Managing Young Employees

The unemployment/underemployment problem facing millennials predates the great recession. It goes back to the early programming they received from their parents when the economy was booming in the early 2000’s. And parents haven't let up. Dreams? Passion? Love? Sounds more like the teaser copy on the back of a smutty romance novel than sage career advice. The mindset of today’s parents is all about getting their kid to aim for the stars, to believe their dream, and to

With roots steeped rich in Celtic, Roman Catholic, and Protestant tradition, the annual Trick‑or‑Treat ritual that takes place this week can be traced back centuries. Originally, children would adorn hand‑made ceremonial costumes and go door‑to‑door singing out “a trick a treat!" Then they’d entertain their neighbors with carefully rehearsed songs, skits, and dances. If they performed well, the neighbor might reward them with some bread, fruit, or nuts. This encouraged the

You invested a lot of time, energy, and money bringing on that new employee. They show up on that first day ready for your orientation doing their best to disguise their nervous anxiety. Feeling a bit anxious yourself, you want to get them up and running as quickly as possible so as to maximize your ROI. After all, you need to prove to yourself and your team that you made a great hire. As the day draws to an end, you begin to reflect on how things went on Day #1. But it's

DISCLOSURE: This isn't a commercial endorsement, although it may sound like one. Consider me a raving fan. I hold great respect for my speaker/author colleagues who are academics by trade. Those who have gone to great lengths to research current trends, have unearthed actionable methodologies and strategies, and who provide compelling statistics to make valid points about change, leadership, and business management. Larry Winget is not among them. Larry's a no nonsense, s

My daughter and her husband have a handsome 2 yr. old Boxer. Titus is 70 pounds of energy, love, and affection. And man, he is a handful! He chews, digs, barks...and when she's walking him, Titus pulls my 105-pound daughter like an eighteen wheeler with an empty load. Whitney did a lot of research to find a really experienced behavioral trainer, and she hit pay dirt with Clem, an honest-to-goodness dog whisperer who's worked with canines for almost fifty years. Clem doesn'

My last day of teaching high school and coaching football was June 3, 1986. Due to declining enrollment of the school district where I was employed, my position was being eliminated. I didn't know it at the time, but looking back, I think I escaped just before the Apocalypse. Back then, I never feared parental retribution by giving a student a bad grade or by getting up in a player's facemask and yelling "Dammit Johnson, you're not giving 100%!" In all but a few isolated

Ever have a job where you felt picked-on, intimidated, harassed, and micro-managed by a tyrant boss? Most of us can recall working for a real jerk at some point in our job history, most likely when we were just entering the workplace and at the bottom of the totem pole. And maybe the way you were being unfairly treated made you want to 'get even' with your boss, so you called in sick on a day when you knew you were desperately needed, or you found a quiet corner to take per

It made for a dreadful commute. The crater-like potholes dotting the main thoroughfare near my office were wreaking havoc on my car's alignment. I wasn't the only unhappy camper. The city was inundated with complaints from angry neighbors and shopkeepers who demanded repairs. Finally, a road-crew was sent to fill the gaping cavities and restore drivability to the busy street, and they did a very nice job. Do you think the city has received any thank you calls from the neigh

There is an epic war being fought along the front lines of every business in the world. Business owners and managers across all industries are engaged in heavy conflict with employees who aren't able to get through a shift without checking the screen on their smart phones, many of whom check it every couple of minutes. To the manager, the almost ubiquitous smart phone has become a distraction that limits performance and interferes with customer service. To a young employee

The wife and I were out running errands on Saturday morning when we happened upon an unexpected and rare energy explosion. As we approached an intersection, we noticed a human billboard doing his very best to get the attention of the passing motorists; and getting attention from motorists is obviously what an individual in this occupation is paid to do. Human billboards have become commonplace in our metropolitan area, but this particular young fellow was going all out. He

Kyle (age 21) handles the scheduling, appointments, estimates, and all payment transactions for the auto service center near my office. On a weekday morning at 8:16, I call to inquire about getting my vehicle in for shocks and an alignment. Kyle politely tells me that if I can bring it in within the next 30 minutes, he’ll have it out by 11:45, in time for me to make my lunch appointment. I agree and head out immediately. I arrive at 8:37 and notice that there are already

The phrase "Coffee is for Closers" resonates with anyone who's seen the classic film, Glengarry Glen Ross. This 1992 movie stars six Hollywood A-list leading men as salesman who work for an unethical real estate outfit. The actors portray fast-talking hucksters who lie, exaggerate, and use a series of con games to goad unwitting prospects into signing on the dotted line for overpriced real estate. (If you haven't seen the movie, and you have a high tolerance for foul languag

In this new economy, time is the commodity that is the most prized. Seldom do you run into a colleague or associate who has a wide-open schedule or is looking for a way to fill some empty or idle time in their day. Forced to do more with less, time-crunched leaders push their people to find the fast-n-easy solution when they encounter a problem such as an equipment breakdown or a customer service complaint. But the quick fix is seldom the right fix, and the Band-Aid approa

It should come as no great surprise to any business owner or manager that employees tend to stay where they feel appreciated and they are prone to leave when they don't. Following that same logic, smart employers also realize that people will perform better when they feel that their efforts are recognized and appreciated and will become complacent when their efforts go unnoticed. Until now, tying a bottom line dollar figure to the importance of employee appreciation has been

This headline makes absolutely no sense, but please don't shoot the messenger just yet. If you're confused about what's really going in with regards to Generation Y/Millennials in the workforce, turn off the news and stop reading the papers. The media is more confused than you are. Either that, or they're purposely trying to confuse you to force you to buy more papers to get unconfused. Yesterday, a story appeared in USA Today under the headline "Gen Y Most Likely to Hold L

Distracted workers are to employers what distracted drivers are to other motorists -- a constant and growing threat. There isn't a manager on the face of this planet who is willing to share the focused attention of her employees with the screen of a cellular phone. The reality is that employers are being forced to find ways to contend and compete with a ubiquitous technology that didn't exist when they, themselves, were just coming into the workplace. But as you'll see in t

In this highly entertaining infographic produced as a join effort between the University of North Carolina Business School and the Young Entrepreneurs Council (both largely comprised of the under-30 crowd) viewers are able to see the clear cut differences between older workers and millennials (a.k.a. Generation Y, Generation Why, Boomlets, Nexters, etc.). Through surveys, the respondents that represent this young cohort indicate their preferences and desires when it comes to

Are your seasonal employees going to have a blast this summer? Not away from work; but rather, at work? If not, they’re likely to vaporize before Labor Day. Job seekers are attracted to opportunities where ‘fun’ is included in the job description, so employers use the heck out of it. (Good thing for them the FTC isn’t monitoring their job postings or many would receive hefty fines for bait-n-switch advertising.) The reality is that work, in its purest form, is not all that

Any manager worth his salt knows exactly what to do when he notices an employee arriving late to the job. He'll have a line or two memorized for the first (and the second) time he observes a front liner who’s not wearing their uniform correctly (i.e. exposed tattoos, hat on sideways, etc.). He'll have HR on speed dial just in case he should ever spot one of his direct reports removing a $20 bill from the register and slipping it into her apron. It’s a manager’s responsibili

"Success comes from good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment." I can't verify the correct source of that quote, but I've heard many a version of this little axiom over the years. Makes me wonder how old I'll be before my experience will pay off and I'll stop doing so many stupid things. That day of enlightenment is nowhere in sight. As you'll see from this video, my latest blunder involves a surgery that I could have easily a