Too much on my mind lately.
I'm struggling with motivating low-wage employees. Too much supervision and they push back or, worse, they turn off their brains and become zombies, passionless and sleepy, uncaring about either the customers or their problems since they have no room to be creative problem-solvers, and then complain behind my back. Too little supervision, and they act like children, watching you tube videos, shopping, generally wasting time, though they are much happier and more tuned-in when a customer calls. I have one employee who thrives either way because he's driven to do a good job no matter what job is given him. The others all seem to just want work to accommodate or, at the least, not bother them.
So obviously I've hired some folks I shouldn't have. I'm going through another round of interviews later this week, to see if I can find some more self-starter types, but I'm having trouble coming up with interview questions that will gauge this for me:
Describe a work-related goal you've recently set for yourself. What was the outcome?
Can you tell me three things you've done in the past year to improve yourself, either professionally or personally?
What is your first reaction when your manager assigns a task you think is impossible?
How would you react if I told you your interview so far was terrible?
I'm not sure if these will help or not, but I suppose asking is better than not asking. What I really want to do is just look them in the eye and say, "Look, what I need are people who are going to come in here, work hard, not bitch about stupid stuff, but put their nose to the grindstone and try. I don't need lallygaggers or time-wasters or people who want to just fade into the background, get a steady paycheck, and not try to rock the boat. I want you to rock the boat, I want you to be a leader. Can you do that? If you can't, I will know in the first month and I will let you go, so you might as well tell me the truth now." I want to scare them into knowing that this job isn't for everyone, so if you're not ready to fight and fight hard, look elsewhere. But in reality, most people would just tell me what I want to hear anyway, hence the trickery in the questions instead of the outright truth.
How would you do in this interview? Would you squirm under the pressure of those questions? What if I told you the dirty truth about what I really need, would you come clean or would you placate me? I suppose it depends on how badly you need the job.
*****
We will be leaving for Italy in two weeks, for two weeks. I would be more excited except that we just got hit with about $2000 of unexpected expenses this week. First, my brakes finally got to the point of no return, and replacing those was not cheap. Then we discovered that my former bookkeeper screwed up my withholding all last year, so we owed a lot to the federal government. When we returned from our accountant's office, our garage door refused to go up-- the rotten cherry on top. While we have enough in savings to cover all that and still pay for the trip, it makes me uncomfortable. The extra padding is gone now. That's life, though, isn't it.
I don't think it's totally sunk in yet that we're going. Every time I see a friend lately that I haven't seen in a week or two, I get asked, "Aren't you getting so excited?" and yes, I am, but I'd classify it more as nervous and anxious than excited. I'm worried I haven't planned enough, I'm worried that we won't understand something or we'll get lost or confused or taken advantage of somehow, I'm worried there will be a problem with our hotel or with getting on the trains or buses, I'm worried about flying and getting to carry on all our stuff or if they'll make us check, I'm worried about the food and getting sick and not understanding everything.
But we survived London for a year, Paris for several days, Mexico for several days. It's not like we've never been anywhere or done anything. This just feels different for some reason. We will be alone, that's why. No friends or anyone to turn to if/when in need. Last time we were like that was the first month of our marriage, the first month in London, when we knew no one and understood nothing, had no money, struggled every day just to figure out what we were doing and survive. It made us so strong as a couple, to have survived that, but I still label it as the worst month of my life. I have to remind myself that Italy will not be like that. I will not be finding apartments or buying furniture or opening bank accounts. All I need is someone to point me in the direction of the nearest museum and the nearest bar, and I'll be just fine.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
minimum wage, minimum motivation -- dream analysis
I try to remember what it was like to make minimum wage. I held several jobs throughout school and after where I was paid the legal minimum, including a video rental store. The motto there was "If you can lean, you can clean," meaning that no one was allowed to lean (or, God forbid, sit) on the counter, even at 10 a.m. when no one was in the store. You had to keep yourself busy; if all you could find to do was cleaning, you did it. We got around it every now and then, devising games of finding the spots where the cameras couldn't see you and taking a break there, or seeing who could count their change the fastest and most accurately, etc.-- it was a boring place sometimes. But usually we kept to the motto.
It's stuck with me over the years, too. Later on, when I changed employment but had only bumped myself up a dollar or two in pay, I realized that the days I kept busy and actually accomplished something were so much more rewarding and less boring than the days where I did a crossword puzzle or played Pop It all day. Unfortunately one of those years was at a university, and when you work for a big state-run facility where no one cares and is just trying to skate by unnoticed, doing extra work is sometimes frowned upon. I didn't do well in that environment.
That's why I do so well here. If nothing else, I am industrious. Sure, I have days where I am more idle than others, where I may read a news article or two to break up the otherwise busy day, where I may take twenty minutes and write a blog post like this one. But for the most part, I stay busy, even if busy means just reading chat logs from our call center to make sure they're doing a good job. When I get home, that's when I'm lazy (just ask my husband), but no one accuses me of being a sloth at work.
So I guess that's why I get so frustrated with our call center workers. They make between $8 and $10 an hour on average, but they act like we're paying them in peanuts. Peanuts they don't even want. I walked by earlier, and one had his feet up on his desk, literally twiddling his thumbs. I sit with my feet up a lot, too, but my fingers are always crazy dancing over this keyboard, my right hand swinging the mouse around, my shoulder holding the phone to my ear. I'm struggling trying to do my work and also find things to keep them busy. I need them to keep themselves busy, so I'm trying to motivate them to do so, but something is missing. Maybe I just need a big poster-- IF YOU CAN LEAN, YOU CAN CLEAN-- in bold letters right over their desks. Sure it doesn't really apply here as I don't them them to clean, just actively reach out to customers or troubleshoot some issues. But the message gets across. I guess I'm not doing a good job hiring leaders either. I wish I could put my finger on the resolution.
------
I had a weird dream last night. I wish I could remember more of it now; my dreams fade so quickly. In high school, my best friend was a guy. Actually he was my friend starting in 7th grade. He went away to boarding school, but we kept in touch while he was gone, and he came back in 11th. I always wanted more from him, and I still consider him my first love though nothing was ever acted upon. He has never confirmed it to me, but I think he may be gay. He doesn't have girlfriends, and he just sometimes gives off an air of... difference. His parents are very conservative, and we came from a very gossip-prone town, so I don't blame him for keeping it quiet if it's true. I talk to him now once every six months or so, and we always seem to pick up like we were never apart. That's true for all my best friends. It must be some sort of subconscious requirement I place on anyone labeled a "best" for me, that ability to pick up where we left off no matter the time that has past, because it's true of the four that I have.
I digress. I dream about him a lot. Last night I know we were walking in a garden, we were young again, I could tell by the way we looked, and we were holding hands. It wasn't a romantic dream, though, more like we had just been apart for a while and were so happy to see each other. We went swimming-- I remember my red two-piece suit, but when we came up from the water, he wasn't my friend anymore, he was my ex-boyfriend.
My high school/early college boyfriend drove me and my friend apart. He and my friend did not get along, enemies from boarding school, and when the boyfriend came around, the friend took a backseat. I shouldn't have let it happen, but I was a kid, a mess up kid, a messed up kid in what I thought was love but really turns out was probably only pity and commiseration. We never were able to get back to what we were, even after the ex was out of the picture, because we had both moved off to college and started our own lives. But he has somehow wedged himself into my subconscious. I hear that sometimes people have strong dreams like this about loved ones who have died, and every time I have a dream about him, they are strong and lifelike, and I worry about him. I told him one time that I dream about him, and he said he dreams about me too, so I guess we're just somehow linked in that way.
I wasn't unhappy to see my ex in the dream, but I did feel a loss that it was no longer my friend. The ex and I did not end on good terms. We dated four years, the last year was made up mostly of fighting and me trying to cut him loose. He was suicidal and depressed, and I was always afraid he'd jump off the deep end, but I finally decided I had to take care of myself. It took me too long to come to that conclusion, looking back. But in the end, those decisions led me to my husband, and that's all that matters now.
When I got to work this morning, I realized it's my ex's birthday today. I wonder if this all wasn't my subconscious playing with me. I get updates on him from time to time-- he still lives in my hometown and waits tables at a restaurant my parents go to often. Mom says she always makes him speak to her even though she can tell he'd rather avoid them. They thank goodness every day I didn't end up with him. I do too. The only part of our relationship I regret, though, is losing touch with my friend over it. Maybe my brain is trying to tell me to reach out to him again.
It's stuck with me over the years, too. Later on, when I changed employment but had only bumped myself up a dollar or two in pay, I realized that the days I kept busy and actually accomplished something were so much more rewarding and less boring than the days where I did a crossword puzzle or played Pop It all day. Unfortunately one of those years was at a university, and when you work for a big state-run facility where no one cares and is just trying to skate by unnoticed, doing extra work is sometimes frowned upon. I didn't do well in that environment.
That's why I do so well here. If nothing else, I am industrious. Sure, I have days where I am more idle than others, where I may read a news article or two to break up the otherwise busy day, where I may take twenty minutes and write a blog post like this one. But for the most part, I stay busy, even if busy means just reading chat logs from our call center to make sure they're doing a good job. When I get home, that's when I'm lazy (just ask my husband), but no one accuses me of being a sloth at work.
So I guess that's why I get so frustrated with our call center workers. They make between $8 and $10 an hour on average, but they act like we're paying them in peanuts. Peanuts they don't even want. I walked by earlier, and one had his feet up on his desk, literally twiddling his thumbs. I sit with my feet up a lot, too, but my fingers are always crazy dancing over this keyboard, my right hand swinging the mouse around, my shoulder holding the phone to my ear. I'm struggling trying to do my work and also find things to keep them busy. I need them to keep themselves busy, so I'm trying to motivate them to do so, but something is missing. Maybe I just need a big poster-- IF YOU CAN LEAN, YOU CAN CLEAN-- in bold letters right over their desks. Sure it doesn't really apply here as I don't them them to clean, just actively reach out to customers or troubleshoot some issues. But the message gets across. I guess I'm not doing a good job hiring leaders either. I wish I could put my finger on the resolution.
------
I had a weird dream last night. I wish I could remember more of it now; my dreams fade so quickly. In high school, my best friend was a guy. Actually he was my friend starting in 7th grade. He went away to boarding school, but we kept in touch while he was gone, and he came back in 11th. I always wanted more from him, and I still consider him my first love though nothing was ever acted upon. He has never confirmed it to me, but I think he may be gay. He doesn't have girlfriends, and he just sometimes gives off an air of... difference. His parents are very conservative, and we came from a very gossip-prone town, so I don't blame him for keeping it quiet if it's true. I talk to him now once every six months or so, and we always seem to pick up like we were never apart. That's true for all my best friends. It must be some sort of subconscious requirement I place on anyone labeled a "best" for me, that ability to pick up where we left off no matter the time that has past, because it's true of the four that I have.
I digress. I dream about him a lot. Last night I know we were walking in a garden, we were young again, I could tell by the way we looked, and we were holding hands. It wasn't a romantic dream, though, more like we had just been apart for a while and were so happy to see each other. We went swimming-- I remember my red two-piece suit, but when we came up from the water, he wasn't my friend anymore, he was my ex-boyfriend.
My high school/early college boyfriend drove me and my friend apart. He and my friend did not get along, enemies from boarding school, and when the boyfriend came around, the friend took a backseat. I shouldn't have let it happen, but I was a kid, a mess up kid, a messed up kid in what I thought was love but really turns out was probably only pity and commiseration. We never were able to get back to what we were, even after the ex was out of the picture, because we had both moved off to college and started our own lives. But he has somehow wedged himself into my subconscious. I hear that sometimes people have strong dreams like this about loved ones who have died, and every time I have a dream about him, they are strong and lifelike, and I worry about him. I told him one time that I dream about him, and he said he dreams about me too, so I guess we're just somehow linked in that way.
I wasn't unhappy to see my ex in the dream, but I did feel a loss that it was no longer my friend. The ex and I did not end on good terms. We dated four years, the last year was made up mostly of fighting and me trying to cut him loose. He was suicidal and depressed, and I was always afraid he'd jump off the deep end, but I finally decided I had to take care of myself. It took me too long to come to that conclusion, looking back. But in the end, those decisions led me to my husband, and that's all that matters now.
When I got to work this morning, I realized it's my ex's birthday today. I wonder if this all wasn't my subconscious playing with me. I get updates on him from time to time-- he still lives in my hometown and waits tables at a restaurant my parents go to often. Mom says she always makes him speak to her even though she can tell he'd rather avoid them. They thank goodness every day I didn't end up with him. I do too. The only part of our relationship I regret, though, is losing touch with my friend over it. Maybe my brain is trying to tell me to reach out to him again.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
clique mongering
I have to get this out of my head.
One day last week, I had a disciplinary conversation with an employee. Her performance has dropped off, she's spending too much time talking about non-work happenings at work, especially with a newer hire who has become a close friend, and her attitude has slipped far into a negative space. According to her, she feels unappreciated because she hasn't had a raise in a year while others are getting raises. As I explained, the people who are getting raises are minimum wage workers. She's on a much higher salary already. Finances are too tight. Then she said she thought (and others in her department think too, by the way) that there's a clique that she can't break into. I asked her to name the people in the click, and the people she named were the first 6 employees of the company.
The whole thing just leaves me so frustrated. I found out today they have a name for us, the order of protection, and they talk about it like it's an actual thing that we planned out and are perpetrating on purpose. Like we want to exclude people and make decisions that only benefit us. Like we're blind to everything else going on. The funny thing is, two of those six I hardly even talk to anymore, and one of them is on my permanent shit list until she starts acting like an adult and not a child who thinks she can come and go any time she wants and make all the trouble she wants just because she was employee #2. Of course no one outside of management knows about this. Why would I spread my disdain for her actions around? To everyone else, it must look like business as usual. I thought that would be the best way to continue.
Good grief, I'm only human. I'm trying to make the best decisions I can for the company as a whole, and I advise our management team to do the same. The management team is made up of a completely different group of 5 people, only my boss and I seem to be in both "groups." When we see potential in someone, we recognize it and give them a promotion. I guess this employee and her cronies are pissed because we don't recognize any of them as stellar performers? But they haven't done anything to deserve it. One of them does really good work, actually, and will be moving to a new department soon, but she's also a gossip so I'm not surprised at her new alignment. They all sit together, which will soon be put to an end, but even with that done, they still can talk on skype.
This negativity seems to be infiltrating this department, a department I happen to be responsible for managing, and I'm getting fed up. I don't know how to stop it. It's three girls and two guys in the department, though one of the guys is too new to be involved. The three girls have ganged up on the one guy, and the guy happens to be the one who is doing the best and the one that we're promoting most quickly. Chicken or the egg-- are they mean to him because he's doing good work and making them look lazy? Or do we just think he's doing better work and also feel sorry for him because he's somehow managed to stay out of this clique who is picking on him? Either way, the clique is not helping.
They accuse us of having a clique, but I would argue it's the other way around. My initial reaction is to shake them, ask them why in the world they think we would do things and make decisions that aren't in the best interest of the company. Maybe it's because they don't care about the company, maybe they only care about their own little worlds. I'm tired of babysitting them, though-- when an email or a phone call comes in, it's like I'm a mother hen pecking at them until one of them finally, reluctantly, picks it up. Just DO YOUR WORK. That's all I want. Maybe if you spent less time gossiping on skype about how much you hate that your coworker is getting promoted, even if you think it's unjust, and about how much you don't like things that are going on, maybe if you spent more time actually doing real work you would be the one getting promoted to a position where you could change the things you don't like instead. I need an attitude change around here, quick.
One day last week, I had a disciplinary conversation with an employee. Her performance has dropped off, she's spending too much time talking about non-work happenings at work, especially with a newer hire who has become a close friend, and her attitude has slipped far into a negative space. According to her, she feels unappreciated because she hasn't had a raise in a year while others are getting raises. As I explained, the people who are getting raises are minimum wage workers. She's on a much higher salary already. Finances are too tight. Then she said she thought (and others in her department think too, by the way) that there's a clique that she can't break into. I asked her to name the people in the click, and the people she named were the first 6 employees of the company.
The whole thing just leaves me so frustrated. I found out today they have a name for us, the order of protection, and they talk about it like it's an actual thing that we planned out and are perpetrating on purpose. Like we want to exclude people and make decisions that only benefit us. Like we're blind to everything else going on. The funny thing is, two of those six I hardly even talk to anymore, and one of them is on my permanent shit list until she starts acting like an adult and not a child who thinks she can come and go any time she wants and make all the trouble she wants just because she was employee #2. Of course no one outside of management knows about this. Why would I spread my disdain for her actions around? To everyone else, it must look like business as usual. I thought that would be the best way to continue.
Good grief, I'm only human. I'm trying to make the best decisions I can for the company as a whole, and I advise our management team to do the same. The management team is made up of a completely different group of 5 people, only my boss and I seem to be in both "groups." When we see potential in someone, we recognize it and give them a promotion. I guess this employee and her cronies are pissed because we don't recognize any of them as stellar performers? But they haven't done anything to deserve it. One of them does really good work, actually, and will be moving to a new department soon, but she's also a gossip so I'm not surprised at her new alignment. They all sit together, which will soon be put to an end, but even with that done, they still can talk on skype.
This negativity seems to be infiltrating this department, a department I happen to be responsible for managing, and I'm getting fed up. I don't know how to stop it. It's three girls and two guys in the department, though one of the guys is too new to be involved. The three girls have ganged up on the one guy, and the guy happens to be the one who is doing the best and the one that we're promoting most quickly. Chicken or the egg-- are they mean to him because he's doing good work and making them look lazy? Or do we just think he's doing better work and also feel sorry for him because he's somehow managed to stay out of this clique who is picking on him? Either way, the clique is not helping.
They accuse us of having a clique, but I would argue it's the other way around. My initial reaction is to shake them, ask them why in the world they think we would do things and make decisions that aren't in the best interest of the company. Maybe it's because they don't care about the company, maybe they only care about their own little worlds. I'm tired of babysitting them, though-- when an email or a phone call comes in, it's like I'm a mother hen pecking at them until one of them finally, reluctantly, picks it up. Just DO YOUR WORK. That's all I want. Maybe if you spent less time gossiping on skype about how much you hate that your coworker is getting promoted, even if you think it's unjust, and about how much you don't like things that are going on, maybe if you spent more time actually doing real work you would be the one getting promoted to a position where you could change the things you don't like instead. I need an attitude change around here, quick.
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