5 ms·

Oh man, this. I remember I worked at a major defence contractor, and we absolutely bombed, like failed through the floor an employee satisfaction survey. And wh

Oh man, this. I remember I worked at a major defence contractor, and we absolutely bombed, like failed through the floor an employee satisfaction survey. And when the VP finally sat down with people they expressed how shitty the computers had gotten. And he's like wait a second. No one ever told me this. I can solve 90% of my morale problems by writing a cheque for like $200k?!? It was astounding how large the disconnect had grown between management and the front line. And also astounding how cheaply the employee morale was fixed once he wrote that cheque.

joshstrange 6y ago
All my experiences around this have pounded into my brain that if I ever run my company or if I am an executive I will do everything in my power to make sure all the employees under me have the best tools to do their job. Labor is one of the most expensive costs, not empowering your employees to be the best they can be is just stupid and wasteful. My dad ran a software consulting company eons ago and he had a new programmer start but he didn't have a laptop so my dad took him to Best Buy (that's where you bought computers back then) and told him to pick out a laptop. They guy picked one and my dad was like "How about this one, isn't it better?" and the guy said "Yeah, but it's more expensive". My dad bought the better laptop and gave it to the guy and told him it was his now (as in not the companies). That guy was over the moon and my dad told me that it was the best money he ever spent. Not only did he effectively "buy" a ton of loyalty with that move but he would make up the cost of the laptop in a week or so off that programmer alone (difference between what he paid the employee and what he billed them out at). I also remember going to Sam's Club with my dad to buy snacks for the office. He kept snacks, candy, drinks, etc well stocked at all times and told his employees they could have as much as they wanted, no limits. Happy employees are productive employees, why more people don't get that I'll never know...
- joshAg 6y ago
  Sometimes they do, but they just don't care that certain (or even all) employees are as productive as possible. They might even have a fancy graph showing how they're optimizing for some unit of productivity per unit of cost, so making employees more productive isn't worth it. One of the best pieces of advice I got early in my career was "Whatever you end up doing, make sure the company sees you as a profit center rather than a cost center, because companies are much more free with their checkbooks to the people they think are directly responsible for making the company money," and though things aren't nearly that black and white, it's definitely been a good general principle.
indeedmug 6y ago
> how large the disconnect had grown between management and the front line That's just the nature of leadership positions. As people get high up in the position, the view of the company is shaped by their staff and reports. The VP never hear of the problem simply because no one ever told the VP. VP never asked about it because again no one ever told the VP. That's why corporates seem to ask a million surveys and reports because there is no other way to know that information. What if employee surveys were never conducted? The VP would only know about the employee satisfaction issue if everyone left, well beyond the point that it's fixable. If you are on the ground, it's easy to ask your coworkers for that information. But if you are the VP, that's not possible.
- makapuf 6y ago
  If you're the VP, one of your main responsibilities is to ensure the structure you put in place has not that kind of issues.
telendram 6y ago
> It was astounding how large the disconnect had grown between management and the front line Isn't this the core of the MBA-hate argument ? That they occupy middle-layer positions, and actively obfuscate messages and merit from front line in order to redirect all the benefits for themselves ? There is also a darwinian component there, where such behavior is beneficial to game company evaluation, so that only people with similar principles end up being promoted, then actively scuttling any other middle managers that don't adhere to the same set of principles since they are effectively representing a dangerous rival set of values, thus ensuring that after a few cycles, only they remain. That's how culture evolve in (most) big companies where upper management don't make an active effort to keep middle management in check. A begrudging hard work, that most prefer to skip (get the quick compensation, and move on). That's also why there is a big difference when companies still have their founders in, as they tend to pay more attention to these issues since they are personally invested in company's future and brand, than recently promoted middle managers which are just temporarily in for the check.

joshstrange 6y ago

All my experiences around this have pounded into my brain that if I ever run my company or if I am an executive I will do everything in my power to make sure all the employees under me have the best tools to do their job. Labor is one of the most expensive costs, not empowering your employees to be the best they can be is just stupid and wasteful. My dad ran a software consulting company eons ago and he had a new programmer start but he didn't have a laptop so my dad took him to Best Buy (that's where you bought computers back then) and told him to pick out a laptop. They guy picked one and my dad was like "How about this one, isn't it better?" and the guy said "Yeah, but it's more expensive". My dad bought the better laptop and gave it to the guy and told him it was his now (as in not the companies). That guy was over the moon and my dad told me that it was the best money he ever spent. Not only did he effectively "buy" a ton of loyalty with that move but he would make up the cost of the laptop in a week or so off that programmer alone (difference between what he paid the employee and what he billed them out at). I also remember going to Sam's Club with my dad to buy snacks for the office. He kept snacks, candy, drinks, etc well stocked at all times and told his employees they could have as much as they wanted, no limits. Happy employees are productive employees, why more people don't get that I'll never know...

joshAg 6y ago
Sometimes they do, but they just don't care that certain (or even all) employees are as productive as possible. They might even have a fancy graph showing how they're optimizing for some unit of productivity per unit of cost, so making employees more productive isn't worth it. One of the best pieces of advice I got early in my career was "Whatever you end up doing, make sure the company sees you as a profit center rather than a cost center, because companies are much more free with their checkbooks to the people they think are directly responsible for making the company money," and though things aren't nearly that black and white, it's definitely been a good general principle.

indeedmug 6y ago

> how large the disconnect had grown between management and the front line That's just the nature of leadership positions. As people get high up in the position, the view of the company is shaped by their staff and reports. The VP never hear of the problem simply because no one ever told the VP. VP never asked about it because again no one ever told the VP. That's why corporates seem to ask a million surveys and reports because there is no other way to know that information. What if employee surveys were never conducted? The VP would only know about the employee satisfaction issue if everyone left, well beyond the point that it's fixable. If you are on the ground, it's easy to ask your coworkers for that information. But if you are the VP, that's not possible.

makapuf 6y ago
If you're the VP, one of your main responsibilities is to ensure the structure you put in place has not that kind of issues.

telendram 6y ago

> It was astounding how large the disconnect had grown between management and the front line Isn't this the core of the MBA-hate argument ? That they occupy middle-layer positions, and actively obfuscate messages and merit from front line in order to redirect all the benefits for themselves ? There is also a darwinian component there, where such behavior is beneficial to game company evaluation, so that only people with similar principles end up being promoted, then actively scuttling any other middle managers that don't adhere to the same set of principles since they are effectively representing a dangerous rival set of values, thus ensuring that after a few cycles, only they remain. That's how culture evolve in (most) big companies where upper management don't make an active effort to keep middle management in check. A begrudging hard work, that most prefer to skip (get the quick compensation, and move on). That's also why there is a big difference when companies still have their founders in, as they tend to pay more attention to these issues since they are personally invested in company's future and brand, than recently promoted middle managers which are just temporarily in for the check.