Words are the tools we use here at Workforce Management and www.workforce.com, but sometimes, even the best tools can get used improperly, incorrectly or far too frequently.
All of us here at the Workforce Management world headquarters know that avoiding overused business clichés—the stuff that all too many brain-dead consultants and too-much-time-on-their-hands CEOs love to spout—is just one of the occupational hazards we deal with every day.
That’s why I was amused by a recent survey of the most overused business terms that was developed by Accountemps, the world’s first and largest staffing services firm specializing in accounting and finance. The survey was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with 150 senior executives from the nation’s 1,000 largest companies.
The executives were asked this simple question: “What is the most annoying or overused phrase or buzzword in the workplace today?” Their responses included:
• Leverage: As in, “We intend to leverage our investment in IT infrastructure across multiple business units to drive profits.”
• Reach out: As in, “Remember to reach out to customers impacted by the change.”
• It is what it is: As in, “The server is down today, and clients are irate. It is what it is.”
• Viral: As in, “Our video has gone viral.”
• Game changer: As in, “Transitioning from products to solutions was a game changer for our company.”
• Disconnect: As in, “There is a disconnect between what the consumer wants and what the product provides.”
• Value-add: As in, “We have to evaluate the value-add of this activity before we spend more on it.”
• Circle back: As in, “I’m heading out of the office now, but I will circle back with you later.”
• Socialize: As in, “We need to socialize this concept with our key stakeholders.”
• Interface: As in, “My job requires me to interface with all levels of the organization.”
• Cutting edge: As in, “Our cutting-edge technology gives us a competitive advantage.”
This made me wonder: How would my staff here at Workforce Management answer this same question, especially since we are flooded with pitches, press releases and business news from dawn to dusk just about every day of the year? Here’s some of the stuff that drives us crazy:
• Monetize
• Incentivize, and its ghastly cousin, incent
• Nimble, and its evil twin, robust
• Solution: As in, “We have a nimble and robust editing solution that we are trying to monetize.”
• Value proposition (a big favorite of many here at Workforce Management)
So this makes me also wonder, what do you think is the silliest business jargon you hear in you day-to-day work life? Send your favorites along to me, either with a post to this blog or via e-mail at jhollon@workforce.com, and I’ll publish the “best” ones here. I have a feeling that we have only scratched the surface here, and maybe we can give Scott Adams and Dilbert a run for their money.
Yes, there are still a lot of those delusional, happy-talk types out there—and here’s a good example of what I’m talking about—but these head-in-the-sand observers are grasping at straws and overreacting to what is, at best, data that indicate a very, very slight and moderate economic uptick.
My view is formed more by what I’m reading in places like The New York Times, where a story just today said, “The nation’s fiscal outlook is even bleaker than the government forecast earlier this year because the recession turned out to be deeper than widely expected, the budget offices of the White House and Congress agreed in separate updates.”
And, it looks like I’m not alone in my pessimistic view. A new survey just released by the Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc. and conducted by Harris Interactive suggests that a lot of employees may not be feeling particularly optimistic and workplace productivity has been a casualty of the Big, Bad Recession.
Here are some of the survey highlights:
• Some 38 percent of respondents employed full or part time said there had been layoffs in the past year at their primary place of employment.
• Of those respondents who said that productivity had been negatively affected by layoffs:
—66 percent said that morale has suffered and that workers are less motivated;
—64 percent said that there is just too much work and not enough people left to do it;
—37 percent said the wrong people or departments were laid off, leaving inefficient systems and workflows; and
—36 percent said they are concerned that as the economy picks up, they won’t have the right resources to meet demand.
One surprising finding that jumped out at me: Despite the general feeling of being overworked, a majority of respondents—53 percent—said they felt the right number of people were laid off at their organization (32 percent said they felt too many were laid off, while 7 percent said not enough were let go).
“In the midst of a downturn like the one we are experiencing, the time is right for employers to re-examine existing [workforce] practices: from how work is distributed among the organization; to whether or not new hires need to be made; to what kinds of technology might enable the workforce to become more productive,” said Joyce Maroney, the director of the Workforce Institute at Kronos, in a press release about the study. “In this survey, we hear loud and clear from employees that these issues need to be addressed now, so that businesses are positioned for success when the economy kicks back into high gear.”
She makes a good point; organizations should be making changes now that will help them and their workforces rapidly recover whenever the economy starts to show some sustained improvement—even if that improvement still seems a long ways away.
But this survey also points out something else, especially from those who say that productivity has been negatively affected by so many recession-fueled layoffs: Workers everywhere are feeling disgruntled, down and maybe even depressed by all that has been going on around them. It has affected their productivity as well as their outlook on life and work, and organizations need to do something about it and do it now.
In other words, American workers have lost their mojo, as Austin Powers would say, and businesses everywhere need to be thinking about how they are going to get it back.
Not that we needed it, but here’s some more fuel for the health care debate: An Aon survey of 60 health insurers “found that, on average, insurers expect to pay out 10.5 percent more in claims costs in the next year—slightly less than the 10.6 percent increase forecast last year,” according to a story in the Indianapolis Star.
I doubt that anyone at this stage is surprised by double-digit increases in health care costs, so you also shouldn’t be surprised by this: “The Indianapolis Star last week reported that according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute, 42 percent of employers surveyed said they would increase the share of the premium their workers pay in 2010. That’s up from 38 percent last year.”
One silver lining (if you could call it that) in the Aon report is the notion that “some employers also might swallow the higher costs because workers this year already have had to contend with salary freezes, reductions and layoffs,” according to Tom Lerche, Aon Consulting’s health care practice leader. “There’s one school of thought that says, ‘Our employees have borne enough, let’s minimize or not pass any costs along to the employee,’ he said.”
This unrelenting increase in health care costs is what is driving the Obama administration’s puush for health care reform, but as you probably know, that effort seems to have run into a brick wall. Remember the health care bill that Congress was going to get before the August recess that one benefits industry publication kept predicting in spite of all evidence to the contrary? Well, given the partisan bickering that never seems to end, don’t expect any health care legislation coming up for a vote anytime soon.
But as someone who remembers the Clintons’ ill-fated attempt to change America’s health care system back in 1993, this summer’s contentious debate sounds vaguely familiar. Yes, double-digit increases in health care costs should get our attention. As a nation, we desperately need to get a handle on unsustainable increases in health care as our population ages and needs more of it, but this feels like a replay of another battle from another time when another administration in Washington bungled the issue and any chance for meaningful change.
No, my experience hasn’t found any of that, but it has shown me that reasonable people like reasonable rules and polices that help guide them in their everyday duties. Employees want to have some structure to their jobs and some help in dealing with difficult situations, and that’s why smart and well-thought-through policies can make for a better business.
But there is another side to workforce rules and regulations: They can be used as a hammer to pound workers into submission and limit flexibility and thoughtfulness. In my world, you want to cultivate smart employees who use their brain and exercise some discretion, when appropriate, to deal with the many shades of gray that we deal with in life.
The problem is that discretion is hard to manage. Tough, inflexible rules are much easier to hold employees to, especially when such rules are put in the hands of small-minded and unbending supervisors in an organization’s management food chain.
And, that’s why what happened at Best Buy, the large “multinational retailer of technology and entertainment products” (as the company describes itself), is a lesson for executives everywhere.
According to the Denver Post, “Two employees who tried to stop a knife-wielding shoplifter at the Best Buy store … in Broomfield [Colorado] were fired for violating corporate policy. Jared Bergstreser tackled a man who allegedly stole two cell phones from the store August 1. Colin Trapp came to his aid. Both men were fired [August 16] at the request of corporate officials because they ignored company rules against following shoplifters out the door, Bergstreser said.”
According to a Wall Street Journal account of the incident, “Bergstreser said he gave chase when a man burst out of the Best Buy store … with an armload of electronics he hadn’t paid for. Bergstreser, a 20-year-old former high school football player, said he wrestled the man to the ground. Trapp, 23, said he also rushed out of the store and pinned the suspect.”
The tussle got messy when “the alleged shoplifter was able to grab a pocket knife and cut a store manager who also had run outside,” according to the Journal. “The suspect and a male accomplice then fled, jumping into a getaway car, a gray Pontiac with a female driver, local police said. No one has been arrested.”
This falls into the category of “no good deed goes unpunished,” because what many feel is heroic conduct is actually a violation of Best Buy’s corporate policy.
Spokeswoman Kelly Groehler told the Denver Post that the company has clear policies regarding shoplifters, basically that they are supposed to let them go. “Employees who work in our stores are aware, and trained, on the standard operating procedures for dealing with shoplifting or theft,” she said. “These procedures are in place first and foremost for the safety of our employees.”
Although Best Buy’s policies are apparently common in the retail world, that hasn’t stopped people in Colorado from feeling that these two Best Buy employees got a raw deal.
The Journal notes that “scores of comments, most expressing admiration, have been posted on Trapp’s Facebook page and other Web sites. ‘Punished for not being cowards,’ one commentator wrote. … Several posters pledged to boycott the chain.”
I understand the Best Buy policy on shoplifters, and I agree with the need to have such a policy, but I wonder: Did Best Buy really need to terminate the employment of two very engaged members of their workforce? Was there not another option? And is this not a case of following the rules over the cliff?
On Wednesday, the Denver Post published an editorial protesting Best Buy’s decision to fire the young men. “Shouldn’t heroism be rewarded?” the paper asked. I agree completely. There’s a way to deal with this incident and reward the heroic effort without having these guys lose their job.
Best Buy needs to inject a little common sense into this argument and not be so focused on rules and procedures that they can’t see the bigger picture. If I were the Big Boss at Best Buy, I would have my HR people give these two a formal written reprimand for violating policy, but also a bonus and public commendation for their effort—above and beyond the call of duty—to help the company.
Heroes in the workplace should be recognized and rewarded, whether they help subdue shoplifters or land the damaged airplane they’re piloting safely in the Hudson River. Common sense and good management practice should tell us that this is the right thing to do. Letting corporate rules and policies dictate otherwise is no way to run a railroad—or to build a highly engaged workforce.
Now, let me be clear: I bow to the expertise of the big consulting companies that clearly know what they’re doing and bring tremendous insight and experience to the table. You know the ones I’m talking about—Towers Perrin/Watson Wyatt, Mercer, Booz Allen Hamilton, Aon, Accenture and Deloitte, to name a few. I’ve dealt with all of them, and others, and respect what they do.
No, what I am talking about are the professional consultant wannabes. These are the folks running around masquerading as “experts” and “consultants” and “management coaches” who are just high-paid mouthpieces for the latest hot business trend. Like newly minted MBAs who jump directly into consulting without a single scrap of real-world experience—and I’ve railed before about the silly notion of a 22-year-old “consultant”—these people have no business telling you how to fix or run YOUR business, your career or your life.
I get flooded by press releases and pitches from these people every day, and I can’t tell you how many times I read them and think, “Jeez, I have a helluva lot more expertise than this bozo.”
Don’t remember Jayson Blair? Well, here’s a little refresher on him from 2003, published by his former employer, The New York Times: “[Blair], a staff reporter for The New York Times, committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud while covering significant news events. … The widespread fabrication and plagiarism represent a profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper.”
The Times investigation found that Blair “misled readers and Times colleagues with dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was far away, in New York. He fabricated comments. He concocted scenes. He lifted material from other newspapers and wire services. He selected details from photographs to create the impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not. And he used these techniques to write falsely about emotionally charged moments in recent history, from the deadly sniper attacks in suburban Washington to the anguish of families grieving for loved ones killed in Iraq.”
Blair resigned after he was found out, but the harm he inflicted on the newspaper and the journalism profession continues to this day. And that’s why the notion of Blair “working as a certified life coach for one of the most respected mental health practices in northern Virginia,” as the AP story puts it, gives me chills.
Some will undoubtedly say, “Well, who better to coach people on life’s problems than someone who has nearly destroyed their own life?” I understand that argument, but it makes me wonder: Why would you want to be coached, whether in life or in business, from someone who has little or no significant and demonstrable success and experience they can draw on? Yes, everyone has their share of ups and downs in life, but how much wisdom about life are you going to get from 33-year-old serial fabricator like Blair?
There are too many people calling themselves “experts,” “coaches” or “consultants” who have very little in the way of positive credentials or career backgrounds that they bring to the table. They leverage their marginal expertise and frequently misguided notions about what success looks like and pitch it to busy, shortsighted managers and executives desperate for some quick-fix advice.
Well, here’s a little bit of expert advice from someone (me) who has more expert credentials than half the consultants and coaches running around out there: There is no shortcut to success or quick fix for whatever life or management problem you may be looking to solve.
Everybody deserves a second chance in life, but who in their right mind would pay for a fraud like Jayson Blair as a life coach or expert? It just goes to show what I have always said: If you think you need a life coach, it just proves that you need to go out and get a real life—one where you don’t throw good money at faux experts who have little or sensible thinking worth listening to.
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