Be a Fan of Laborers - Today and Every Day

Many people think of a “good job” as a salaried, Monday through Friday, white collar professional position behind a desk. In today’s economic environment, those positions may be hard to find and not as secure as they once were. We forget that there are many, many important jobs in our country filled by people who work very hard and provide us with highly valuable services that we sometimes take for granted.

Labor Day is a good day to remember to be grateful to those people who do “real work”. I know that corporate jobs can be require long hours and be very stressful. But if you spend your day mostly sitting behind a desk or at a conference table, typing on your computer in a climate-controlled environment, thank your lucky stars for these types of professional, skilled, hard-working contributors to our society:

• The medical aide who takes care of your sick relatives and friends in hospitals and clinics.
• The guy at the automotive repair shop who gets his hands dirty to keep your car road-ready.
• The line cook who prepares your fancy expense account meal.
• The farmer who nurtures the crops that make their way to your kitchen.
• The construction worker that resurfaces the roads you drive on.
• The servers who are on their feet all evening, responding to your signals for a refill.
• The guy who comes out in the middle of the night when your sewer backs up.
• The electrician who finds the wiring problem that keeps your house from burning down.
• The landscaper that cuts your grass and rakes your leaves.
• The room attendant who cleans your hotel room and changes your bedding.

Treat your fellow laborers with the respect they have earned. Happy Labor Day!

This blog was inspired by a CBS Sunday Morning interview with Mike Rowe.  For more:
Sept 4 Interview - Mike Rowe

Job Titles - More Than a Meaningless Label

Think about your organization’s structure. Do job titles have clear meanings and consistency? Are they understood in the context of a hierarchy, to ease career planning for your employees? Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for titles to become inconsistent in a large organization over a long period of time, especially if your Human Resources department doesn’t provide and enforce clear guidelines for hiring and promotions.

Signs that your company’s job titles may be out of whack:

• There are Managers and Directors that aren't truly managing or directing anyone or anything.
• People with the same titles are reporting to each other, for example, a Director reporting to a Director.
• Employees want a Manager title, simply because they don’t see any other options to advance in the organization.
• There is general dissatisfaction and confusion among the troops, who don’t understand how jobs relate to each other and how to get from Point A to Point B in their careers.

Management struggling with these issues need to plot a corrective course.

If the organization has good guidelines for hiring and promotions, they should be adhered to without exception. As soon as you make one inexplicable exception, you have set a troublesome precedent. Necessary changes can be planned, documented, and implemented over time.

All jobs must have a fully descriptive, current position description. Every position description should be reviewed and approved by HR, and employees should have a copy of their own.

Everyone needs to understand the paths available to advance their careers. Management should take the time to understand employee interests, aspirations, skills, and experience. Provide input into what they need to do to get from where they are to where they want to be, and help them devise action plans to manage their careers.

Senior management; show the courage to make necessary adjustments when business conditions change. If your organizational structure is not functioning to help you achieve your strategic goals, you may have to adjust roles, responsibilities, and titles. Failure to do so can have long-lasting ill effect.

Like it or not, titles are still important in Corporate America. In addition to compensation levels, other benefits and perks may be attached to levels in the job hierarchy. Once given, they are very hard to take away. Egos are fragile and missteps in this area can be very de-motivating to productive contributors. Take the time to partner with HR, get it right, and reap long-term benefits.