Thinking as an Employee and as a Manager at Work

I write with a bias, and also to provoke commentary. The intent of this article is to NOT be politically correct.

Our business consulting firm www.theevansgroupllc.com has been working with small to mega giant companies worldwide for over 38 years. We’ve seen the cycles of economics shift in each nation, and all the politics of banking and the 1% of the 1%. The capitalist business system is the same since the caveman and we are now in a cycle of globalization and massive changes to how we buy.

When our firm is hired we have “rules” we put in place before signing a one to two year consulting contract to “fix or improve” the company. I share them to show that my own bias is built by “working on the street” first. I work “the jobs” before even beginning to spend time with the executives that hired our firm.

1. I spend at least two months with a long term client working in a variety of “worker jobs”, as a “new hire”, and in training, and am never known or introduced as a consultant, but as a “new hire”. At times managers are angry that they were not consulted that I was hired for their area, but in 75% of the circumstances the senior leaders are able to spin a tale well (a family relative, or a major stockholders family friend) that I’m “put on the street” just as anyone would be, and shown no favor. Most of the time it is never even questioned.

2. Here’s a few examples of “jobs” I’ve had, by the way truly living in a motel or cheap apartment and “living to my wage” so I truly am seen as “one of them”. If a low paying segment of the work population I “am the part”. I live it.

• Pizza maker in a public company franchised pizza store
• Machine shop general warehouse clerk, moving things that arrive off the trucks to the production area”
• Pick and Packer
• Local Truck Delivery driver
• Project manager “gopher”
• Janitor/Warehouse Clean Up

3. Our firm also acts at times as a “consultant” coming in, and we work in Divisions interviewing employees (not managers), doing psychological testing (as a business psychologist I give long tests, and share results with only the employees, and over 80% of the time “gain trust” of the employees . Mainly we “listen”, and the employees do trust us, far more than one would expect.

4. We are also ruthless detectives, far from popular to some that may read this article, and study Internet and social media usage by employees behind closed doors, and “walk the floors” of divisions or whole companies just watching and viewing.

Half the employees I meet and work with blame others for their issues, and how corporate America and $ is evil. Half of that half are lousy employees that don’t show up for work on time, bad mouth their own company, have no solutions, only problems, and blame others for their own lack of work ethic.
Get mad, or agree, but it’s a reality of viewpoint seen by many that consult that “roll their eyes” when told “empower the employee more”. Or better, “servant leadership”, which fails conceptually as a corporation is NOT a human being, but a profit center, and the “team” can be the company. Sure, it about 10% of the corporations in the world. I see no reality to understanding from employees as to how business works, and no blame to them, they then promoting the “anti-boss, anti-company” reverse of “this country cannot create enough jobs”. This is a double bind.

The core point to this article is that employees expect Shangri-La, but live in Akron, Ohio. Akron may be great, but it is not Shangri-La. Companies must make profits, and treat their customers superbly, and develop their employees and treat them fairly, BUT in the reality of life and business it’s not as easy as some employees see it, and many simply don’t think it is fair that some earn so much and others less. My argument is that much of this is because of the employee, not the manager, leader, or company and that any and all economic “isms” (Communist, Socialist and Capitalist) create oligarchy and more wealth for some, and not for others.

The U.S. society has shifted to “it’s not fair”. In 1955, GM employed 624,000 Americans. In 2015 Google employs less than 100,000 employees. Wal-Mart, selling commodity products in “big box stores” or on the Web is now the largest employer with 1.2 million people working, many of them not full time. It’s not fair that Wal-Mart pays low, or that GM paid too high, as both realities hurt each firm; GM stopped making good cars, and union pensions were never analyzed for the “what if’s” the market dropped or profits were lowered.

The classic argument we read is that cities and municipalities are now raising minimum wages, and that people “can’t live” on lower wages.; there is a national group trying to unionize workers for McDonald's Corp, even though their stores are owned by franchisees, small business at its best.

No matter if we like what we do to ourselves, the “price” has taken hold of the U.S, and we buy off apps that us the lowest price, over the internet, WE eliminate so many of the big box stores.

As the U.S. and Europe now requires “lowest price first”, the Internet has become our enemy for price shopping. Oops, suddenly the drive for higher margin in a commodity driven market is driven by the 23% increase in sales that Family Dollar and Dollar General Stores have developed in the market: shelf stockholders, clerks, and an overworked GM, selling “seconds” overseas. Those buying and selling are all employees. Each creates their destiny.

SOME EMPLOYEES ARE NOT WORTH WHAT THEY ARE PAID

Equity in employment can be obtained, but full equity where all do well, and the grass is always green, requires lots of work that I don’t see employees give or do, and when given more money and benefits, still do not do. It’s not all the fault of the company.

There are ducks and geese at companies. Businesses need both, but geese fly and earn more, and many ducks do not want to be ducks, but to be paid like the geese, but their job skills or work ethic just don’t show it.

Here’s some of what I see when “working” at a company:

• Spending hours a day on the Internet NOT worked related. With 70% of Porn watched on the Internet while at work in the U.S., employees also play Scrabble, write on FB, and text friends.
  Employees have their companies listed as part of their LinkedIn profile, with the public company name, and write strongly worded articles on religion, politics or race, while their LinkedIn profile shows others that their employer is accepting this point of view to represent their company. More companies are now putting software in, that control their company computers social media, and monitoring LinkedIn profiles.
• Employees think the company is all profits; the owners or leaders make too much money, and generally don’t understand business has been viewed traditionally as the employee “works” for the employer. Only certain firms can enjoy pure partnership with all working together; human nature will prevail.
• Most middle managers are promoted from within and given little to no training in how to manage. Each has one of 16 personality types (Myers Briggs) and a surprising number of people are promoted without the emotional typology to ever effectively manage.
  When I consult I make sure that managers are trained to be good with people, “leaders of teams”, and have “pay per incentive” programs; we also terminate some if they are unable to change.
• Senior managers or top executives should be paid highly for their expertise, as they lead in strategy/execution of the ONE leader of any company. Managers may be “leaders of departments, but the current babble of leadership; we are not all leaders. One man or woman holds the ultimate accountability of being the CEO/President.
• Leaders have a huge opportunity to mentor managers and build others, and also have the ability to lead, and enforce the vision of the company.
• 73% of employees don’t even know their company’s mission statement, if they have one, and 58% of all managers do not. Leaders know it only because it leads their vision, or its old school management theory of the 1990’s era that never worked. A mission statement is key to any good company and how the employee works to it is key to the success of the company. If it is not used, the employee and employers hold equal accountability.
• Employees in most work environments must show up to work on time. Skip where flex hours work, or where people work out of office, but the businesses that require people to work to the company shifts, in production, manufacturing, service industries.........on time is a must. 47% of the work forces in these jobs show up 3 to 18 minutes late 25% of the time.
• But then:
  https://www.fastcompany.com/3045282/hit-the-ground-running/5-things-your-employees-wish-they-could-tell-you?partner=rss#SmartNews

This article shares what many employees think. Perception is reality.

In the past year its home page is filled with inspirational clichés, religious threads about “My God is the Only God”, and much more about the “rich” being bad, and managers and leaders worse. Entire threads written about leadership, 1000’s of comments, but very few of them are real current leaders in the dialogue. Some of these threads showed a dream world of what should be and to believing that GE’s leadership could be like Google’s.

I believe in business that the stockholders or owner, then the customer, and the employee are the reality of what is, and logically will be in the vast majority of businesses.

Here’s the future of “the employee” from one perspective:

https://www.fastcompany.com/3046332/the-new-rules-of-work/what-work-will-look-like-in-2025?partner=rss

We are what we decide.

Chip Evans, PH.D.