I’m at work now and everything feels like it did the day before. It always amazes me how much employees feel that they are entitled too. People complain about the work environment while they lean back in the chair behind oak desks in a 15x15 office overlooking an ocean bay. I look at the picture of my Grandmother on my desk and wonder what she would think of this work environment. I know she worked in a shoe factory in Gardiner many years ago. I’m sure they didn’t care about her feelings back then. It was plain and simple. You come to work…..to work. You punch in, make or do things and then go home. You’re not there to take care of personal business, make friends or socialize. They are paying you to make or do X. In my Grandmothers case it was to make shoes. I wonder what would have happened to her if she had gone to work, went to her boss and said, “you know….I feel like you don’t appreciate me” or “I’m feeling overwhelmed and stressed. I think I’ll take tomorrow off”. You and I both know what would have happened. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those times. You work hard and you get rewarded by getting a paycheck and keeping your job. In these times, it’s easy for someone to do basically nothing and get by just fine. Especially if they are feared by upper management. A man that worked in a very successful corporation for 30 years once told me that whenever he would do annual reviews on his staff he would ask himself, “Knowing what I know now about this person, would I hire them today if they walked into my office for the first time?” If he answered no to that question then the person was cut from the company. Sounds like a very practical way to keep the cream of the crop!
