December 2010 Archives

I saw Erich was writing about how traditional ethics apply to tribal vocational rehabilitation. No, he is not suggesting riding people down and shooting them like a buffalo hunt (although, personally, I could understand how you'd want to do that with some people. I'm kind of lacking in that traditional quality of generosity).

In fact, a lot of his talk at CANAR next week is on the exact opposite of that - that being a traditional person doesn't mean sweats, give-aways and knowing  a few words of Dakota - if you're in San Diego on Monday you can come here us talk (more exciting than it sounds).

Much of Erich's presentation is on the meaning of honesty, perseverance, generosity and courage in the modern workplace.

I'd go a bit further than Erich (he would say that I always do but that is just him being jealous).

Seriously, though, I do agree with him that it's stealing from the tribe if you are working five hours when you get paid for eight. If you come to work late, leave early and spend two hours in the middle of the day running around doing errands, picking up your mother-in-law's mail, buying snacks at Wal-Mart for the party this weekend and putting has in your car - then if you got paid for an eight hour day you are a thief, plain and simple.

Where I think Erich doesn't go far enough is that it is not enough to just show up. We all have our pet peeves, things that drive us crazy, and this is mine - people who are in no way qualified for a job but got it through connections, lying on their resume or just a crazed human resources clerk, who knows - come to work every day and do nothing productive. I have spoken to more than one person like this and asked how they justify having a job as say, an accountant, when they know nothing about budgets, spreadsheets, balance sheets or anything remotely to do with accounting. There answer is usually either that no one has taught them their job so it is not their fault, or, this is the one that gets me,
"I am here 40 hours a week."

Is that the best we can do for expectations? If that is all it takes then the best employees your organization has is the office furniture - after all, your desks and chairs are there 24/ 7.