THE TEN PILLARS OF FEAR-BASED MANAGEMENT
1. Attendance policies for salaried employees
2. Stack ranking
3. Bell curve performance reviews (limiting the # of folks who can be excellent, above average, etc).
4. PIPs
5. Insubordination as a concept (much less a disciplinary issue)
Coronavirus is teaching us that:
1) Healthcare is a right
2) Paid sick time is a right
3) Many, many people could do their jobs from home
4) We are more dependent on a healthy society than we want to acknowledge
I wish folks would stop telling young people how to manage their money. I paid $310 for my first apartment. Based on inflation, it should go for $850 per month now but the rent is $1600. You can’t “personal finance” your way out of of greedy landlords and depressed wages
I met a woman who applied for an events planning job. She interviewed for the job and they said, We want you to plan and execute an event for us as a test, so we can see how well you do.
You want me to put on an actual event? she asked.
Of course, there was no job opening. They placed an ad for a full-time events planner just to try to rope someone into planning and executing a job fair for them - for free.
There is no good reason to post a job ad without a salary range. There are only bad reasons:
1. To keep current employees from learning they’re underpaid
2. To keep candidates unaware of the budgeted range
3. To use candidates’ salary histories as free market research
You can only be shocked by these stories for so long. Then it hits you that there will always be somebody trying to get you to work for free, and you don’t even have the emotional energy to waste being angry with them.
You need every drop of your energy for your own journey. Over time and with the help of stories like these, you learn to ask the important questions early in the process. You learn where the snakes are, so you don’t get bitten by the same snake more than once
OK, let’s say I organize the job fair for you and it’s a roaring success, she said. Let’s say you fill all of your job openings and everyone is thrilled. Let’s say you hire me. What other events will I put on? What will I be doing for the rest of the year, and next year?
Yes, they said. It’s a job fair. We want you to plan the event and the promotion for it, register people to attend the job fair, organize them into timeslots, schedule interview rooms for them, arrange refreshments, handle the crowd control and make it a fun and successful event.
Our recruiters will interview the candidates. You will handle everything else including budgeting, marketing and logistics and of course you will work the event.
RETWEET If anybody at your workplace ever told you you were too intimidating, too outspoken, too bold or insufficiently deferential to higher-level people
So employers will not be held responsible if they force people to come to work, fail to provide them with a safe workplace or protective equipment such that employees get sick and die?
So it is Sinclair’s The Jungle all over again. 100 years have passed, and no progress
My dad got a pay raise every time my mom had a baby. So did the other dads in his company, It wasn’t even discussed. It was just a bump in the paycheck: another mouth to feed. Have you ever heard of a mom getting a pay raise because she gave birth to or adopted a child?
Managers in toxic workplaces know a million ways to destroy your self-esteem. The worse you feel at work, the less energy you have to start a job search
Staying in the same job for another year does not give you more job security.
This week, contemplate this question:
Does my job deserve me for another year?
DON’T ASK ME “what salary I have in mind.”
It’s your company! You designed the job. You know what this job is worth to you.
If you are cagey with me now, how could things get better once I’m on your payroll?
Tell me the salary range, or let’s end this conversation
People say “don’t burn a bridge” but sometimes the bridge burns all by itself. It was highly flammable kindling all along. You cannot live your life in fear what some other person might think of you
Boomer: I can’t believe my employer laid me off. I was a dedicated employee for 27 years.
Millennial: I have no intention of sacrificing my life for an employer who couldn’t care less about me.
Boomer: What is wrong with these millennials? No work ethic at all!
Pay comes first.
It sits at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy.
If you don’t pay your employees the market rate for their jobs, nothing else matters. You cannot call yourself a strong leader or call your company a good place to work.
Q. My job just implemented a new system where we have to track our time in 15-minute increments. We have to write down everything we do and every conversation we have. That’s it for me, I’m officially jobhunting. How could anyone think this is a good idea?
This is a perfect illustration of the self-delusion people like Andi Owen engage in. Watch to the end. She's a toxic mess.
If you work for her, get your resume up to date! This lady does not deserve you.
This is Andi Owen, CEO of MillerKnoll. She received a bonus of nearly $4,000,000. This is her response to workers annoyed that they won’t be receiving one.
A mean boss is bad
A sneaky, backstabbing boss is worse
But there is a special place in hell reserved for a sweet and well-meaning boss who will not stand up for you
They hug you and praise you but won’t spend one cent of political capital advocating for you
Hugs are cheap
THINGS YOU LEARN AS YOU CLIMB THE CORPORATE LADDER
1. Executives are not smarter than other people, including you
2. High-level decisions are often made based on someone’s ego
3. People can be fake without realizing it
4. Sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism & ableism are real
“Entry level” means you don’t need experience.
LinkedIn, Indeed and every other careers site should prohibit job ads that say “entry-level” and then require 3 to 5 years of experience
Many if not most HR and management practices spring from fear, the fear of not being in control. It makes sense when we think about it. In the early days of the industrial revolution, the worst thing that could happen would be for employees to realize they actually run the place.
If you are jobhunting, I want you to find a job but I want it to be a job that deserves you. The trauma of workplace abuse can take a long time to heal. It can damage your self-esteem for years. I want you to notice red flags BEFORE you take the job
@realrobcopeland
Look at me coming over here to see if you had the grace to apologize. Instead, I found you trying to backpedal and double down in the same tweet.
It takes tremendous courage to leave a job when you don’t have another job lined up, are physically and emotionally depleted and have no idea what you will do next. Friends and family members may tell you you’re crazy, making the move even harder. Your body knows best.
It’s so awful that we are taught to go get a job, whatever job will take us, learn that job and then make it our identity and say we are worth whatever that job happens to pay
Horrible HR practices that need to go:
Performance reviews
Progressive discipline
360° feedback
Stack ranking
Attendance policies for salaried people
Stealing airline miles
Walking people out the door
Black hole recruiting
“Unlimited” PTO
“Confidential” employee surveys
Isn't it odd that we expect a kid to choose a career at age 17 with almost no understanding of what careers might be available or what those careers are like...and choose a college major & often, take on $100K or more of debt based on their age 17 career choice? When jobs...
Dear HR person,
Thank you for reaching out.
You asked me to share the reason(s) I recently withdrew from the hiring pipeline for a position in your firm.
If I dropped out of your recruiting process, I did so for one or several of these reasons:
All it takes is one performance review where you get the highest grade followed by one where you get the lowest grade (because you’re reporting to a new boss who doesn’t like you) to realize that performance reviews are all about power and control.
It would have saved us so much confusion and pain if a grownup we trusted had told us, "Just because someone is an adult doesn't mean they know what they are talking about. Grownups say a lot of things that are not true."
7. One time at a staff meeting your boss said it might cause tension if you and your coworkers talk about your salaries, so you decided never to do that
Salaried employees are paid to perform a role, not to work a certain number of days. As an HR leader I didn’t count the days off salary employees took. If they’re doing their jobs, who cares when they are at work and when they aren’t? You either trust your employees or you don’t
6. You don’t care much about your pay raise each year. What you care about is getting an Excellent (or at least Above Average) rating from your manager
3. You are happy to perform all the unpaid consulting work a prospective employer requests. After all, performing unpaid consulting projects is a great way to show how qualified you are!
How old were you when it hit you that the boss(es) who:
put you down
kept you under their thumb
put you in a tiny box
and
never once acknowledged your brains and talent...
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
...were actually terrified of you?
You cannot simultaneously tell your employees:
“We do not trust you to decide where to work OR to get your work done unless we’re watching you”
AND
“It’s the organic, spontaneous flowering of ideas here in the office, enabled by our open, trusting culture, that makes us great”
Unethical Hiring Practices (that happen every day):
1. Job ad with no salary info
2. Interviewing a candidate 2-3 times knowing their salary requirement, then offering a much lower salary
3. Ghosting candidates after interviews
4. Making free work part of the interview process
If your business closes because you can’t find workers
If you’re constantly implementing new and harsher policies because employees don’t show up
If you can’t hire people because no one wants your jobs
If you’re always hiring because nobody sticks around
THE PROBLEM IS YOU
Q. Under what circumstances is it OK to have two employees share a hotel room in order to save travel expenses?
A. None. If you have enough money to have people travel at all, you can afford to give each employee their own hotel room
Q. Any tips for hiring motivated people?
A. Motivation is a function of the environment, including how you treat the people you hire.
Virtually everyone walks into a new job motivated. Whether or not they stay motivated is all about what kind of leader you are.
Put
Put the
Put the salary
Put the salary range
Put the salary range in
Put the salary range in the
Put the salary range in the job
Put the salary range in the job ad
STOP WASTING OUR TIME
LIES WE WERE TOLD ABOUT THE WORKING WORLD (please add your favorites)
1. You will succeed in the working world based entirely on your hard work and intelligence
2. Managers are people with leadership skills & maturity
3. Having a college degree shows you have a strong work ethic
A. There's no trend of "quiet quitting." It's a made-up phenomenon that coincidentally popped up at the very moment employees are gaining more leverage in the employer-employee relationship than they've enjoyed in decades.
When I heard about 360 in the mid 80s, I told my teammate about it. He said, When I was in a reeducation camp in North Vietnam they had that system. They wanted us to rat out our fellow prisoners. It is a mind control technique to weaken bonds between captives
When you are in a bad work situation, your body knows but your mind may resist concluding that it’s time to go – because change is hard.
Your body will signal you that the situation is untenable. You’ll get sick.
Your body always wins. Mother nature bats last, as they say
The truth is that almost anyone can learn to do almost any job.
Doctors, lawyers, scientists, airline pilots and a few other professions require years of specialized training.
Most jobs don’t.
Any of us could learn virtually any office job in 6 months if we are honest
Your work does not define you, even if you love it. You are powerful whether you are employed or not, whether you earn the salary you deserve or not, and whether or not you have the perfect job. You are successful. You are out here making it in an often tough & forbidding world.
Why do employers leave salary ranges out of their job ads?
- To pay as little as possible
- To maintain pay inequality
- So current employees won’t know that newcomers are paid more
- To encourage candidates to undervalue their skills
More things coronavirus is teaching us:
1) You should not get your health insurance from your job
2) Healthcare is a national security issue
3) Many employers do not give a damn about their employees
4) We need to tax the rich
When you give notice because you’re underpaid and they say “OK, if you’re going to hold our feet to the fire then we will pay you what you are worth” you realize that they always had the money, they just didn’t want to give it to you
Reasons to let your employees work from home:
1) Dramatically increases the available talent pool (employees could be based anywhere)
2) Reduces your need for office space and parking
3) Allows you to tap the talents of folks with physical disabilities
WHY don’t we talk about the fact that work in 2021 is still based on the notion that once an employer hires you, they own you - and control every waking moment of your life? (And can fire you, for no reason?) Why do we pretend all this is normal, or acceptable?
Are you ready to job hunt right now if you want or need to?
Being willing and ready to get a new job is a big part of your power in the talent market.
Don’t let one employer control 100% of your income without a backup plan.
What people forget when they advise you, “Wait until you have a new job before quitting the old job” is that you can be so traumatized and damaged by your job that you’re not in the right headspace to job hunt.
You might be brainwashed if:
1. You feel that interviewing for other jobs is disloyal to your employer
2. You believe your boss will always pay you & treat you fairly, such that you’ll never need to talk to them about it
3. You think people who get fired deserve it
Why are departing employees invited (or commanded) to attend exit interviews on their way out the door...
...while other employees AREN’T invited to discuss problems that might eventually cause them to quit?
Why solicit employees’ input when it’s too late to do any good?
Things that can get you called “unprofessional:”
Acting like a human being with employees who report to you
Valuing your personal life
Telling the truth
Standing up for yourself
Showing even a teeny bit of your personality
Being more competent than your boss
Things good managers say:
This report is tremendous.
Can I get your advice on something?
Amazing idea – I never would’ve thought of that.
It’s 5:45. You should go home.
You know more about that topic than I do.
Thank you! You are awesome
Q. Liz, it took me a long time to realize that job themselves are not that hard, it’s the politics and drama and petty BS that makes jobs hard
A. Folks, do you agree? Please weigh in!
Your ability to GET a job is more important than your ability to DO the job, as you know if you've job hunted lately.
The more often you job hunt, the more like an entrepreneur your mindset becomes.
If you’ve been applying to jobs with no success and feeling bad about it, read this:
1. It’s not you
2. Recruiting is broken
3. Employers know it, but won’t admit it
4. They prefer that you think the problem is you
5. You are fine
6. Most of these jokers don’t deserve you anyway
If work were just about getting the work done, employers would be thrilled when you take a job you’re overqualified for & can perform with one hand tied behind your back. However, work is not just about getting work done. It’s also and perhaps mainly about ego, fear and control
RETWEET If authority figures in your life told you there was something wrong with you because you were more creative, outspoken, confident, unconventional or strong in your convictions than they wanted or expected you to be
OLD THINKING:
My company needs my skills! I have all the job security I could want.
NEW THINKING:
I have skills LOTS of companies need! That’s the kind of job security I care about.
MORAL:
Any job could disappear at any moment. You carry your job security around with you.
Let’s say you apply for a job that requires formal business attire – a suit and tie five days a week. You need at least three suits, five shirts and probably five ties plus dress shoes. That’s an investment of over $1000. How is that not classist?
Your boss doesn’t own you.
You are valuable and worthy whether you have a job right now, or not.
Your paycheck says nothing meaningful about you.
We have been told a lot of lies about work, adulthood and life in general.
TAKE BACK YOUR POWER
Weird how the same people who tell jobseekers, “The world doesn’t owe you a job” feel that businesses are entitled to hire employees for pennies because the world owes them a cheap and reliable workforce. You can’t have it both ways
TEN THINGS YOU DESERVE FROM YOUR JOB
1. To be paid fairly with respect to other employees & the external talent market
2. To be allowed to do the job you were hired for
3. To be treated with respect
4. To work in a safe environment free from discrimination & sexual harassment