Author: k

Many of my placements
are in challenged companies.
These are companies going through changes.
There are layoffs and restructurings
and other stressful events.

One company communicated nothing.
Employees would hear of layoffs
only when they tried to contact co-workers.
Managers were there one day,
gone the next.
They were shifted to groups
without explanation or warning.
There was constant unease and worry.
Employees relied on gossip
and the gossip was always the most dramatic alternative.
Work didn’t get done.
The caring level was low.
Star performers left.

Another company was in an even tighter spot.
They were heading to bankruptcy.
The employees knew the situation was dire
because their managers held weekly, sometimes daily, meetings.
Whenever there was a change,
managers would call their group together
for a quick huddle.
Employees weren’t told everything
but they were told a lot.
This surprisingly built more loyalty to the company,
not less.
A division knew they were being closed down
yet the night before,
they put in extra hours
to ensure customers weren’t inconvenienced.

Employee morale is not about external factors.
It is about management.

I’ve been in quite a few bridge positions.
During the interviews,
I always tell the managers
that I do NOT want a full time job
and that they would do better to hire
someone who may be interested in one.

The managers all insisted
that they didn’t want to hire the contractor (me).
The managers also all ended up
offering me the full time job
(and being unhappy because I wasn’t interested).

People (including yourself) are lazy.
Once you find a great employee,
you’ll want to hire them.
Use this opportunity
to try out a prospective employee
on contract.

Don’t promise a full time position
but
do ensure that they WOULD consider one.
Keep that possibility open.

I’ve talked about bridge positions
from a contractor’s point of view.
I thought I’d now talk about them
from a manager’s point of view.

There are two ways to handle
a vacant position.

The first is to hire a contractor
for the vacant position.
This contractor will learn the job,
document the duties,
and then train the new person.

The upside of this
is that no other positions are affected.
There is only one problem spot.
You’ll have a set of fresh eyes
evaluating the role
and suggesting changes.
Also, if the position is suddenly vacant,
an outside person may have the skills
to figure out what the hell
the original employee did.

The downside is
that, if there is some overlap,
the original employee is transferring her knowledge
to an outside person
(one solution to this
is to have another employee sit in
on the training).
The outside person (who may or may not care)
is given the responsibility to transfer
that knowledge to the new employee.

In a happy, happy world,
that transfer would be smooth
and the new employee would stay
for a long time.

The harsh reality is
that the contractor could be bitter
about being replaced
and/or the new employee doesn’t work out.
If the new employee leaves,
you’re left with no one knowing the position.

The second option
is to move another employee into the vacant role
temporarily (or full time)
and have the contractor fill that employee’s position.

The upside to this option
is that the knowledge stays within the group.
You can hire a lower level (i.e. less expensive) contractor.
You don’t have to oversee this contractor.
Your employee can do that
(given her some management experience).
You have expanded the skill base
of one of your employees.
This employee is more likely to have continued access
to the wisdom of the departing employee.

The downside is
you may not have an employee
with the necessary skills or desires
and you’re disrupting two positions.

I prefer, as both a manager and a contractor,
the second option.

33% of all Canadians,
50% of all Canadian men
wait until the last minute
to buy Christmas presents.

I haven’t opened all my presents yet
but I can guarantee
that nothing will top what my husband gave me.

He gave me the gift of his time.

After work,
he picked me up.
We went to a restaurant,
just the two of us,
no cellphones, no blackberries.
We ate dinner
and then we went to the movies.

I had his undivided attention
for the entire evening.

When was the last time
you gave a loved one
your undivided attention?

Wouldn’t that make a wonderful gift?

Terry Starbucker has a great post
on the 5 types of words to avoid.

They are…

Negation Words
Half-heart Words
Run to the Dictionary Words
Absolute words
and
Bad Emphasis words

I’ve covered many of these
in past posts
(Terry adds some additional examples).

All except for absolute words.
This is a no-brainer.
There is no such thing as can’t, always, or never.

Anything is possible
if you throw enough resources at it.
You CAN do it.
It simply may take more energy
than it is worth.

Use always or never
and the person you’re speaking to
will come up with an exception.
Your credibility is immediately blown.

Craft your language
to exclude these five types of words.

A finance manager on Friday
told me
she was still too ‘new’
to the job to fully understand it.

She has been in that position
for two years.

She’s not new.
She’s incompetent.
If she doesn’t understand the job
by now,
she never will.

Once you’ve repeated a process,
you’re no longer new.
You may not be an expert
but you are expected to know
enough about the process
to do your job.

Don’t overplay the newbie card.
It will come back
to bite you on the a$$.