How to be an Unhappy Employee

Actually, the newness of the disease it debatable, but the nature of it is not. Accountability has become a buzzword. Something you say when you want to sound authoritative or smart. But the average company has forgotten what the word means. So let’s at least get that much out of the way right now.

Accountability: “the obligation to bear the consequences for failure to perform as expected.”

The problem is that today’s corporation has shifted accountability away from individuals and spread it out over a group of people or to an entire company. On the surface, this sounds like a good idea. Get more people responsible for making something happen and you have that many chances for it to happen right? Wrong. The opposite happens. Everyone expects that everyone else will do it, so nobody does it.

This doesn’t happen right away. When you institute the “everyone’s responsible” policy, everyone is hypersensitive for a while. So it appears in the early going that things are working as you expected. But then time passes. People get used to the fact that things are always going well and they slip. They start counting on it, and the result is that things blow up in your face. And what do we do when this happens … we spread the accountability around even more.

You have to establish an environment where accountability is enforced, not just paid lip service. Assign accountability to individuals and enforce it. The corporate world has become so soft and politically correct, that it has abandoned accountability for exemption. People see this and behave accordingly; conversely, if they see co-workers held responsibile individually for assigned tasks they will mirror that example. When they see that there are consequences, they will respond with care and attention to their own responsibilities.

Now I am not a big believer in micromanagement, dictatorships, or even confrontation for that matter, but I am a big fan of people doing what they are supposed to … plain and simple. Individual accountability makes for happier employees, lower overhead cost, and increased productivity. So the next time someone at your office suggests that everyone is accountable for something … beware.

“Do not try to bend the spoon; that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth… There is no spoon… Then you will see, it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.” - The Matrix

Some of the best hidden nuggets or wisdom are found in pop culture.

“You can check out anytime you’d like, but you can never leave.” - Eagles Hotel California

“Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them.” - Bud Fox in the Movie “Wall Street”

“It’s supposed to be a challenge, it’s a shortcut! If it were easy it would just be the way.” - Ruben in the movie “Road Trip”

Tesla Motors: 0-60 in 4 seconds … top speed 135 mph … 100% electric

This is probably the coolest development in alternative feul vehicles in recent history. I’ll be buying one as soon as I have an assload of discretionary spending.

If you haven’t already done so, I recommend you read the essays by Paul Graham. In particular, “What Business Can Learn from Open Source” and “Power of the Marginal” .

He is one of the most progressive thinkers with regards to new business concepts. Beware if you like Jack Welch and the the other big dogs though, you might find Paul’s work hard to swallow. But that probably means that you really need to read it.

Here are some of my all-time favorite quotes from his work:

“Work like a dog being taken for a walk, instead of an ox being yoked to the plow.” - from his essay “Power of the Marginal”

“The atmosphere of the average workplace is to productivity what flames painted on the side of a car are to speed.”

and

“The basic idea behind office hours is that if you can’t make people work, you can at least prevent them from having fun.” - from his essay “What Business Can Learn from Open Source”