Monthly Archives: May 2012

Seasonal Employers: Don’t Shun the Fun or Your Workplace Will Come Undone

Thumbs Up dude

Are your seasonal employees going to have a blast this summer? Not away from work; but rather, at work? If not, they’re likely to vaporize before Labor Day. Job seekers are attracted to opportunities where ‘fun’ is included in the job description, so employers use the heck out of it.  (Good thing for them the…

Now Every Kid Gets a Trophy, and also a Diploma for Graduating 6th Grade!

Fans of The Beverly Hillbillies will remember the running joke that Jethro (the most educated of the entire Clampett family) had “made it all the way through the 6th grade.”  Yee-Haw! When this series originally aired in the sixties, no one celebrated such a modest accomplishment.  Of course you made it through the 6th grade,…

Does Your Company Rate High in Work Ethic?

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I’m shopping for a refrigerator to replace a custom built-in model that is in my home. Always looking for a bargain, I went online and found a great deal on one through a major retailer. This particular fridge had been marked down because of a scratch on one side, and the way my kitchen is…

Reverse-Discipline Strategy Allows Managers to Play the Good Cop

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Any manager worth his salt knows exactly what to do when he notices an employee arriving late to the job.  He’ll have a line or two memorized for the first (and the second) time he observes a front liner who’s not wearing their uniform correctly (i.e. exposed tattoos, hat on sideways, etc.). He’ll have HR…

Why You Should Kick the “I told you so” Response to the Curb

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“Success comes from good judgment.  Good judgment comes from experience.  Experience comes from bad judgment.” I can’t verify the correct source of that quote, but I’ve heard many a version of this little axiom over the years.  Makes me wonder how old I’ll be before my experience will pay off and I’ll stop doing so…

Young Pros Need to Up their Quid to Get the Quo

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Quid pro quo (from the Latin meaning “this for that”) is a commonly used term in business negotiations. It’s also the foundation of every employer/employee relationship. To illustrate, let’s say the quid represents the compensation an employer is willing to part with in exchange for labor they need to operate their business. The quo, then,…