Every organization has “employee turnover.”  Some of it is good, and some is bad. But which is which?   Here are my thoughts:  (Disclaimer:  These are MY OPINIONS)

Turnover GOOD ( you must use your best cave-man impression when you say this.)

• A bottom performer leaves on their own (avoiding the need to terminate them).
• A bottom performer is terminated (showing that the performance management system worked.)

Turnover BAD (Don’t forget the cave man!)

• A  top performer, critical team leader or manager or innovator leaves with little or no advance notice.
• An individual with extensive contacts and experience moves on and takes those contacts with him/her.
• A high-potential individual who leaves due to a lack of development opportunities.

And then there’s the “Uh oh.  Something is wrong and we better take a long look at this” category.

• Turnover of a top performer or a key individual that goes to a direct competitor. OR one who leaves having no other leads at all.
• When more “good” employees are resigning than “bad” employees you are terminating.
•  When a significant number of your staff is on a leave of absence for “stress” at any given time.
• When an employee’s physician writes a letter to human resources suggesting they hire an industrial psychologist to “assess the health of the organization”.  (That’s a BIG ONE, by the way!)

During this economic downturn it hasn’t escaped my observation that some employers seem to be using it to their advantage.  Jobs are scarce and good employees are plentiful, causing the employee to think that he/she is better off staying in a job they no longer believe in or put up with lousy company management simply because they have bills to pay and mouths to feed.  I have been in that position a few times myself, and realize how hard it is to just take that leap of faith.

A former colleague of mine made the following observation in her blog recently:  ”In the past, the length of time that we expected to be in a job or a specific career was likely to match the timespan of the other commitments we wanted to make: we could plan to spend 30 years in a job, and also plan to spend 20 to 30 years paying for a house; 20 to 30 years raising kids; and 40 or more years in a marriage.”  This really isn’t the case anymore.  Why do you think that is?

I’ll tell you what I think (you knew I would, right?).  Employers are no longer loyal to their own employees.  They lack consistency, empathy and in some cases “common sense.”

Common sense?  You know…..like trusting their employees to do their jobs.  Sure, you have to weed out those who genuinely are bad employees, but that’s what a good supervisor does anyway.  Employees don’t perform when “Big Brother” or “Big Sister” are constantly looking over their shoulders, or walking through the office to note who is in their office and who isn’t.

Food for thought.  HAHA  Turnover.  Get it?

I was a hard working Mom for most of my adult life.  (Ok…. I STILL work hard, I just get paid in smiles and hugs instead of a paycheck.)  After having my first son at age 19, I’ve worked at least part time and MOSTLY full-time since.  I’ve done everything from bank teller to phlebotomy, administrative assistant to unit secretary.

I’ve been a stay at home Mom for a few months now and it’s almost Christmas.  (YAY!!  I LOVE Christmas!)  When I picked up my kids today I told them we were going home to bake cookies.  Kenny asked, “You got more cooke dough?”  You see, for the last several years I have been working so many hours that I’ve relied on the frozen cookie dough I’ve bought from school fund raisers and Girl Scout cookies.  (No, employees don’t get a discount.)  It never occurred to me that my kids didn’t even know that cookies could be made entirely from scratch.  AT HOME!!

These days my kids get a hot breakfast nearly every morning, I pack their lunches, and they have a snack prepared fro them every afternoon while they do their homework.

Yesterday Kenny complained about having to get up at 6am.  He called it  ”unhealthy.” I gently reminded him that when I worked for the City of San Bernardino I got up every day at 430 am in order to do some laundry, plan dinner, get them up, dressed and fed and dropped of at daycare in order to  meet my carpool to arrive at work by 730 am.  His reply?  ”Yeah.  And you were a LOT meaner then.  It’s unhealthy!”

Point taken, sweetheart.

And now we’re having warm chocolate chip cookies (made from scratch) and milk while we play a game of “Go Fish.”

Fuck the company cars and corporate credit cards.  I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.  And WANT to be.

ROFL!!

I’m one of the lucky ones.  I’m not the major breadwinner in my family.  We don’t rely on my job to provide health and dental insurance for our family.   When my job started to affect not only my health – but the emotional health of our family, it was still a difficult choice.

I loved my job.  When you love your job, and believe in what you do you (okay I –maybe not you) tend to let your work life bleed over into the rest of your life.  You start to work longer hours, then evenings after the kids are in bed, then all evening even when the kids are awake, then weekends, then at the dinner table…..Before you know it you’re putting in 60-80 hours a week. 

For me, working an inconsistent schedule and LATE hours are the beginning of a nightmare.  The less I sleep, the less sleep I need.  My creativity swirls, I think outside the box, and I accomplish marvelous things.  I am SUPERWOMAN!  I CAN DO IT ALL AND BALANCE IT PERFECTLY!  This can go on for months.

Then I crash.

I sleep 14-16 hours a day, cry non-stop, only get out of bed if I really HAVE TO, and just generally don’t care.  Not about the way I look, the way my house looks, what others might think of me……and I end up on medical leave for 8 weeks.  Very few people (and that includes my shrink and my therapist) genuinely understand how bad off I was.  (BTW….. “Depression” isn’t my diagnosis.  It’s just a symptom.)

I needed that distance.  Distance creates clarity for me.  My husband, my best friend, my shrink, my therapist…they all helped me achieve that “distance”.  I had to put some distance in there from my work in order to heal myself – physically, mentally, emotionally…  And that distance really does hurt. I love (the majority of) my former co-workers.  (One person definitely comes to mind on the not-so much list.)  BUT…..

When you really believe in what you do with all your heart and you honestly CARE about the people you serve it is genuinely fulfilling.    And when you see others FUCK IT ALL UP (sorry Grandma – no other way to put it) you can’t help but speak up.   And not everybody likes it.  

Obviously if you don’t like it you don’t have to read my blog.  You don’t have to follow me on Twitter, and you don’t need to be my Facebook “friend”.  Because if we can’t agree to disagree then you really weren’t my “friend” to begin with.  But curiously enough, I’ve had no decline in my “friends” or “followers”.  In fact, there’s been a huge increase!  

At 2:14 am I awoke to a huge BANG!  With all the wind we had last night I’d been awake quite a bit already.  (And the medication-induced vivid dreams don’t help either.)  But what I found outside definitely…….wasn’t normal.

My metal gazebo was on the roof.  Actually it was hanging off the roof, partially wrapped around the palm tree.  As the sun rose I discovered that one leg was on the verge of pulling the power lines out of that metal pole thing-y that comes out of the roof, so that if it were to fall any further, our power lines would go with it.

So the Fire Department (hehe) advised me to contact SCE to get the power turned off so that we could pull it down off the roof.  In the mean time I was told NOT to touch it.  (As I’ve said before, this shit only happens when Johnny is on shift.)  I called the first time at 8:30am.  Then again at about 3:30pm.

Apparently SCE thinks I was lying when I told them I was advised by FD to call them.  ”Well ma ‘am the fire department does have the capability of communicating to us when our customers are in need of your help.”  Yep!  I know that. WHAT-EVER!!

I wish I could email this picture to them!

Well apparently I ticked a few people off with a Facebook post yesterday. But I really feel it is important to make a point and to look out for my physical and emotional health, and getting things off my chest really does help. Especially after spending my life never challenging the status quo, never standing up for my rights, and never feeling that my opinions mattered anyway.

Healing begins when we allow ourselves to acknowledge our wounds. Our wounds are not a measure of one individual’s sad fate, but an indication of our unity with others. Secrets isolate us. To reveal them is to share genuine human condition.

I think the reason it worked so well in Japan is that they were able to unite as a nation after the end of WWII.  Their infrastructure was  a mess, morale was low…  In the US, we seem to work against each other when times are tough.  I know a company culture or three where this happens too.

At its core, Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction.  But when you get right down to it, a company who is truly invested in TQM TRUSTS their employees!  They trust them to make decisions that are based on their knowledge of what is needed to get their job done (or product manufactured, or service rendered) the best way they can and achieve the best possible results for the customer.  The knowledge that their employer trusts their decisions makes an employee work harder – and smarter.

In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services and the culture in which they work.  The methods for implementing this approach come from the teachings of such quality leaders as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran.

A core concept in implementing TQM is Deming’s 14 points, a set of management practices to help companies increase their quality and productivity:

1. Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.
4. End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.
5. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Adopt and institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between staff areas.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce.
11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.
12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.
14. Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation.

I think I might know a few places that could really put these theories to good use.

Workplace Bullying is repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms:

• • Undermining or deliberately impeding a person’s work
  • Removing areas of responsibilities without cause
  • Constantly changing work guidelines
  • Withholding necessary information or purposefully giving the wrong information
  • Making jokes that are ‘obviously offensive’ by spoken word or e-mail
  • Intruding on a person’s privacy by pestering, spying or stalking
  • Assigning unreasonable duties or workload which are unfavorable to one person (in a way that creates unnecessary pressure)
  • Under work – creating a feeling of uselessness
  • Belittling a person’s opinions
  • Blocking applications for training, leave or promotion
  • Tampering with a person’s personal belongings or work equipment. Spreading malicious rumors, gossip, or innuendo that is not true
  • Excluding or isolating someone socially
  • Intimidating a person
  Sound familiar??

Workplace Bullying…

• Is driven by perpetrators’ need to control the targeted individual(s).
• Is initiated by bullies who choose their targets, timing, location, and methods.
• Escalates to involve others who side with the bully, either voluntarily through coercion.
• Undermines legitimate business interests when bullies’ personal agendas take precedence over work itself.
• Is akin to domestic violence at work, where the abuser is on the payroll.

I don’t believe in the 9-5 workday model.   I find that I am simply not productive before 10am.  I DO find that I’m REALLY productive from about 11am-2pm and then again from 9pm-11pm.  But that doesn’t work for your average employer – they want you to punch the clock – real or “vitual.”

Ahhhhh…..What is the “virtual” time clock you ask?

That’s the company receptionist that is told to write down the comings and goings of employees – what they arrive, how long they are gone for lunch, (and who they leave with) and what time they leave for the day.  Does it happen?  Of course it does – and more often than you realize.  Never mind that you’ve been there for years and have proven that you always get your job done…. that doesn’t matter.  You’re a warm body in a seat.  You’re not trusted.  You’re not valued.

I once worked in an atmosphere where I was trusted.  I worked at my desk in my office, or at home in the dinging room….. but  I always got my job done – and then some.  Why?  Because being trusted made me feel valuable.  Feeling valuable gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment in my work.  Creativity flowed.  If I had trouble concentrating at 8am it wasn’t a problem because I could work during the hours I felt I was most productive.  I worked harder because I didn’t want to lose that trust.  I was motivated, dedicated……and HAPPY!

Happiness shows in your work.  Especially if you already love the work you do.  Put the two together and you can accomplish amazing things – and I DID!

I don’t work there anymore.  Well, I do – sort of.  The name on the paycheck hasn’t changed, but the company culture has. As a result, I no longer feel the need to excel.  I’m not recognized for it, and certainly not given the opportunity to share my talent.

There’s a BIG white elephant sitting in the corner and it doesn’t seem like anyone wants to acknowledge it.

The company is mortally wounded – bleeding form the jugular.  Sure….. they can patch it up by bringing in some new management, but the scars will still be there.  The words “All Staff Mandatory meeting” set off a wave of nausea, anxiety and outright FEAR in our staff.  I’d say a good 80% of us are “medicated” just to keep us going.  We can’t afford to quit.  Every person I have talked to within the organization is looking for a new job, but they simply aren’t out there.

And so, it would seem, the company has us by the balls.  They know we can’t quit because there aren’t any jobs out there.  We have families and mortgages, and orthodontist bills….

And insurance copayments for our psychiatrist, therapist or psychotherapist……copays for our anti-anxiety, anti-psychotic, mood stabilizing and antidepressant drugs.

And fear.

I think they feed on the fear.

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong,
and responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place,
and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

 So what does that really mean??  Well….to me….

HONEST AND FAIR – I will tell the truth, even if it might get me in trouble.  I will stick up for what is right, not for what is popular.  I will do my job, because no one should have to do my share.

FRIENDLY AND HELPFUL – I will offer to help someone, because I appreciated getting help when I need it.  I will pay attention to someone’s problem, because I may have an idea that can help.

CONSIDERATE AND CARING – By helping each other, we help ourselves, not to mention mankind. Be always full of help — the dying man’s last words.

COURAGEOUS AND STRONG – I will have the courage to stick to the rules even when it might not be popular.  I will be a friend, even when my friend is not popular.  I will try new things, even if I’m afraid, because I know my family, friends or (some of my) coworkers will help me.

RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT I SAY AND DO – I will talk out the problems I have with someone rather than start rumors or seek revenge.  If I hurt someone by my actions or words, I will do my best to fix it.

RESPECT MYSELF AND OTHERS – I will treat other people the way I want to be treated.  I will listen to other’s opinions, and not interrupt. I will not do something I am uncomfortable with just because someone else wants me to.  And I will always say please and thank you.

RESPECT AUTHORITY – This starts at home. Practice it in your family. Enlarge it in your friends. Share it with humanity.

USE RESOURCES WISELY – I’ll the very best I can with what I have.

MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE – I believe in leaving this world a better place than it was when I entered it.

BE A SISTER TO EVERY GIRL SCOUT – How many Girl Scouts (current or alumni) can honestly say that they really observe this part of the law????  By my observation – not very many of the adults.  That makes me sad.

The Girl Scout Law is something that I hold very dear to my heart.  I endeavour every day to live my life according to its’ principals.