WE HIRE EMPLOYEES TO HELP US OUT, WE DON'T HIRE THEM TO
HELP THEM OUT
Frank sighed, he wasn't sure he had the exact words to
explain it. "We hire employees to help us out, not to help
them out. Otherwise, they would be paying us, instead of
the other way around."
He forgot to drink his coffee while he thought of some of
the problem employees he had to deal with lately.
James was always late for work. He was supposed to be
Frank's assistant but he often wasn't there when Frank
needed him. James was a big basketball fan and might be out
late playing a game with friends, watching a game on TV or
attending a game played by Four Winds High School. Each
week, the timecards needed to be checked against the amount
of leave each employee had. If the employee had used all
his or her paid leave, this amount had to be deducted from
the time charged. All of this had to be turned into the
business office by Thursday at noon. When James did not
come in until 11:30 on Thursday, Frank had to do this work
himself, falling behind on his own work. By the time James
finally did come in, there was not much work for him to do,
since he really could not attend Frank's meetings and or
write his expense reports. James offered to come in on
Saturdays to make up hours, "because that would be more
convenient for me". When James made this request, Frank
just looked at him, stunned into silence. If James was
supposed to be HIS assistant, why on earth did he think
that Frank should make the hours when it was convenient for
James? Wasn't the idea of an assistant to provide
assistance to him when he needed it? How could his
assistant possibly think that the boss should work around
HIS schedule instead of the other way around?
This confusion about the relationship between
the employee and company is a common factor in the failure
of employees to perform to meet expectations. It is even
more of a problem in Indian country where it is common to
hear a tribal council member, for example, speaking of
"helping out" an individual by giving him a job. The
purpose of a job is not to help you. The role of an
employee is to help the organization providing the
paycheck, to help it deliver meals, teach children, make
change, provide customer service, distribute payroll checks
on time.
Think this is obvious? Think James is an
exception? Click here for more examples.