Eddie Colbeth 2/16/11 Eddie Colbeth 2/16/11

It's Just Our Culture

Does your company know why it does what it does? Is there a good reason for all of the policies you follow? In most organizations, the answer to both of these questions is no. Here’s a test. Open up your HR manual and look at the section on sick days or paid time off. How many days do you get off for sickness? Can you use that time to take care of a family member or for a “mental health” day? Do you need a doctors approval to return to work?

Does your company know why it does what it does? Is there a good reason for all of the policies you follow? In most organizations, the answer to both of these questions is no. Here’s a test. Open your HR manual and look at the section on sick days or paid time off. How many days do you get off for sickness? Can you use that time to care for a family member or a “mental health” day? Do you need a doctor’s approval to return to work?

I’ll bet you can’t figure out the why of your sick time policy and most other policies. Is it based on some scientific or historical data? Does the law mandate it? Or is it just an arbitrary number? A friend who currently works from home most of the time recently went on a job interview. When he asked about working from home, he was told, “we expect you to show up to work every day. It’s just our culture.” This is another way of saying it’s just the way it is, or it’s always been that way.

If every company encouraged its workers to question its policies and reduce or eliminate them whenever possible, we’d all be better off. As adults, we don’t need supervision. Hire good people and get out of the way. The more rules you have, the more they are in the way. It’s about the work, not the hours.

Eddie Colbeth 1/25/11 Eddie Colbeth 1/25/11

Push Decisions to the Edge

This last Saturday I stopped for a bagel. I went to the bagel chain named after a relatively smart guy. I ordered an everything bagel with chive cream cheese, my favorite! I then asked if they had chai and the clerk said, “All we have is coffee.” I looked up at the wall and from the list there I ordered an iced mocha. I’ve been doing the low carb thing and wanted a treat - Saturday is my cheat day. The clerk replied again, “All we have is coffee.” I pointed to the wall, with a confused dog look on my face, and he told me that, “corporate made them put the sign up even though they can’t make any of those fancy drinks and won’t let them take it down.”

This last Saturday, I stopped for a bagel. I went to the bagel chain named after a relatively smart guy. I ordered an everything bagel with chive cream cheese, my favorite! I asked if they had chai, and the clerk said, “All we have is coffee.” I looked up at the wall, and from the list there, I ordered an iced mocha. I’ve been doing the low-carb thing and wanted a treat - Saturday is my cheat day. The clerk replied again, “All we have is coffee.” I pointed to the wall, with a confused dog look on my face, and he told me that “corporate made them put the sign up even though they can’t make any of those fancy drinks and won’t let them take it down.” I could tell by the lilt of irritation in his voice he had to answer this question way too many times a day.

Having worked retail for a decade, I groaned inwardly. This happens when people don’t have the autonomy to do their jobs and are not trusted to make good decisions based on a clear corporate vision. If I were asked to write a vision for them based on my recent experience, it would be, “We want to torture our employees by treating them like children and by encouraging customers to ask them questions that make us look foolish. We want our customers to have the same choices at every store regardless of our ability to deliver.” I searched high and low on their website and couldn’t find a vision statement. Shocking! It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how to fix this, but it does take some autonomy, clear corporate vision, and some trust or perhaps some canny outlaws.