The Secret to Having Happy Employees by Jay Goltz Thursday, March 11, 2010

 

Bob Hoff’s take on the post below: this makes incredible sense to me. Mr. Goltz has an admirable boss philosophy I think, a philosophy that I saw parts of during my working career, a philosophy lacking in other parts of my working career (poor me; boo-hoo). Seems to me, now in my retirement rocker (not off my rocker yet), that #1 an employee must be the best that he or she can be in their chosen profession (something that depends on environmental variables, of course,) and #2, any employee’s boss at any given time depends to a great degree on luck. And, of course, the good employee works with, not against luck.

We don’t select our bosses; we just decide whether or not we will be their allies or their enemies. The best choice is obvious. Will that best choice always work out for the employee? No. If it doesn’t, seek help from others. Chances are they too have been in similar shoes to yours.

 
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About 10 years ago I was having my annual holiday party, and my niece had come with her newly minted M.B.A. boyfriend. As he looked around the room, he noted that my employees seemed happy. I told him that I thought they were.

Then, figuring I would take his new degree for a test drive, I asked him how he thought I did that. "I'm sure you treat them well," he replied.

"That's half of it," I said. "Do you know what the other half is?"

He didn't have the answer, and neither have the many other people that I have told this story. So what is the answer? I fired the unhappy people. People usually laugh at this point. I wish I were kidding.

I'm not. I have learned the long, hard and frustrating way that as a manager you cannot make everyone happy. You can try, you can listen, you can solve some problems, you can try some more. Good management requires training, counseling and patience, but there comes a point when you are robbing the business of precious time and energy.

Don't get me wrong. This doesn't happen a lot. There's no joy in the act of firing someone. And it's not always the employee's fault — there are many bad bosses out there. Bad management can make a good employee dysfunctional. On the other hand, good management will not always make a dysfunctional employee good. And sometimes people who would be great employees somewhere else just don't fit your company, whether it is the type of business or the company culture

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