a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  512 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: U.S. workers have gotten way less productive. No one is sure why.

The advice I give people the most often is "it is much easier to find a job when you have a job."

Give 'em their money's worth and figure out what the next job is gonna be. It remains a worker's market out there, which is probably one of the main reasons stupid articles like this get written - the "take this job and shove it" mentality of the worker marketplace is crystal clear. I don't think I'm unique among employers in recognizing that the mentality is entirely justified and well-earned but there's definitely a contingent that feels anyone getting a paycheck should be grateful to be working at all.

We pay a stipend towards personal advancement (which started when we decided three or four employees needed laptops, so it was either "we will buy you a laptop or we will give you the money towards something that will help your career"). One of our employees spent it on Spanish lessons. Another spent it on training to be a home health aide. I bring this up because your focus shouldn't be on "Quats' Job" it should be on "Quats Inc." and improving the value and utility of you, the individual-for-hire, pays everyone dividends.

And hey, thinking about it? Brown-nosing your direct report by going "hey will you guys pay for me to take this training on MailChimp" 'hey can I do this CRM webminar during business hours" "hey will you guys pay for me to get my (insert useless HR certification here)" indicates that you are striving to be more useful to the company while also padding the shit out of your resume.

Rule of thumb? It costs six months' of any given employee's salary to replace that employee (in lost productivity, retraining, onboarding, etc). It is so.much.easier to retain employees than it is to rehire them so if you set the goal of being worth vastly more than they're paying you, you basically force them to pay you better.

If they're smart. If not, at least you learned early and when the next guy asks "why are you leaving your current job" you can say "they don't support my initiative and drive for self-improvement" which makes them look like monsters.