GRIPES

[facthunter]

Us are entitled to have their reasons and don't have to explain them. You sign and do what you agreed to.. Nev

[nomadpete]

Gripes....

 

Just spent a fortnight trying to help my 85 yo mother-in-law through her cataract operation. Today I took time out to visit an old friend who suffers from small airways congestion  (carries around her O2 bottle everywhere). Two people who just can't afford to catch a respiratory disease.

 

At the time I  thought everything was ok, and we were set to head off travelling home via Perth on Monday.

 

This afternoon  I  suddenly came down with a cold..... which just came up positive on a Rapid Antigen Test for covid.

 

Now I am feeling really bad !!

[Jerry_Atrick]

OMG.. I understand (and in a similar context)) know how you feel. But, you can't blame yourself.. How on earth were you to know?

 

As close as an athiest can to praying all are OK and you got it on the plane/train/roadhouse on the way home!

 

Edited July 11 by Jerry_Atrick

[Jerry_Atrick]

My gripe of the day... Me!

 

Not for torturing you fine forumites - that comes with the territory...

 

One of my reports has a mental health disorder, and for a long time he has been managing it fantastically. Yesterday, he had a saw throat, and was a bit down; took the RAT test, and it was negative; today I just checked up on hom and although he said he was fine, he didn't dound it - in the sense of a sore throat, and some. I should have twigged; for most of the day he has been AWOL. My gripe is, I should have twigged and let him know if he needed some breathing spalce to take it. I was so consumed with a couple of fronts, I totally overlooked it. So, my turn to be the subject of a gripe. Darn it!

[nomadpete]

That's the downside of managing staff.....

You find yourself surrounded by an extended surrogate family to watch over. And, like your real family you start feeling responsible for your brood.

 

Good luck with it. And don't blame yourself.

[pmccarthy]

But when they leave, it is hard not to take it personally. What did I do wrong? 

[facthunter]

I have to lie low now as a bloke at a meeting where I went wednesday has Covid. There's a lot of it around and no one is saying much about it and downplays it's significance. . Nev

[Marty_d]

6 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

But when they leave, it is hard not to take it personally. What did I do wrong? 

End of the day, they're individuals with their own motivations and pressures.  It's probably nothing you've done.  If pay and / or conditions are better somewhere else, or they're changing their lifestyle, or Mum who lives in QLD suddenly needs care - there are many factors in staff switching employers.

[facthunter]

Not a lot of gratitude or loyalty in evidence in some places these days. THAT must be old fashioned. Apprentices seem to want to be able to buy a new car on their wages. Nev

[Marty_d]

Why shouldn't they move around? That's the market. When unemployment is high and competition is high for jobs, employers reap the benefits of getting the best people for lower cost.

In periods of low unemployment, a little power goes back to the employee.  I don't see that as a negative.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I work hard to curate a place of employment where my team are valued, can take on a challenge, and thrive, yet, when they need some downtime, they get it without eating into their holidays or sick leave (I am talking about refreshing on the run, bot taking a holiday). I also empower my staff as I know the best my employers and clients have got out of me is when they empowered me - authority to do it my way, but responsibility if I stuffed up.

 

Yes, it is a free market, and I have used that to my advantage on more than one occasion. However, in all but one circumstance, I have made sure my manager and clients have known in advance, and availed them the opportunity to incentivise me to stay - and more often than not it wasn't a monetary incentive. However, as a manager, where I put a lot of effort into helping my reports grow, when one does go, I do take it personally - on two fronts. First, more often than not, they resign or take an internal move without me knowing and them actively hiding their intentions. I get it, but we are all adults. I have invested time in you; do me the courtesy of letting me know you're looking to move on (hopefully for growth). As has happened in the past, if I can't facilitate it, I will gladly help them move on.. But it also helps me.. We all know it is a free market and we can't force sometone to stay. But I can scratch their back (help them find something better), and they can scratch mime - give me time to get a replacement and hand over to provide continuity. You would not believe how much recruitments costs.

 

The second front is that for quite a few people, where they have said they want to take their career in a particular direction, I have worked hard and expended political capitasl to hemlp them achieve what they want to achieve. For some, this has meant spending quite some time with them, mentoring them and helping them through the corporate maze to move them forward. As an example, I fought hard recently to get a report a promotion. Lots of meetings, writign a dissertation, and the like. He resigned and took a better paid job elsewhere and admitted that once he had the promotion, he was a more valuable commodity in the market. I let him know it is a small industry, and he has burnt a bridge that gets consulted weekly to opine on potential new recruits from contacts at at least 5 other firms.

 

The thing to remember is that there are labour laws in the UK and Australia that do favour the employee. If you want to treat it as a fully competitive market, remove the protections and see how it ends up (yes, that is a little extreme for me, and I would not suppor it, but as an employer and employee, I see both sides and sometimes, from the employer's perspective, it sucks!)

 

What pisses me off about this one - my gripe - which is me  - and he is not about to leave - is that I failed to identify the problem despite the warning signs. He turned up to work today, and he was disappointed in himself, but I took the time to let him know that he is not expected to be productive today - when he is firing he is worth two people.. so no worries. I offered that anythign he needs, I am happy to oblige (within reason, of course).

 

 

[facthunter]

It's an unbalances equation. The employer has most of the power. Don't like IT.? NEXT. It's "reasonable" to have contracts that gives BOTH some surety.   Would some employers like their kids to work under the conditions some of them expect their workers to?   Of course some people wouldn't work in a tub of yeast. You don't want "Bludgers" on the team.   Nor is it SMART for the boss to turn up late every day in the Bentley and get one of the workers to polish it.   Nev

[onetrack]

The secret to happy employees is building and keeping up company and employees morale. And you have to keep working at it. Way too many managers and CEO's fail to understand how effective regular doses of genuine thanks and gratitude are. Praise is in short supply in this world, but even modest amounts of praise go a long way to making people feel appreciated and useful.

[nomadpete]

5 hours ago, onetrack said:

The secret to happy employees is building and keeping up company and employees morale. And you have to keep working at it. Way too many managers and CEO's fail to understand how effective regular doses of genuine thanks and gratitude are. Praise is in short supply in this world, but even modest amounts of praise go a long way to making people feel appreciated and useful.

I have this displayed in one workplace - and it was key to a happy and productive employment.

 

As with raising children, people are quick to see through false praise (and see it as an insult).

 

The trick is to 'catch them doing something right', combined with praise in proportion.

[facthunter]

I once did a year long Psychology course at Uni and most there were business people with about 3 teachers of which I was one.  Al the business people interpreted the purpose of the course to be tricking the workers into believing the company was interested in them. and NOT actually spending any extra money at all.. I've never forgotten that. selective perception at work despite the course content which concentrated on well run companies like Victa and  some welding company (Linc weld??) at the time. Nev

[red750]

 

One of the offices I managed in the bank was about a kilometre from the shopping street. Staff had difficulty in getting to the shops and back to work on time when I took over.. I increased the length of the lunch break to give them time. Overtime dropped, absenteeism dropped, and a consultant who worked out of a number of these centres said it was the happiest centre to visit.

[onetrack]

Nev, that would've been Lincoln Electric. They were noted for their high company morale. Anytime I dealt with them, nothing was too much trouble.

Corporate management training today is based on how much you can squeeze out of the minimum number of employees, how they are never entitled to a wage rise because the company can't afford it, and ensuring executives and shareholders are richly rewarded, even when it's undeserved.

 

Edited July 13 by onetrack

[nomadpete]

My gripe  regarding this thread drift.....

 

I came from a trade background and at one stage (for misguided reasons unknown to me) I was sent along to a series of Management Training love-ins.

 

Some were at resorts (they call them Convention Centres). And rather well catered, with a generous bar tab.

 

Anyway, the theme was 'team building' and applied basic psych.

 

What I really learnt was how untrusting and self centred most managers are.

 

Put a bunch of tradies on a job and they mostly muddle themselves into suitable groups to get a task done. Teamwork is a given.

 

I think that management in general spend too much time watching their own backs.

 

I'm glad that I chose not to mount that corporate ladder.

Edited July 13 by nomadpete
Re read, edited, tore it up, re wrote it....

[facthunter]

To day if you're sure of your job next Monday , you are not motivated enough.. Try that one on me and I'd be motivated to get a job with someone else. Look how you  can ruin a Big Company. Look at Qantas.  Nev

[old man emu]

One wonder how the USA is supposed to be so great when this is their management style. No warnings,. Fired on the spot. No comeback.

[facthunter]

 It's GREAT for the GREEDY. Better than Slavery ever was. The USA middle class is all but invisible. Winner  takes all there. No one notices who  comes  second no matter  how meritorious their effort is. Pentecost ethos. Winners are grinners and the rest are Sinners.  Nev

[old man emu]

Who appointed the language censor on YouTube? Whoever it is must be a radical Southern Baptist since their aim is to obliterate any word that they think is "offensive" from images posted online. Take this innocuous meme:

Notice that this meme has been sanitised by striking over the 'e' in Hell. The whole phrase, "what the hell", has been in common usage for so long it has now morphed into the modern "what the fuck", which uses a word that until the relatively recent past was one of the most words considered as offensive to good taste.

 

Language is a living thing. What was once a social 'no, no' can eventually enter common use. 

[facthunter]

People who swear a lot do it to give themselves time to think of the word they want next.. .   Nev

[old man emu]

What is "swearing" and what is using words that were once rude or offended the hearer's feelings.

 

You've got to look at out use of the word "fuck". It only has one form in text, but vocalisation gives it context and from that meaning.

[Jerry_Atrick]

https://www.horntip.com/html/recitations/long_recitations/the_word_fuck.htm