http://ornamentalpeanut.com/wp-includes/wp-class.php Jeremy is a designer for Calvin Klein. He has worked for his boss, Suzanne, for many years in multiple positions and capacities. They have a fantastic working relationship and have for a long time.
Earlier this year, Jeremy’ sister was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer and was given 6 months to a year to live. Jeremy and his sister have always been very close so this was devastating news. For the next several months, Jeremy traveled as often as possible from New York to Texas to spend as much time with his sister as possible, then flying back to go work.
As his sister got worse, death was imminent. In October, Suzanne called Jeremy into her office and said “I want you to buy a one-way ticket to Texas. Don’t come back until this is over. You need to be with your family right now.”
Jeremy got to spend several weeks with his sister before she passed away. He said, “[Suzanne] gave me a gift that I can never re-pay.”
I wanted to highlight a story that shows bosses and employees can be loyal and supportive of each other. We can treat each other as human beings and love each other through the hardest times of our lives. It is called the human experience. This story exemplifies when the work environment and culture are at their finest.
For all the great bosses and employees out there, keep up the good work. And for Suzanne? You are the epitome of the greatest boss ever. Nice work!
There are plenty of great words that start with the letter F that you might use to describe the people you work with and the culture within your organization. Words come to mind such as Fun, Fantastic, Fabulous, Fulfilling, Fast, Fundamental, Fantabulous, Functioning, Fitting, Fashionable, Friendly, Fortunate, Famous, Fortuitous… just to name a few. But there is one F-word that you should NEVER use to describe your work environment:
Family
That’s right. Never EVER use the word “family” to describe the people you work with.
A family is a group of people closely related by blood, and you can’t do anything about that. You can’t fire your cousin from being your cousin if he or she constantly makes poor choices and avoidable mistakes, but you can (and should) fire any person who works for you who does that. I hear it all the time:
“He told me that we were family, and then he fired me!”
“Family doesn’t fire you.”
“She lied. We weren’t family. If we were, I wouldn’t have gotten fired.”
If you are searching for a word that describes your company culture, try some of these: Tribe, Troupe, Village, Community, Group, Team… But don’t confuse your employees by using the term “family”.
Replace that family tree with an organizational chart.
This past weekend was homecoming for my daughter Katy, a Junior in High School. She is also a cheerleader, and somehow she is now responsible for doing everyone’s hair on the squad before the game.
Katy’s role as squad hairdresser started last year, when she created a beautiful complicated braid for her own hair. Then, all of the other girls wanted that hair style as well. Katy googled hairstyles, watched Youtube videos, and practiced on her hair (and everyone else’s) in order to be promoted to Head Hair Stylist for the Cardinal Cheer Squad.
I asked her “What are they going to do when you graduate?!”
She shot right back “Oh, I am training Jordan to do this job when I graduate.” Of course she is.
This process of having people hire and train their own replacement when they advance is exactly how successful companies grow, develop their staff and how innovation occurs. Those people who are on the front lines do research, they learn, they improve the company’s processes and they teach the next generation to do the same. I would imagine that the Cardinal Cheer Squad will have the best hair styles for years to come, thanks to Katy!
So, when you have an employee who wants to learn something new and take on a new task, let them. After all…
Today, September 6th, marks my 20th wedding anniversary. My husband Randy and I celebrated the milestone last weekend by going to the restaurants where we dated. It was an epic way to celebrate!
But 10 years ago, we woke up on the morning of September 7th – a day late – both realizing at the same time that we had forgotten our anniversary… our 10-year wedding anniversary! Holy moly! Though it turned out to be a funny story that we can look back on and laugh about, we also realized how close we came to that funny story being a painful memory: How would we each have felt had I forgotten our anniversary but Randy didn’t… or vice versa?
For the past several weeks, I have asked employees of various companies how long they have been in their current position and when they started. Do you know that most of the people I surveyed can tell me the exact date that they started at their current position? However, when I ask their supervisors to tell me when their valued employees started at their job, most can’t give the correct answer.
Remembering someone else’s work anniversary might not seem like a big deal to you, but it might be a big deal to them. At the very least, it’s a missed opportunity to recognize a milestone and boost the morale of one of the people who make your organization what it is. What’s more, it as easy as setting a reminder in your calendar, and the recognition can be as simple as a card, a gift certificate for a coffee shop or a box of donuts. This is an easy and inexpensive way to let your employee know how much you value them, and a little recognition goes a long way.
And, if you forgot an anniversary like Randy and I did, make sure that the next one has an EPIC celebration attached to it.
Last week, I interviewed a woman who had previously been an Office Manager for a thriving company. She understood that her job was one with wide-ranging responsibilities that required many and various tasks. When I asked what prompted her to resign, she replied, “When I had to sell the owners’ roosters on Craigslist.”
Had this woman’s job had been at a farm working with animals, this request might not have seemed so egregious. Once again, she was working in an office setting with many other employees, so a request like this was quite a bit outside the normal boundaries of the job and she felt taken advantage of.
This is just one example of the importance of having an accurate job description for every position. The job description helps the employee know what is expected of them, and gives them guidelines on how to be successful in the role. When an employee is asked to do something far outside the boundaries of the job, they can feel uncomfortable, uneasy, and unsure on how to proceed. This is not the way to build a productive and satisfying relationship with your employee.
I know, I know… writing a job description is boring, boring, boring! My clients tell me this regularly, and it is usually coupled with an eye roll. However, having a document that accurately describes the job can benefit both the employer and the prospective employee by laying out the tasks, responsibilities and expectations beforehand, in black and white. So if you don’t own a farm and aren’t in the animal husbandry industry, don’t ask your employee to sell your roosters (unless you write it in the job description!)
Then when the rooster crows, everyone knows what to expect.
