The Odd One Out

This week, I am marking a year in my current role with a fantastic employer, Assurant.? I started with Assurant in 2022 and have thoroughly enjoyed the people and work I have done here.? I have been working as a remote employee for almost two years now - its one of the great things about Assurant - we have embraced a modern philosophy on remote work arrangements in the post COVID world.

Anniversaries are times in which you often reflect on where you have been and things you have experienced.? Also a good time to tell stories that have shaped us and formed our opinions on things.? I will share one such story today.

Many years ago, I worked at an employer with a badging system, that required employees to badge in and badge out of the building.? For many years, I lived and worked under this system where the badge readers monitored my arrival and departure from the office.? I never really paid much attention to the readers as my hours were routinely well above the 7.75 hours daily.? After six or seven years under this system, I got called into my bosses office one day for a discussion on time (again, something I never paid close attention to).? During this meeting, I was asked about two specific days over the previous three or four months - one day where I had only badged in for an hour, and a second day where I badged out 45 minutes early.?

Now - one thing I have always found indispensable is my Outlook calendar.? Calendars are great because when someone challenges your integrity (which is really what happened during this meeting), it is very easy to resolve the dispute.? And it turns out that this was exactly the case on the said days in question.

The one hour day - I had badged in to check in with the office before driving for an hour and a half to teach a class at one of the regional offices our office had.? I paid my own way to go teach the class - and strangely when I asked about reimbursement for travel expenses, my boss quickly changed the subject.? I still chuckle about that even now.? The second day where I left early still hurts to talk about.? It’s the day I left early to take care of my dog at the Vet.? She turned out to have cancer and I had to have her put to sleep.? Again - it still hurts years later.

I was lectured by my boss about the importance of recording all absences accurately and some other stuff I don’t remember any more.? My boss at the time was and is a very small person in my life, and I struggle even now to remember the persons name.?

Now you might ask - what was the net result of this entirely crappy encounter?? A few things really…

• From that day forward (what turned out to be another few years), I became an avid clock watcher at this firm, which was a concept that was completely alien to me - until then.? I never put in an extra minute for the job over the next few years, even at times where I normally would have.
• Surprisingly, I discovered that most people at this employer were also clock watchers.? I would spend several minutes a day in line at the gates after this occurred waiting on my turn to badge out.? Prior to this, I never knew these lines existed.
• While my performance ratings actually improved following this meeting, my morale and attitude towards the company steadily and greatly diminished.?
• To this day, I regret having stayed there as long as I did.? I still keep in touch with some of my coworkers from this company (not many).? In 20/20 hindsight, my experiences at this place were not as bad as those of others.

Common decency in Corporate America is not always common, folks.? Compassion and understanding towards employees, and assuming positive intent when asking questions rather than jumping to foregone conclusions goes a long way towards morale and retention.? Come to think of it, so does kindness.? If you treat your employees like garbage, you should expect garbage results from them.? I know this to be the case with said employer.

Anyway, after years of unlearning the clock watching experiences I learned at the company, I am in a much better place now.? I am much happier now then I was back then, in part because I find work rewarding and I respect and admire my coworkers greatly.? I am not trying to bash the old company I worked for (you will note I never mentioned them by name here), but providing a story I have reflected on today.? I have been extremely fortunate to have worked for some great companies in my life, and worked with people who I have learned several lifetimes worth of knowledge from.?

This one was just the odd one out.?