Fortune magazine is out with its list of the Top 100 Best Places to Work.

Kinkos, which fell off the list this year, sent this email to employees. (Link leads you to fuckedcompany.com, so if you don't want to go to that site, don't push the link! )

Okay, we all have to make a living, so is nice...but, to me, the biggest factor has to be how much time is spent at work and how happy you are during that time. Life is too short to spend 8 to 10 hours a day, five days a week, being miserable. Support and respect for your family life scores big too, yes?

What are the practical things that make a place good to work to you?

Andrea

Flexible hours, work schedules, and reasonable time-off policies help. At my seminary, I get 10 holidays a year, 20 vacation days a year, and 12 sick days a year, of which half can be used as personal days (so one doesn't have to 'pretend' to be sick).

Respect for people as individuals, including knowing who they are and what is important to them, ranks high on my list.

Listening to employee ideas is important.

The biggest aspects about a job that makes it enjoyable for me is if I actually enjoy what I'm doing and if it always makes me feel stimulated and entertains me (I don't know how anyone could work at mickey de's all their life if they hated the work). I also think working with colleagues that I can respect and enjoy being around is important in a job, and I guess lots of perks would be a nice bonus to a job too.

Rob

As of late I have been focusing on why my job sucks, so I will look at it from that perspective.

The place where I am employeed spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to survey employees to find out why they are unhappy about working there. No place on this survey is there a place for you to put "It really insults me that there once was a 25 year parking lot which was close to the building. This lot was to recognize the dedication of loyal employees who have worked for this company for 25 years. The fact that this parking lot was taken away for snot-nosed, non-english-speaking Residents who don't know their ass from their elbow really pisses me off."

Good places to work take time to listen to their employees. If an employee says "I think we need to put in XYZ widget to help us be more productive" a good employer would say "thank you for your imput. I will consider that."

Good places to work recognize their best employees. I went to work despising my job today. I went in already ready to spit nails. However, I stayed professional, and had a doctor say "by the way, thanks for all your help with this case." My mood definately lifted. I think those kinds of comments from higher-ups really do make a difference. Bonuses are nice too, but they get to be trivial. I once got a bonus because my boss threw my dinner out by accident. Excuse me? How exactly did I earn that bonus? Sheesh.

I guess that is basically it. I want to be listened to, respected, praised and rewarded (not necessarily monitarily). When I have those things, I am a very happy and very productive little worker-bee. When I do not have those things from my higher-ups, I try my best to be a good worker bee, but I am bitter every single minute of it.

I think that's part of the Kinkos letter. Happy employees should be productive employees. However, when you are too fat and happy at work, I think you get lazy. There needs to be a balance. A give and take, where the employer and employee have mutual respect and a genuine desire to do the best for one another. When it gets out of whack on either end (employee or employer) productivity seems to suffer.

Yes, a little praise can go a long way.

Lately one of the mood-depressers in my department has been the boss. Whereas he used to be jovial, friendly, concerned about us, etc., lately he's been rigid, obsessive, tending toward micro-managing, and inconsistent.

Instead of saying 'this is a great issue of our magazine', his first words upon seeing it are 'so, when's the website being updated. It's overdue, you know.'

Every single time. I no longer tell him when things are done, or show the finished products to him. I let him get things with the rest of the seminary.

Quote:Lately one of the mood-depressers in my department has been the boss. Whereas he used to be jovial, friendly, concerned about us, etc., lately he's been rigid, obsessive, tending toward micro-managing, and inconsistent.

Instead of saying 'this is a great issue of our magazine', his first words upon seeing it are 'so, when's the website being updated. It's overdue, you know.'

Fr. Kurt, did anyone ever tell you that you have a way with words?

I recognize your boss because at times I've been him...maybe not quite as harsh as described, but there was a year or two when, massively embattled on fronts not easily visible to the folks who worked for me, I wasn't far off from the guy. To say I hated being that version of myself is an understatement. I went home and cried nearly every night.

Catch somebody doing something right. I'm not Ken Blanchard's biggest fan in general (sorry, I know he has a lot of them), but that catch phrase of his, from The One Minute Manager, I believe, can change the entire culture of a workplace when applied sincerely.

The cool thing about the change power of that principle, is that it doesn't just apply top down. Anybody, at any level in an organization, can make a difference by resolving to catch people doing something right. It's too easy to forget to do it, and it is the single biggest way to make a difference...just spreading positive energy. (Don't forget to apply the principle upwards, seriously. My day is lifted much more by someone who works in my department catching me doing something right, than one of our company owners complimenting me.)

Nobody wants phony praise. Everybody needs a simple recognition of a good job done...all that you have to do is remember to catch somebody doing something right.

Andrea

Quote:Nobody wants phony praise. Everybody needs a simple recognition of a good job done...all that you have to do is remember to catch somebody doing something right.

This is a key concept in teaching. Now that I've learned it, I've attempted to apply it to every aspect of my life (but, I could stand to do more of it). I have noticed, however, it really does make a big difference in your relationships with other people, be it co-workers, family, or friends. It helps build a mutual respect when you sincerely take notice of something someone did, and take the time to comment on it.

This is very grey area for me. If the prise were very important to me I'd have a burnout long time ago. Let me illustrate:

Then one of our reps lands a big contract, he not only gets a bonus and commission; he also gets the glory. The thing is: that's his job!
On the other hand, now I have to bend over backwards to meet the design spec, the due dates, the production schedule, the QC approval and on, and on. All what I get is complains (no matter how well we are off) that I do not leave enough for profit margin. God forbid if something goes wrong and we actually loose money!
No, what motivates me is the opportunity to give my best shoot. The mouthing-off is nothing compared to situation where second-guessing is common. I used to work for a company where the owner constantly overruled my decisions. I couldn't take it for long...

Do I prise others? Every time someone makes a good decision without asking me first and every time someone asks a question then decision is really not his or hers to take. I try to encourage this behaviour as much as possible…

Wall-Mart made the list... tempora!

Flexibility and autonomy are probably the two things that I value most in a job--and the reason why I've been so happy and content at my current job even after eight years.

I have flexibility to set my own hours and days and I dictate how my work gets done and the amount of time I put into a given project (well, OK, actually the projects themselves usually dicate that, but it's up to me to figure out what they require, I don't have artificial requirements imposed on me).

Being treated like an intelligent, responsible worker makes all the difference in the world. It's even made up for the fact that there is little to no room for advancement in this company (and that was a hard one to adjust to).

It also helps if I can believe in the company's mission. I like to believe that what I'm doing will have a positive effect on the world or community. I need to believe that the company does more good than harm (I'm cynical enough to think that every company does some harm, for none of us will ever agree on what the best way to act is).