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Happywork TV Episode 24: Don’t Interrupt People Who Are Trying to Concentrate

Posted on December 18, 2014 // 1 Comment

 
In Episode 24 of Happywork TV, I present the next commitment in my work code of conduct called “The Happywork Agreement.”

This one is made jointly by employers and employees. It goes like this: “When a fellow employee must work in complete concentration, I will try to give that employee a chance to work uninterrupted. What can wait … will wait.”

As I say in the video, in a list of 46 commitments, some are going to be stellar, and some will be just so-so. Reflecting upon The Happywork Agreement, thinking of everything I cut out of it and what I decided to leave in there, it is possible this is one of the weaker ideas. (Although I’d love for you to vigorously disagree with me!).

Getting interrupted at work is not the cardinal work sin that’s tearing workplaces apart. However, let’s admit: it’s just bloody annoying!

I think we become disengaged at work, even grossly unhappy at work, because of big hairy problems, MIXED IN with small little daily crap that accumulates and gets on our nerves. So yes, let’s eliminate the human indecency at work: the abuse, the mind games, the discrimination – the BIG stuff. But hey, let’s take a crack at the little stuff, too. I think that’s where my head was when I put this in The Happywork Agreement.

Google famously allowed its employees to take 20% of their time for personal programming pursuits – I’d call that “thinking time.” It’s the exploration of your biggest ideas, without the pressure to perform. What a wonderful way to learn. At most jobs I’ve worked, I have not found a healthy respect for thinking time. In fact, at most companies, work flow and human communication are both rather dysfunctional. “Getting things done” a mixture of email, voicemail, text messages, memos, hallway conversations, and meetings that go on for twice as long as they needed to. All of this represents interruptions to our “flow” – the ability for us to put our heads down and crank out something beautiful.

Every time you’re interrupted, it takes you anywhere between 5-20 minutes to get back to what you were doing. In an 8-10 hour day, being interrupted 5 times steals a huge chunk out of your day (and 5 is being generous). You’d be more pleased with yourself if you were getting your work done. However, you were meeting with Sally, when all of a sudden, Larry poked his head in your office and started talking … while you and Sally were talking. Rude. Where were we again? In cases like this, I actually appreciate text messages and email for what they are – non-interruption-based communication.

If you see a comrade at the office, and they appear to be working hard, in deep concentration, ask yourself if your needs could be communicated to them in an email.

What do you think?

p.s. Here’s a link to the blog post I referenced in the video.

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Watch Episode 23 here!

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IMPORTANT STUFF!

Download chapters 1-3 of my book for free!

Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

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Happywork TV Episode 23: Don’t Be a Chief Problem Identification Officer

Posted on December 16, 2014 // Leave a Comment

In Episode 23 of Happywork TV, I present the next commitment in my work code of conduct called “The Happywork Agreement.”

This one is made jointly by employers and employees. It goes like this: “We won’t publicly present a problem without offering at least one viable solution. Chief Problem Identification Officer is not a staffed role at this organization.”

Here’s a question for you: “Who’s good at identifying problems?” The answer is EVERYBODY! That makes problem identification not so special. Every job applicant in the world could take that job and rock it. Children are experts at identifying problems, which should tell you what you need to know about problem identification’s value to an organization. When my kids tell me, “I’m HUNGRY!” I just politely thank them for letting me know, and I wait for a solution-based request. I’m not trying to be a jerk dad, although I’m sure that’s how I come across. I want to them to think critically starting NOW – I want them to think about solving problems, and not just pointing them out.

Nothing is gained by people sitting around a conference room table bitching about all the problems an organization has. Besides, when everyone is complaining, everyone is also being negative, and negativity accumulates like plaque on teeth. It’s an ugly, insidious force, and it will drag you down!

You start making the big bucks when you can solve problems. You might not even need to identify a single problem in your career. That’s so easy to do, you could leave it to others. Find and implement solutions to those problems, and you’re the leader we need.

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Watch Episode 22 here!

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IMPORTANT!

Download chapters 1-3 of my book for free!

Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

Please SUBSCRIBE to my email newsletter! Pretty please – you’ll get these blog posts delivered to you automatically. Merci!

And subscribe on YouTube!

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Happywork TV Episode 22: Praise Publicly, Criticize Privately

Posted on December 14, 2014 // 1 Comment

In Episode 22 of Happywork TV, I present the next commitment in my work code of conduct called “The Happywork Agreement.”

This one is made jointly by employers and employees. It goes like this: “Praise will be public; complaining and criticism (whether constructive or not) will be private.”

This goes back to the simple notion that negativity, all things being equal, can be way more powerful than positivity. Ten compliments and one snarky jab, and which of the 11 interactions do you remember? You know the answer.

You can increase the power of negativity by heaping it on people while in the presence of others. If you tear someone a new YNW, and you do it in front of the whole company, yes that is WAY worse for that poor soul. Criticism should remain as private as possible. If you have a problem with me, come talk to me about it. We can discuss it in private.

What about praise? Some people don’t like to be praised publicly – so embarrassing. In my experience, even the people who claim to not like public praise really do like it. Everyone loves praise. Repeat: everyone loves praise. Some people are just a little more shy than others.

Praising publicly is a powerful motivational tool, and it’s part and parcel of just being a nice human being. On the flip side, criticism (even completely justified criticism) falls into the negativity family, and that needs to be handled more delicately.

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Watch Episode 21 here!

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IMPORTANT!

Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

Please SUBSCRIBE to my email newsletter! Pretty please – you’ll get these blog posts delivered to you automatically. Merci!

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Happywork TV Episode 21: Employees Should Challenge Each Other to Be Their Very Best

Posted on December 11, 2014 // 1 Comment

In Episode 21 of Happywork TV, I present the next commitment in my work code of conduct called “The Happywork Agreement.”

This one is made jointly by employers and employees. It goes like this: “As employees, we will challenge each other to be our very best. Doing great work gives human beings the sense of significance they need and desire.”

In my work travels, I have found myself working with a melange of differently-talented people. Companies are full of superstars and clock watchers. Happy people and acerbic people. Glass-is-half-full people and glass-is-half-empty people (and some glass-is-totally-empty people, too). We all have different family lives, different goals, different backgrounds, and different motivations. We’re all REALLY different (one of the main points of my book).

Here’s an idea: it is US – the employees of an organization, from top to bottom – who should set the standard to live by. All of us – NOT just management. I will work hard, because I don’t want to let you, my coworker, down. It’s just how we live at Vunorri Inc. (the name of my fictitious company). We’re in this together. How does that sound to you? To me, it sounds like a powerful mindset. In most cases, losers (for lack of a better term) would self-select out of such a work environment. And winners would stay. We’d cooperate with each other more often, reaching company goals that much more quickly.

Instead of being forced by big bad management to perform at 150% capacity by using draconian management tactics, wouldn’t it be great if everyone came to work with a strong sense of purpose? Maybe expecting 100% attendance on this is far fetched, but there is nothing wrong with working toward perfection. It’s the journey toward greatness and the processes put in place during that journey, the camaraderie developed during the long haul, that really shape us and the companies we work at, and provide us a chance to feel fulfilled and happy.

What standard will you set for yourself? What standard will your organization set for itself?

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Watch Episode 20 here!

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IMPORTANT!

Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

Please SUBSCRIBE to my email newsletter! Pretty please – you’ll get these blog posts delivered to you automatically. Merci!

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Happywork TV Episode 19: Give Two Weeks Notice, But Don’t Quit!

Posted on December 9, 2014 // 1 Comment

In Episode 19 of Happywork TV, I present the next commitment in my work code of conduct called “The Happywork Agreement.”

This one is made by employees to their employers. It goes like this: “If I quit and give two weeks notice, I won’t quit on my employer. Keep in mind that I’m leaving for a reason, and may be eagerly anticipating my last day. So it’s possible my effort won’t be 100%. But I will try.”

I like this part of The Happywork Agreement because it doesn’t suck up to one side or the other with the simple answer. An employee will typically say, “F it, I quit, why should I care how my final two weeks go?” A hard-nosed, traditional-sounding employer might say, “Hey, if I’m paying you, put your nose down in it and do your job. Oh, and those projects you had committed to finish? Are they gonna get done?” And so on.

Notice there how BOTH SIDES ARE BEING UNREASONABLE. And that’s one of the main reasons human beings disagree and bicker and fight and argue!

Any demanding employer in the employee’s shoes – truly in their shoes, quitting a job – would act in much the same way as the employee. In fact, when they quit their VP and EVP jobs, they’re not always giving 100%. Sometimes they’re leaving without two weeks notice, and they’re taking company secrets with them. But knowing this (or maybe conveniently ignoring it), they still can’t forgive their employees for quitting. They take it personally, like it’s a girlfriend breaking up with them, and they hate how you can’t give 150% effort up until the last day. On the other side, how many times have you heard this from an employee who’s submitted her two weeks notice: “What are they gonna do? Fire me?” Ha! How lazy can you possibly be! Your employer doesn’t deserve your half-ass, slovenly effort. Get in there and show them how you carry yourself as a human being. Try!

The gulf between employer and employee frustrated me so much that I wrote a book about it! And this episode was about one of those intractable differences that keep human beings at odds. I hope we can change that.

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Watch Episode 18 here!

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IMPORTANT!

Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

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Happywork TV Episode 17: Ignore Your Job Description Every Now and Then

Posted on December 1, 2014 // 1 Comment

In Episode 17 of Happywork TV, I present the next commitment in my work code of conduct called “The Happywork Agreement.”

This one is made by employees to their employers. It goes like this: “I promise to ignore my job description every once in a while. In other words, my employer will not hear the words ‘That’s not my job’ come out of my mouth.”

In other areas of The Happywork Agreement, I encourage employers to shoot their employees straight – to tell them what you want, and when you want it. I advise employers to not leave employees in the dark; don’t make employees guess what’s important.

Of course, life is complicated, with many shades of gray, and here’s some more gray. As is my now-customary question to you guys, HAVE YOU EVER WORKED WITH someone who sits on their hands during extreme times of need because the task at hand is not part of their overall job description? There’s a crisis – the company is in need! Do you know what that means? Your fellow employees are in need, too! Work sucks until this big problem is solved. All hands on deck! But it’s not part of your job. Thanks for the help, Brah.

The needs of a company and the needs of a team CANNOT perfectly fit into a written job description. Of course uniquely-shaped problems will present themselves. Whatever will we do? We’ll sick our talented people on it! Now, those people are going to have to bend a little bit. They’re going to have to tackle some big thinking, some team-building, and some duties that were not on that job description they were handed a few years ago when they were hired.

Be helpful to the team! Don’t marry your job description – yes do your job, but cheat on that description when duty calls.

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Watch Episode 16 here!

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IMPORTANT!

Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

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Happywork TV Episode 16: Show Up To Your Damn Job On Time

Posted on November 20, 2014 // 3 Comments

In Episode 16 of Happywork TV, I present the next commitment in my work code of conduct called “The Happywork Agreement.”

This one is made by employees to their employers. It goes like this: “I will show up to work on time, or will communicate when I can’t.”

That’s it! Freakin’ show up to work on time! Your employer does not deserve the shenanigans about alarm clocks that didn’t go off, car trouble, and all the rest.

If you have an extenuating circumstance, please communicate it with your superiors! For me, Happywork is all about work/life balance. I don’t just care about your work happiness; I want the entire user experience known as your life to be a great one. You want to be able to drop your kids off at school, and be at their parent/teacher conferences, and more. So there will be times you can’t make it to work on time – COMMUNICATE! I am hopeful your employer will understand. Create an open line of communication, and be reliable for your employer.

What of workplaces with flex time? They’re awesome. But, if you don’t work at such a place, and they tell you your shift starts at 8am, be there at 8!!!

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Watch Episode 15 here!

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Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

Please SUBSCRIBE to my email newsletter! Pretty please – you’ll get these blog posts delivered to you automatically. Merci!

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Happywork TV Episode 15: Your Job is Not a Right, So Stop Acting Like It Is

Posted on November 20, 2014 // 4 Comments

In Episode 15 of Happywork TV, I present the next commitment in my work code of conduct called “The Happywork Agreement.”

This one is made by employees to their employers. It goes like this: “I understand my job is not a right, nor a privilege.”

For me, this is a matter of employee attitude. If your employer came to you and said, “You know, you’re lucky to have a job here at my company,” you’d be like “GTFO of here!” That’s not the lever of persuasion that an employer should be pulling!

So, when employees strut around with the attitude that the company is lucky to have them … that, without them, everything would fall apart and who would do their job and “I’m irreplaceable…” Well, you’re wrong. No one is irreplaceable, and the sooner you realize that, the better your attitude might get.

I was once removed from a job, and I thought to myself, “How are they gonna do this without me?” And, “Don’t they even want to know the password to my computer and the online banking and…” Guess what? They managed. It probably took a couple of uncomfortable phone calls and a few late nights, but they survived without me.

My biggest problem with this attitude of “My employer is lucky to have me” is the potential damage it can do to our work relationships. If an employer can piss off her people by copping a bad attitude, an employee can tweak their employer doing the exact same thing. AND that is a terrible foundation on which to build a team.

So that’s my issue – you can’t build great teams if you have employers acting like jerks, and you certainly can’t build a great team if you have employees strutting around like they’re entitled to their jobs.

This is about attitude.

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Watch Episode 14 here!

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Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

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Happywork TV Episode 14: Owners May Be More Enthusiastic About The Business Than Employees

Posted on November 16, 2014 // 1 Comment

LOL HIT “PLAY” ON MY FOREHEAD!

In Episode 14 of Happywork TV, I introduce the next commitment contained in the work code of conduct I’ve created called “The Happywork Agreement.” (which is in the book! The Agreement itself was where the whole idea for this book started)

Here it is: “I will keep in mind that my employees may not be as excited about the organization as I am. This is natural, as this business is my dream and not necessarily theirs.”

Key in on the word “natural” here. As an owner or manager, you can wish all day that your employees had an internal motor that ran at 200% like yours does. You can wish it all you want, but it’s not often going to be so. You started the business; it’s your dream. Who could possibly be more excited about it than you?

By the way, when I was a marketing and communication consultant, I used to hate the question some prospects would ask: “Are you going to love my business as much as I do?” What are you, nuts? That’s just impossible, and a seriously lazy question. Ask better questions!

I digress.

If Mr Owner or Mrs Manager is wondering why their employees aren’t as excited as they are, they should first understand that it’s completely natural to have more energy, drive, and excitement for your business than your employees. And if you want to change that, work hard at it! Train your people. Coach them up. Give them a great place to work. Give them a reason to be excited to come to work! Don’t just sit there and wish everyone loved your business as much as you do. Work your ass off to make it so!

And, I would ask that you avoid making us employees feel guilty for not loving your business as much as you do. That’s what I’d call “coaching down,” and if you’re doing this, you’re going on the wrong direction.

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Watch Episode 13 here!

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Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

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Happywork TV Episode 13: Employers May Have Skillsets That Employees Do Not

Posted on November 14, 2014 // 1 Comment

In Episode 13 of Happywork TV, I introduce yet another commitment contained in the work code of conduct I’ve created called “The Happywork Agreement.” (which is in the book!)

Here it is: “I will remember that I may possess certain skillsets that my employees do not. Therefore, it may not be reasonable to expect from others sterling performance in areas where I excel. I will be patient. There was only one Michael Jordan on the Bulls.”

In the video, I bring up the example of Magic Johnson. He excelled at just about everything on the court – he was tall, he could pass, he could shoot, he was an amazing floor general and leader. However, when he was handed the Lakers coaching job, he didn’t do so well.

Why? One reason bandied about was that he got frustrated when players didn’t execute plays that he was so able to make himself during his playing career. He wasn’t patient with his players, and it shoed. Jordan did the same thing during his playing career, and it didn’t seem to affect the Bulls’ performance. However, I have to question whether or not it was fun to be Jordan’s teammate. Kobe Bryant is finding out right now how lonely it is when no one wants to come play with you. Guys, it’s Los Angeles. It’s the Lakers! Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to play in L.A.? Here’s your answer: NBA players who don’t feel like putting up with Kobe Bryant’s management style.

Owners and managers will more often than not possess a deeper skillset than the people who work for them. Yes, it’s a generalization, but it will be true more times than not. When I was a CPA, I certainly possessed more skills than junior accountants. It would have been unfair to expect them to be able to do all of the cool accounting things I was able to do. (did I really just say that?)

Smart owners and managers will hire the best people they can, and will then train them, coach them up, send them to seminars, and give them as many chances to acquire the skills necessary to excel. Before you know it, those employees may be ready to shoulder more responsibility. But until they are, you need to be patient, and you need to teach, teach, teach. If you’re riding some junior person’s ass because they can’t do it as well as you, you’re just being a short-sighted jerk.

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Watch Episode 12 here!

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Happywork is available for pre-order on Amazon – HERE!

Please SUBSCRIBE to my email newsletter! Pretty please – you’ll get these blog posts delivered to you automatically. Merci!

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