Corporate Games – Page 2

Share The Reason For The Meeting

An extremely skilled salesperson loved one
was told on a Friday
to attend
a one-on-one meeting with his manager
in person
scheduled on Monday.

There was no meeting topic.

He talked to his coworkers
and the manager had scheduled
mandatory one-on-one meetings with them also.

One of the coworkers
had asked what the meeting was about
and was told…
nothing.
He was told to attend
and they would discuss ‘it’
then.

They all assumed
they were being laid off.
My loved one spent
a stressful weekend
reaching out to recruiters.

By Monday morning,
interviews had been set up.
He walked into the meeting
with his manager,
prepared to be laid off,
and…

they spent the hour
reviewing company policy changes.

No one was being laid off.
But the damage was done.
The interviews were set.
The employees had mentally disengaged
from their current employer.

If you set up
a one-on-one mandatory meeting
with a direct report
and give them no information
about it,
know that the direct report
is assuming they’re being laid off.

You’ve lost that employee.

And, this is much needed
tough talk,
you SHOULD lose them
because you’re being a sh*tty manager
and an even worse human.

One Thing EVERY Employee Should Be Doing

Your manager is, right now,
keeping files on you.
That’s one file
– the official one in Human Resources
– and there’s another file
– the secret, off-the-record file
only your manager knows about.

That second file
has every mistake,
every unprofessional comment,
every minor (or major) thing they could possibly
use against you
if they want to fire your a$$.
It is detailed,
has exact times,
dates,
screenshots,
other information
the manager can point to
in order to prove
the contents were legit.

You should be keeping
a similar file on your manager
(and anyone else who has authority
over you).

I call this the dirt file
because if things go wrong
and your employer is threatening
to fire you without the severance
you deserve,
that file gives you
negotiating power.

If things go well,
no one will ever see it.

Keep this file on a personal device,
a device your employer
would never gain access to.

I hope you never use it.
I used mine…once
and it not only saved my severance
but it saved the severance
of everyone on my team.

Keep a dirt file.

Harassment By Your Boss

One of my buddies
is an excellent salesperson.

She has been
blowing the sh*t
out of her quotas,
performing like the star
she is.

Her customers like
and trust her.
Her coworkers
also like her.

Her new boss,
however,
is a woman-hating
a$$.

He wants her gone
but he can’t fire her.
He doesn’t have grounds
for that
and
he also doesn’t want
to pay her the severance
she’d deserve.

So he’s harassing her.
He calls her
at all hours of the night.
He books meetings
when she has to pick up
her kids from school.
He assigns her extra work
and he bad talks her behind her back.

He is trying to force her
to quit.

This technique is so common
it has a name
– constructive dismissal
– and it is illegal
in many countries.

If you feel
you’re being targeted,
see a skilled employment lawyer.

Follow that lawyer’s advice.

Gather the evidence
you’ll need for a case
against your employer.

Get the severance
you deserve
and ensure that a$$ never does that
to another employee.

If you’re an employer
and/or a business builder,
watch for signs
of constructive dismissal.
It is a lawsuit waiting to happen
AND
it is costing you
skilled employees.

Because, when my buddy leaves
her current employer,
she’s taking ALL her customers
with her.

F*ck her current boss
and f*ck her current employer
who is allowing the harassment
to happen.

Learn How You’re Evaluated

Yesterday,
I talked about
how landing a small deal
can often
save a salesperson’s job.

If we’re working in corporate,
we ALL have metrics
that, if we meet them,
can save our jobs.

This might be
finalizing expenses
by day 10
for accountants.

Or upselling a customer
if we’re in customer service.

Or gaining the support
of a key person
if we’re…well..anyone.

Don’t merely ask
your manager for this information.

Ask someone
who has been employed
at the company for a while,
preferably someone
in a similar position.

And listen.

It could mean the difference
between having a job
or…not having a job.

Layoffs And Respect

Several large companies
laid large numbers
of their employees off
via email this week.

I understand
why they would choose
to end employment that way
– It’s emotionally easier
for management
doing the layoffs.
Management
aren’t put at risk
for possible violence.
Management can lock
employees out of systems
immediately.

But, if you’ve noticed,
this is ALL about management,
about THEIR comfort,
about THEIR safety.

It is cruel and cold
to the employees
being laid off.
These employees
are more likely
to self harm.
They will
never work for that company
again.
And they likely won’t
care about their next employers,
their next jobs.

It will merely be a job for them
or, as corporate is calling it,
‘quiet quitting.’
Their productivity will be
complete sh*t.

Know the consequences
when you go this route
with layoffs.

And know,
when you hire again,
that the job market has changed
due to companies
taking these actions.

The Glass Cliff

If you’re working in corporate
or in politics
or in another type of organization
you haven’t founded
and you’re great at what you do,
you will be offered
a top leadership position
sometime in the future.

If you’re a woman
or a person of color
or another visible minority,
that leadership position
is likely to be a sh*tty one.

The organization
is in trouble
and there’s a slim chance
the next leader
can resolve that trouble.

This is called
the glass cliff
and it is extended
to people
the organization
believes are expendable,
people they can blame
when it goes as badly
as they think it will go.

As a ‘bonus,’
they can then say they promoted
a woman or a black man or a person in a wheelchair
in the past
and it went terribly
so they’ll never make that ‘mistake’ again.

If you accept the position,
you will likely fail.
They expect you to fail
and, by withholding all their support,
they will do their d@mnedest
to ensure you do fail.

But
you likely won’t
become the leader
of that organization
under any other situation.

The choice is
personal.
Whether or not
you accept the position
will depend
on your personal perceptions of success
and your personal goals.

But realize that
you ARE being walked out
on that glass cliff.

You WILL likely fail.
And that failure
will impact you
for the rest of your life.

Everyone will
always know,
however,
you held that esteemed position.

The choice is yours.

Quiet Quitting

The media,
prompted by big business,
is making a fuss
over employees ‘quiet quitting’,
a phrase they invented
which means
people are doing their jobs
and doing nothing extra.

The ‘extra’ isn’t part
of the job.
It isn’t being paid for
by employers.

It is a thank you
from employees
rewarding great employers.

If our employees
aren’t doing extra sh*t,
if they are ‘quiet quitting’,
then we, as employers,
haven’t earned that thank you.

Quiet quitting
signals a problem
with EMPLOYERS,
not employees.

If our employees
aren’t voluntarily doing more
than the bare minimum,
that is a problem
with our organization,
with our management,
not with the people
we’re managing.

You Can Be Replaced Yet Still Be Missed

I worked
in new business development
for a large beverage company
for a number of years.
I worked long hours.
I did research while on vacation.
I was extremely dedicated.

When the executives were given
the mandate
to reduce the already lean organization
by 20%,
my job was one of the first
to be cut.

Some people
were bitter
about having their jobs eliminated.

I expected it.
It wasn’t my first job.
I knew anyone could be
easily replaced.

What I wanted to be
was
missed.
I wanted there to be
an emotional hole
in the organization
when I was gone.

And years later,
an executive told me
that HAD happened.
He said he didn’t realize
the energy I brought
to the team.

As
Seth Godin
shares

“No, you’re not irreplaceable.

No one is,
not really.

But if we work at it,
we might become indispensable.
The linchpin,
someone who would be missed
if they were gone.”

Our goal isn’t
to be irreplaceable.
That’s impossible to achieve.
All of us
can be replaced.

If we care about such things,
our goal is to be missed.

Always Accept The Note Taker Role

There was a post on social media
about how women aren’t the default
note takers
in meetings.

No, no, no.
NEVER complain about being
the meeting note taker.
It is the most powerful role
at the meeting
and, if we use that power
(as I did),
we can leverage it
into a higher paying
and a higher profile job
at that company.

What powers
do the note taker have?

We assign responsibility
for unassigned tasks
to people at that meeting.

Of course,
we’ll assign the high profile tasks
to skilled people
we like to work with
and
we’ll assign the thankless tasks
to the skilled people
we don’t like to work with.

To be cautious,
I usually put ???
after their names
in the notes.

If we like to work with certain people,
we should also assign their names
to their brilliant contributions
to the meeting.
“k suggested that…”

If we don’t like to work with them,
we could omit their names
and phrase it
like
“It was suggested that…”

We should also be the people
who sends out the meeting notes
to everyone
including the appropriate executives.

The person who sends out the notes
is often viewed
as the contact person
AND as the person in charge
of the meetings.

Savvy people know this,
which is why they will try to
take that task away
from the note taker.

My response to this
is to tell them
I’ll do it.
They’re so busy.
It is more efficient
if I do that task for them.

If they claim
they want to look it over,
catch any mistakes,
I give them
a printed copy to do that.

I take the notes.
I send the notes.

Always accept the
note taker role.
Use that power.

Meeting Bots

A loved one attended
a virtual meeting recently.

25% of the attendees
were bots.

They were sent
by people
who couldn’t attend
the meeting
to take notes.

These people
weren’t
participating
in the meeting.

They weren’t asking questions
or contributing
to the discussions.

They were merely
receiving information.

That information
could have been shared
in more efficient, more accessible ways.

If your meetings
are heavily attended
by meeting bots,
it is a sign
they shouldn’t be meetings.