The Butt Starts Here!

My first introduction into the employment digestive tract was in high school as a grocery store cashier.  I had a really great first boss named Mr. Butler.  He was an assistant manager, and he always treated the cashiers with respect.  I knew that I wouldn't be there for more than a year and this guy knew that was the case with the majority of the people he supervised.  Yet, he always took the time to check in and ask how I was doing.  If I had any problems or ideas, he wanted to know about it.  He asked us to take pride in ringing up our guests - because in his mind if you thought of them as your guests and not customers, you flat out treated them better.  He instilled in me that if you worked hard, and did a good job, your boss would notice. You just enjoyed being around this guy and wanted to work your ass off to make him happy.  In short, you felt valued and you wanted to make him and the company look good. To this day, he's one of best bosses I've ever had. 

I’m so grateful he was my first boss – it gave me a strong role model to compare the ones that would later wear that mantle in my working life.  I have been in the workforce since I was 16 which gives me roughly 37 years of experience in a wide range of industries from retail,

marketing, food service, non-profits, the arts, healthcare, education, child welfare, faith-based organizations and large corporations.  In that time, I've been in both senior management and a regular employee.  I've worked for some outstanding bosses and some real tools. Unfortunately, the tools far outnumber the ones who literally had their shit together.

Poorly run organizations have become a national epidemic.  Bad management and disengaged employees are wreaking havoc on our economy and these numbers bear it out:

•      The percentage of U.S. workers considered engaged in their jobs averaged 32%. The majority (50.8%) of employees were "not engaged," while another 17.2% were "actively disengaged." (Gallup)

·     Actively disengaged employees cost the US $450 billion to $550 billion in lost productivity per year and undermine the success of their co-workers. (Gallup)

•      At the end of 2015, the number of employees who voluntarily quit surpassed the number fired or discharged at 3.1 million.  (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

•      Between 2009 and 2014, the S&P 500 earned a return of 121 percent. By contrast, a ratings-weighted portfolio of low-rated employee satisfaction companies earned just 91.5 percent, under-performing the S&P 500 by 29.5 percent. (Glassdoor Research)
·        1 in 5 workers intend to jump ship within a year. (Forbes Magazine)

Now if you are an employee, you're probably going - "Yeah, I know that's right."   If you are a boss or an HR director, you might want to stick your head in the commode and flush several times to end it all.  Keep in mind that unless your boss is the owner of the business, he/she is someone's employee and these stats are probably something they are struggling with too. That's why I’ve created the The Cheek Principle:  How to Keep Your Organization From Being Half-Assed.  I want organizations whether they are regular businesses, non-

profits or organizations like churches or PTA's to run better and to also have a sense of humor about how to get it done.   This is not a blog for just management or staff - it's for both because both sides need to understand each other in order to work well together.  The good news is that companies that have a strong sense  of the importance of a happy workplace get some solid dividends:

•      Stocks of S&P 500 public companies which were bought between 2009 and 2014 showed that the portfolios of companies with high employee satisfaction returned 243.3 percent versus the S&P 500 Index return of 121 percent during the same period. (Glassdoor Research)

•      Employees who are happy at work take 10 times fewer sick days than unhappy employees. (Wall Street Journal)

•      36% of employees would give up $5,000 a year in salary to be happier at work. (Randstad 2015 study)

•      Happy salespeople produce 37% greater sales. (Growth Engineering UK 2014)

•      82% of polled employees are more satisfied with their jobs when they receive recognition. (Globoforce)

The reality is that the best companies work to retain their talented people

because the staff members genuinely love working there and giving them incentives to do a good job is not that expensive.  The bad companies that are teetering on the edge lose their high performers to the good companies that know how to engage their staff with solid management.  Even some "Good to Great" companies have gone from "Great to Oblivion" when they forgot how to treat their employees, their customers and lost sight of their mission.  Let's face it - your employees are your customers.  If they are unhappy and won't use or recommend your products or services -- no one else will.

So why do so many organizations put up with crap-tastic management?  Why can’t they see when someone clearly is not managing their employees well and undermining their high performers?  Why do they double down on bad decisions rather than realizing their error and going back to the drawing board?  Why does the bible warn that “pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall?” (there’s actually a lot of good business advice in the Bible) Sadly it’s because the founders or senior executives were either never really trained on how to manage

people or the company has a kill or be killed mentality or the bottom line is the only thing that matters. If a bad manager is bringing in good numbers – then it’s okay look the other way. That mentality might work in the short term but it’s just plain not sustainable in the long-run.   

I'll be blogging about some common issues in every organization because human nature is human nature and you flat out can't escape it no matter where you work (in other words, you will run into assholes - it's an occupational hazard of life).  I'd love to hear your stories and ideas - especially if you had a boss that inspired you like Mr. Butler inspired me. If you have a negative story to share – I’d love to hear that too.

Thanks and here's to helping your organization become better with both cheeks intact - tattoos are optional.