Let employees be and get results you want
On some spare time I’ve been giving guidance to my Mom who is a Realtor. Thus, I was hanging out at Real Estate Webmasters forum. Yesterday there was a thread about employees surfing net at work. One of their moderators told a story that he fired some woman for using IM. I felt compelled to express my opinion which was : “Do you really think that forbidding IM or web surfing will help productivity? Instead people will dose off, talk with each other, or send sms messages. The key is to hire people that like the job, and will perform well.” The response I got is that I obviously don’t know what I am talking about.
Now what I meant why did he hired that girl in a first place? To achieve results and bring value to the company I assume. If he fired her for just using IM that means he didn’t value her skills at all, so why hire in a first place? Do you expect from your employees to “work” 8 hours or to produce results? Is the threat of being fired for breaking rule is the only way of motivating employees? My assumption is any employee that knowingly is going to work for such a company doesn’t like a job and will not perform at a full capacity. Instead I suggest hiring people that love the job and who are able to provide result, and get a heck out of their way. Any opinions, somebody else wants to tell me that I don’t know what I am talking about?
May 19th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
“The key is to hire people that like the job, and will perform well.”
Now, this, in my opinion, is a terrific example of keeping it real. You are bucking the accepted practice of small businesses (and large ones). And you are, in my opinion, absolutely right. I have spent huge amounts of time on hiring, when others wanted to just fill a vacancy. Like you, I believe in finding the right people and getting the heck out of their way.
May 20th, 2006 at 1:05 am
Well, I’ll put the caveat on this that I don’t know how much IM usage she was making, and of what nature (7 out of 8 hours in erotic chat is a different thing from chatting with a friend on and off in the afternoon of a workday). That said, though:
No, you sir know EXACTLY what the heck you’re talking about. The one question to ask about the fired woman is, “Is she producing the results she’s paid to produce?” If the answer is “Yes,” then IM, talking with coworkers, taking twice the number of allotted breaks, or writing a book on company time aren’t grounds for firing–they may well be all that’s keeping her productive and in your employ. If the answer is “No,” then change her situation so it becomes a yes, or get her out–don’t wait for some asinine excuse like IM.
May 20th, 2006 at 4:40 am
Thanks for the support guys. I am glad somebody shares my opinion. Max in regards to that woman he said he fired her after three days of work, so I don’t think he got a chance to properly evaluate her. The thing is that everybody is talking and bragging about how the people are their key resources, but in reality you rarely see it in practice. As Becky said it, you more likely to see in a small business rather in a corporation.