December 24, 2014 at 9:02 am
GoofyGuy (12/22/2014)
The best management consulting scam I've seen to date was this thing called the Fish Philosophy, which basically told management that they were all "Awesome, yeah!" and that if the employees weren't deliriously happy no matter what, it was the employees fault that they weren't happy, and they better start getting happy or the pink slip cannon should start targeting those troublemakers. One bad apple right?I've been in IT going on 40 years, and I've discovered it's often the 'bad apples' who have the best ideas and insights.
The 2014 London QCON had Linda Rising as a speaker and she addressed this very point. Your employees can be categorised into 4 groups in their attitude to change.
The problem with firing the unenthusiastic is that they have a critical piece of information that explains why they are so cautious. Obviously there are a small minority who will resist change no matter what but in general to affect change you need a good balance of all 4 groups.
From what I have seen change is rarely managed well so a fun place to work can cease to be fun without this being intentional or desired. I have seen admirable attempts to focus on employee wellbeing as well as cack handed cynicism. If you want to stay happy then it is as much something for the employee to work on as it is the employer
December 29, 2014 at 5:57 pm
Andy Warren (12/22/2014)
Goofguy, that's right up there with burning popcorn!
Heh. I remember one job I had where IT was on the 4th floor above the break room, and you always knew when it was 10am or 3pm from the smell of burning popcorn.
Current gig is at a school. Half of IT is in a 100 year old cottage that has a small area with a fridge, microwave, and a sink with a reverse osmosis purifier which I use every day. And since we're a school, we have a cafeteria with decent food. $2.50 for lunch and it's deducted directly from your pay: it also has a decent salad bar which is the only one in town.
Regarding management cooking, the board and the foundation that manages everything served up a holiday dinner, my understanding was that it was all purchased and as far as I know no one got sick from it. I cook a lot and no one has gotten sick from it, I'm doing a serious amount of cooking for a New Year's Eve party at my wife's observatory and doing two sweet tea-brined turkey breasts. Should be interesting.
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
December 31, 2014 at 7:43 am
Wayne, I had not heard of sweet tea brining, have to admit it intrigues me! Whether it would be good seems like it would depend on how sweet it was, often sweet tea is far too sweet for me. The things you learn on forum threads!
January 12, 2015 at 11:54 pm
One of my clients, a company with about 60 employees, have a nice kitchen and break area which they call the entertainment area which the employees have to share with council and committee members whenever there is meetings. They cook a small lunch for their employees where I can also partake of when I am there. They also started a thing called culture Fridays where each department, if they want to, can cook lunch for all the employees. Now, I must just say that South Africa has a great variety of cultures and what some of these people eat can let a person's hair stand up straight. Fortunately, so far, they kept to food that everybody will/can eat. You get the Indians (from India) that likes very hot (chilly) food and some black cultures that eat insects or more closely worms. So, although thus far these have not yet popped out in the food selections.
It is nice to have a kitchen at work to heat up your own food, make coffee/tea and so forth but going for an interview I won't even look for something like that. Nice to have.
:-PManie Verster
Developer
Johannesburg
South Africa
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. - Holy Bible
I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times. - Everett Mckinley Dirkson (Well, I am trying. - Manie Verster)
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