to complete before the children arrived at school. Looking at the most recent additions to this work list, Peter realized that this workload was becoming increasing unfeasible and so he went to see the school’s administrator to discuss the situation. Peter pointed out that even though he arrived at school every morning at 6AM, he still wouldn’t have enough time to complete all the tasks that were being assigned to him.

The administrator responded to this by telling Peter that he’d just have to come to the school an hour earlier so that the work would be completed before the children arrived. Giving this perfunctory and rather dismissive response, Peter realized that the school’s administration wasn’t interested in working with him to find a more reasonable solution and so, he quit his position as the school’s custodian.

While the administrator’s handling of this situation deserves some scrutiny, what’s particularly interesting about this story is how Peter’s departure was felt by the children who attend this school. Considering that he was essentially the school’s janitor and not a beloved teacher, one wouldn’t necessarily expect his leaving the school would have mattered.

But this is where the administrator’s treatment of Peter and the reaction of the children to his leaving overlap to provide us with a valuable lesson on how leaders should view the various members of their organization and the unique contributions they make. Click here to continue reading »”A Lesson From School on Understanding Your Employee’s Value”