“Employee morale is increasing. At the same time, faith in top management and its ability to make good decisions has declined.” That quote, from the 2007 Randstad “World of Work” survey, got me thinking: How is it that morale and faith in management would move in opposite directions? Well, maybe there’s no reason those two things should be positively correlated. There are times when lousy leadership produces an increase in morale, as when tyrannical management unites employees, giving them an enemy in common.
I visited one small real estate office where the owner told me her three employees were so loyal to her that they refused to take days off. When I later visited with the employees, I mentioned the boss’s comment and they laughed bitterly: The boss was so obnoxious and demanding that they’d taken a vow not to desert one another.
Also, employees are becoming sophisticated about the realities of the New Economy. They understand Capitalism’s Catch-22: When chief executives are not owners of the company, they eventually will be forced by the market and/or ownership to make decisions that screw employees. When CEOs are owners, they eventually will be induced to sell the company because it has so much potential value to someone who will buy the company and save money by screwing the employees.
That’s why it’s so rare to hear a statement like the one made by Howard Schultz to Kai Ryssdal on public radio. Knowing that Starbucks spends more on health care than on coffee beans, Ryssdal asked whether the policy of providing health care to all employees, even part-timers, was “sustainable.” Schultz replied with iron in his voice, “It’s sustainable because we as an organization have made a commitment that we will never — and I’ll repeat that, never — turn our back on that benefit for our people.”
What other leader would make such a claim? Who uses the word “never” anymore? No, the modern leader is the master of the fudge, the hedge, the duck and the waffle, the hope and the maybe, the shuffle and the pettifog, the obfuscation and the equivocation. In other words, the goal of modern leadership is not to make a promise; it’s to buy wiggle room.
Think about that: wiggle room… like an advertisement for a nice, big condo. How sad is that? And employees know this sadness. No wonder wise employees have separated themselves from their companies. IBMers used to boast that they “bleed blue,” and those in other companies took up the line. When was the last time you heard about bleeding the company’s color?
Here’s as close as it gets anymore: One employee told me he complimented his boss by saying, “I wouldn’t take a bullet for you, but I would take a BB.” These days, that’s loyalty. That’s why I suggest differentiating “work” and “job.” I know this is artificial distinction, but hey, artificial can be useful … just ask the guy with a prosthetic leg.
I define “work” as the defining function of employment — for the sales rep, it’s the actual selling. I’ve met salespeople who tell me that they spend only 10 percent of their time actually selling. As for the “job,” it includes all the other things that are part of being employed — the meetings, training, documentation, memos and all that comes with being managed.
I’ve found the distinction useful because once you make it, you can stop whining “I wish they’d leave me alone and let me do my work,” and start doing all the “other stuff” well and efficiently. In fact, a key portion of the job is figuring out how to get to do more work in fewer hours. Notice that I said “get to do more work.” You know you’re in the right line of work when that’s how you feel about it. All of which takes us to some other stats from the Randstad survey. Asked a series of “Now is a good time to …” questions, the percentage of employees who said “very” or “somewhat” has risen in these categories:
Time to look for a job that pays more: • 2003, 34 percent • 2007, 54 percent
Time to look for a new job with more interesting/fulfilling work: • 2003, 36 percent • 2007, 54 percent
Time to ask for a raise: • 2003, 27 percent • 2007, 45 percent
A few years ago employees were hunkered down, grateful to have a job. Now they understand the rules of the New Economy and they have less faith in management, but more faith in themselves and the value of their work.
Dale Dauten is the founder of The Innovators’ Lab. His latest book is “(Great) Employees Only: How Gifted Bosses Hire and De-Hire Their Way to Success.”