The only info I've read on the Occupy deal are the two posts here. Why? Because I've been working, literally, 100+-hour weeks for the past 3 weeks. Why? Because I felt strongly that I wanted a diverse group of employees--no college, degreed, young, old, female, male--and as it turns out, I've had to fire three: Three fresh-out-of-college "adults." Why? No concept of what "work ethic" means and a jaw-dropping sense of "entitlement." These people--all college graduates with degrees directly aligned with our business (these are *dream jobs* if you're in this business)--were making $60K to $80K per year w/ FULL benefits. Months prior to their terminations, I was blunt with them on their performance ("if you do not do a, b, and c, I will fire you") and gave them an insane amount of counseling--my job as a manager, right? Well, I decided finally, No, it's not my job to have to cajole people to work hard and smart. They were incensed and "shocked" at their terminations.
Now it gets a bit more interesting. My group has been assigned to apply our discipline at a strategic level rather than a tactical one. Rather than lay-off people (which I could have justified and done), I worked with them as a group and individuals on how to apply their skills and talents to the new roles, noting again same discipline. Get this ... 6 of 10 employees are *bitching* about it--"This isn't the job I was hired for," "You haven't made me a list of contacts to work with" (my reply: "Everyone's job is to discover who these contacts are--and now that you mention it, why don't you be responsible for the contacts list on everyone's behalf," an answer that received an eyeball roll), "I can't go on a business trip 48 hours after I return from vacation--I'll be too tired," (these are exact quotes), and on and on.
Now I've got 6 more employees with big fat question marks next to their names. There's a couple in this group around the $100K mark. My mind is blown.
I just hired a 62-year-old. No degree, but 4 decades of climbing his way to a lot of impressive milestones. He actually doesn't "need" the job in a desparate sort of way (at least to my knowledge) and he is lacking some key experience in a couple of areas, but having contracted for my me for 2 years, he is enthusiastic as all hell; can flex his brain around new and challenging problems; has learned, retained, and expanded everything myself and others have taught him about our business; and acts like (oh my!) an adult.
I look at the young adults in the photos and read their brief MOs. I sense many strong similarities between them and my 3 ex-employees and my 6 wavering ones, and I'm just not "feelin' it" for them.
There is work out there--I've got a damn lot of it to offer--but I need people who actually have a clue what "work" means.
Needless to say, I am completely revamping my hiring practices, and now even that's proven astounding: I now vet potential employees by having them present--with prior notice they'll be presenting but not what specifically the topic will be other than their resume says they've done it to the satisfaction of all that is holy. It's on the fly, a 1-hour brainstorm in front of 5 people, and a real-world scenario of what their job will be about. Word has now come back from a few that my interviews are "unfair," "unreasonable," and "too hard." Go freakin' figure ...
Anyhow ... apologies if I just bored the heck out of ya. Obviously I'm just sharing my experience on this "no jobs" component of the Occupy protests.
Peace out Mighty West Seattlites ...
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West Seattle Blog
West Seattle Blog
