Sadly this is all too true for me... Taken from The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/how-to-completely-utterly-destroy-an-employees-work-life/2012/03/05/gIQAxU3iuR_story.html What we discovered is that the key factor you can use to make employees miserable on the job is to simply keep them from making progress in meaningful work. People want to make a valuable contribution, and feel great when they make progress toward doing so. Knowing this progress principle is the first step to knowing how to destroy an employee’s work life. Many leaders, from team managers to CEOs, are already surprisingly expert at smothering employee engagement. In fact, on one-third of those 12,000 days, the person writing the diary was either unhappy at work, demotivated by the work, or both. That’s pretty efficient work-life demolition, but it leaves room for improvement. Step 1: Never allow pride of accomplishment. When we analyzed the events occurring on people’s very worst days at the office, one thing stood out: setbacks. Setbacks are any instances where employees feel stalled in their most important work or unable to make any meaningful contribution. So, at every turn, stymie employees’ desire to make a difference. One of the most effective examples we saw was a head of product development, who routinely moved people on and off projects like chess pieces in a game for which only he had the rules. The next step follows organically from the first. Step 2: Miss no opportunity to block progress on employees’ projects. Every day, you’ll see dozens of ways to inhibit substantial forward movement on your subordinates’ most important efforts. Goal-setting is a great place to start. Give conflicting goals, change them as frequently as possible, and allow people no autonomy in meeting them. If you get this formula just right, the destructive effects on motivation and performance can be truly dramatic. Step 3: Give yourself some credit. You’re probably already doing many of these things, and don’t even realize it. That’s okay. In fact, unawareness is one of the trademarks of managers who are most effective at destroying employees’ work lives. As far as we could tell from talking with them or reading their own diaries, they generally thought their employees were doing just fine – or that “bad morale” was due to the employees’ unfortunate personalities or poor work ethics. Rarely did they give themselves credit for how much their own words and actions made it impossible for people to get a sense of accomplishment. You may be better at this than you think! Step 4: Kill the messengers. Finally, if you do get wind of problems in the trenches, deny, deny, deny. And if possible, strike back. Here’s a great example from our research. In an open Q&A with one company’s chief operating officer, an employee asked about the morale problem and got this answer: “There is no morale problem in this company. And, for anybody who thinks there is, we have a nice big bus waiting outside to take you wherever you want to look for work.” A good quote to keep in your back pocket. Now I know why you guys who fix VWs for a living are happier in your work as you get to see an end product whereas I get stuck in endless scope creep and outdated pointless processes. Anyone need an apprentice?
We do but it's a bit of a commute to Settle for you! That's really true - I've spent the afternoon washing oil off engine parts but it was far more satisfying than most of the other stuff I've done in "proper jobs". But then I do work in marketing when not helping out here...
You are absolutely and totally correct!!! What about trainee VW restorer? Do I get street cred for that?!
I've spent this week in Ukraine at one of our factories. Unfortunately, they "forgot" we were coming and have been unavailable apart from 30 minutes yesterday lunchtime. During my visit I'll do about £2.5k on hotels and travel alone. For nothing! Do I want to be here? No! My company is great at "*******ing on my and my projects chips".
Job satisfaction means a lot and just turning up and getting paid isn't cutting it for me anymore. Time for change.
If you are aware of the time of day, you're in the wrong job. The slower the clock goes round, the more you're being underutilised. It's rude to buy a persons daytime life and make no atempt to help them enjoy it. Work should be fun.
for the most pat I enjoy my job, but the boss has over the last year or so taken the how to "make employees miserable on the job" as her personal mantra we find ways of slowly destroying her working day it's very satisfying ;D
'How to completely, utterly destroy an employee's work life'? What? As in a boss destroying an employee's work life? Why would someone want to do that? It goes on of course, but I'm shocked at the extent. The more you get out of an employee, the more profit you're going to make and the smoother your business is going to run. So it stands to reason not to treat them as described. Anyone who gets a kick out of causing misery for others really needs their head looked at.
Sounds like my boss at my old place, that's why I left. I was getting depressed and was a real effort to show up at work.
My first proper job was as a draughtsman at a gas turbine manufacturer. There were about 40 other draughtsmen and one draughtswoman in one big room. They were on a go-slow when I started. I used to draw a line, go for a coffee, stencil a couple of letters, have a chat with someone, draw another line, stare out the window, snooze on the bog. After 6 months the union agreed to a pay offer less than was originally offered, back dated half the time and I left. God that clock barely moved!
well it seems thats how my working day is. But at the moment i 'm just taking the pay and not the crap. i dont think i will bother in engineering when this company is closed by the idiots they are running it.
