Working on Thanksgiving

We all know that employees don’t work as hard as business owners, and that they take advantage of you at every opportunity. This goes double for civil servants. That’s why I was surprised when I opened my newspaper and discovered that government employees in New Jersey were going to be forced to show for work up this Friday.

I say three cheers for New Jersey, the nation’s state most scorned state. Yes, New Jersey took a huge step forward this week when Governor Jon S. Corzine followed the lead of that NJ’s leading bank and announced that state employees would no longer receive the day after Thanksgiving off.

While the Associated Press, credits the governor for canceling this decades-old tradition, we should be applauding the man who thought up this wonderful idea, Vernon W. Hill II, who founded Commerce Bank in 1973. Determined that his bank would be different to other banks, Hill decided to focus on customers, instead of staff. As a result, his branches open until at least 8 PM on weekdays, 5 PM Saturdays and 4 PM Sundays. It’s also open on almost every public holiday—including the day after Thanksgiving. And this has paid off big for the man—he recently recently sold Commerce to Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group for $8.5 billion.

Employers looking to squeeze every possible ounce of productivity out of their workers should follow Commerce Bank’s example and eliminate as many public holidays as possible. The Business Owner’s Toolkit says while this strategy is legal, and that there’s nothing to stop you forcing your employees to show up for work on Christmas—or any other day, it says the strategy is risky because it can cause resentment amongst your workers.

I say nonsense. Your workers already resent you. Follow the example of Gov. Corzine and hold your ground. If Mr. Corzine can ignore the 5,000+ phone calls and emails that have flooded his office, you shouldn’t have any problem ignoring the demands of your staff. His stand is particularly notable in the case of administrative court staff who will be required to be at their desks on Friday—even though the court is not in session.

If you’re not convinced that you’re standing on terra firma in this area consult Employee Issues, the place I go when I need ensure that the law is on my side. According this site, there’s no Federal "holiday pay law" that entitles private-sector employees to receive time off for holidays with or without pay. And the good news is that if you do make your people show-up, you don’t have to pay them overtime—unless they work more than 40 hours. Isn’t it great to live in America?

Today’s column is a little shorter than normal because I’m spending the day before Thanksgiving walking the floor of my many client’s businesses making sure that their employees are working hard while the bosses spend the day getting to their holiday destinations in their private jets. Until Monday…stay demovated.

To stay one step in front of the competition, check out my latest book: Dr. Young’s Guide to Demotivating Employees at http://dolyttle.com.

While I don’t really have any interest in hearing what you have to say about anything, if you have a burning desire to get something off your chest, email me: dryoung@demotivationist.com.

Stop Your Employees Stealing From You

While November and December are the most profitable times of the year for retailers, they’re not as profitable as they could be. The reason: your employees are not working hard enough. While only one out of 11 people are thieves according to WDTV5 in Bridgeport, WV, theft is still a major problem.

While most of your workers are honest, the Global Retail Theft Barometer reports that employee theft accounts for more than 35 percent of all retail shrinkage. Dealing with employees who steal is easy—you simply fire them, report them to the police and allow the justice system to take its course.

The problem is the other 90 percent of people who claim to be honest. That’s right, the workers who allow the theft to occur. I hear the cries now: “My people don’t allow people to get away with shoplifting!” Surprise! They do!

How many of your employees have eyes in the back of their heads? How many of them allow thieves to walk out the door while they’re serving other customers? The fact that they’re unable to multitask allows thieves to steal from you.

If you think that you’re immune from theft because you don’t have a store, think again. A survey commissioned by the Leading Lawyer Directory shows that 58 percent of workers have taken office supplies for their personal use. The most common items stolen include pens/pencils (77 percent), "sticky" notes (44 percent), paper clips (40 percent), plants (2 percent) and office furniture (2 percent).

The solution is to keep everything under lock-and-key and dole it out only when needed. When I was a young journalist living in a small country town, I remember asking the boss for some paperclips. “No problem,” he replied, and proceeded to unlock the supply cabinet. What happened next was surprising. Instead of giving me the box of paperclips he had in his hand, he opened up the packet and asked how many I needed. When I replied “six,” he carefully counted out the requested number and handed me TWO more in case I had miscounted. While I may have laughed at his frugality, he had the last laugh. A few years later he sold the company for millions of dollars and was able to retire early. Having all that money came in useful later when he got infected with a rare disease and needed to pay for the treatment out of his own pocket.

If you ask Rupert Murdoch about how his company controls employee theft, you’ll likely be left with a blank stare But if you want to see how the great man thinks, just look at this article written by one of his valued employees, Brendan Lewis.

His suggestions include installing RFID tags in your employees security passes. Instead of forcing employees to punch a time clock (and allowing other staff members to do it for them), you can passively monitor when people arrive and leave, how long they spend at lunch and when they step out for a smoke, just by looking at the information the chip obtains.

Brett goes on to suggest that employers install wireless IP cameras that enable you to monitor what your employees are doing from your yacht or anywhere you happen to be; as well as the time tested methods of monitoring your workers phone calls and emails. He even goes so far as suggesting that employers install “spyware” on their employees’ computers, but calls it “monitoring” software. This will prevent your employees from worrying about “big brother.” This software will: “record all websites visited, instant messages sent and programs run. It will even take regular screenshots and email them to you if you like”.

Other useful tools include keyloggers that capture everything typed into a keyboard, and a firewall that will monitor all Web traffic, stop instant messaging and block access to websites such as Facebook and procrastination.com. Installing GPS is another way to monitor your company vehicles and ensure that your workers are on the job doing what you’re paying them to do—instead of wasting time sitting in traffic.

To stay one step in front of the competition, check out my latest book: Dr. Young’s Guide to Demotivating Employees at www.dolyttle.com.

While I don’t really have any interest in hearing what you have to say about anything, if you have a burning desire to get something off your chest, email me: dryoung@demotivationist.com.