“The study found that 70 percent of employees are now either disengaged or under engaged at their job”.
And, are you surprised? Look around you. How many of the people that you work with every day are what you would call “engaged”? Are they bringing their best? Am I? Are you?
What if we brought our best starting tomorrow, even if it was not noticed or appreciated or valued? What would it do for us as individuals?
Nameless person
nameless department
phone/email
didn’t create it
didn’t cause it
can’t cure it
This is an email signature I came across, in real life, not a Google search. “Thank God it’s Friday,” TGIF laborers.
Don’t get me wrong I love to play. I work daily at finding new ways to live well outside of work. And yet, it’s this kind of posture that I believe actually makes the walk from Monday morning to Friday afternoon that much longer.
I hold onto the belief that work can be fun, innovative, adventurous, challenging, rewarding, personal, and too large a part of my life to approach like this.
How about you? Have a similar story(s)?
Have you ever provided a guard rail to your kids or to your employees?
But you were light on the list of bullet point rules of boundaries that are excluded?
Example- “I need you to turn this into me by Friday, every week.”
Or, “Hey son, I do not like you watching that TV show, I think there are better shows available”.
Neither of those examples provide a list of explicit bullet point adjoining rules and regulations. Right?
This week I had a situation where the response given to me for why the guard rail was crossed was, “You didn’t say Never.” Yep.
You are right. I didn’t say, “I need you to turn this into me by Friday, every week….and NEVER be late” or “Never….watch that show”.
Who wants to be that guy? Not me.
I prefer guard rails as fundamental boundaries but negotiation can always enter the discussion.
“Hey, I can’t make the Friday deadline…..I’ll have it to you on Monday. Is that ok?” Of course. That sounds so much better than, “Hey, I did not receive your report on Friday.” And the answer, “You didn’t say I could never be late”.
I think I’ll add this to my growing list of excuses not to EVER use.