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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

Fans of The Beverly Hillbillies will remember the running joke that Jethro (the most educated of the entire Clampett family) had "made it all the way through the 6th grade." Yee-Haw! When this series originally aired in the sixties, no one celebrated such a modest accomplishment. Of course you made it through the 6th grade, and the 7th, and the 9th. Everyone did. It was expected that every student made it through to high school. The first celebration of academic accompl

I'm shopping for a refrigerator to replace a custom built-in model that is in my home. Always looking for a bargain, I went online and found a great deal on one through a major retailer. This particular fridge had been marked down because of a scratch on one side, and the way my kitchen is configured, the sides won't show. This scratch-and-dent refrigerator is at a store in Tennessee and I am in Colorado, but even including the cost of shipping and delivery, I will still com

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

Quid pro quo (from the Latin meaning "this for that") is a commonly used term in business negotiations. It’s also the foundation of every employer/employee relationship. To illustrate, let’s say the quid represents the compensation an employer is willing to part with in exchange for labor they need to operate their business. The quo, then, represents the amount of work an individual agrees to provide in exchange for an agreed compensation. Our free market economy serves as

Infographics seems to be all the rage, and I enjoy them as much as anyone. But rather than take the information at face value, I feel it's a good practice to first examine the authoring organization, and question their stake in the implied conclusion(s). This one offers an interesting look at the use of technology and how it ultimately impacts the academic performance, behaviors, and even the mental state of teens who are the heaviest users of technology and the Internet.

I love it when an article writes itself. This is a gift from heaven. The company, Tempo, has creating an entertaining and revealing infographic that defines the problem (wasting time), the biggest offender (young employees), the reason (lack of job satisfaction) and offers several ideas and solutions, including (but not limited to) their own software product. All I can do is sit back and applaud. Er, ...I mean, all I can do is sit up and get back to work! Like this infog

by Mark Sanborn and Eric Chester (This is Part 2 of 2 offering ideas on how to recruit, manage, and retain 'firsters' - i.e. young adults entering their first 'real' position. Here's a link to Part 1.) In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dennis Nally, the chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), summed up the challenge of today’s first time, entry level employees, or “firsters”: “How they want to work…is very different than the prior generation. If your

by Mark Sanborn and Eric Chester After graduating from college, Eric started his career as a high school business teacher and coach. Mark launched his career selling in the magazine business. Do you remember your first job? I mean your first time in a “real” job, an honest-to-goodness, full-time job after you completed your formal education? Odds are, you reflect on it as both a challenge and a rite of passage. The challenge came from acclimating to something new and learni

Plenty. You see, an entitlement mentality is not innate, rather it's learned and often engrained into an individual. It stems from multiple experiences of an individual getting something for nothing, leading them to believe they are deserving and should have what they want without putting forth the effort that is normally required to produce that result. This cognitive conditioning usually begins at an early age. Last year, a community Easter Egg Hunt in Old Colorado City

Full Disclosure: I am a Denver native and I bleed Bronco orange. I love Tim Tebow as person and a player. That being said, I am ecstatic that Peyton Manning will be Denver's starting quarterback next season. Although it's sad to see a guy with the class, the character, and the work ethic of Tim Tebow move out of town, he's being supplanted by someone who, many experts believe, is the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. And that guy is also a man of great class, char

The most common adjective used by today's employers to describe the young emerging workforce is 'entitled'. While there are many exceptions and contradictions to any demographic stereotype, this label that young employees are having a difficult time shaking implies that they act as though they deserve more than their employers feel they are worth. The reality is that employees are entitled to certain things (i.e. a safe working environment, ethical treatment by management,

Never is the generation gap more exposed than during conflict. It’s during these turbulent times when managers lose their cool with younger employees and things often end worse than they need to. When rules are broken in situations that don’t call for immediate termination, gain your composure and think “Open The Front Door Now.” This is the acronym for a terrific formula that helps you address—and correct—many nagging problems your young employees create. Treating these pr

It's of great interest to me to see what others take away from my books and speeches. So, for the past several years, I've kept a file of the tweets others have posted that quote me after reading one of my blog posts, articles, or books, or after hearing me present a keynote at a meeting or conference. Below is a listing of the Top 20 quotes, ranked in popularity by the number of times I've seen in tweeted (or retweeted) in descending order. Obviously, many of my sentences

I am a music lover. My iPod is bursting with tunes from every genre imaginable. Although I always tend to gravitate to oldies, classic rock, funk, 80's, and even my dad's elevator music, I have great respect for a lot of the new stuff coming out today. Bruno Mars is an artist that will be around for many years. If you saw his performance on the recent Grammys, you know how phenomenally talented this 27-year-old is. He's kind of Elvis meets James Brown meets Prince. I am

In 2004, I presented my Employing Generation Why keynote speech to about 300 sales managers of Southwestern, the renowned educational book publisher and distributor headquartered in Nashville, TN. With a 150-year history of getting top-quality college students to forgo their entire summer vacation to sell books door-to-door on a commission-only basis, Southwestern is unlike any company I have ever heard of or worked with, and they are remarkably effective in building core wor

You post an entry-level sales position and sort through an avalanche of resumes to find a few that seem worthy of face time. After hours of boring interviews with candidates you know don’t have what it takes to make it in your organization, you suddenly encounter your next rock star. He makes a dazzling first impression, is quick on his feet to give all the right answers, looks you in the eyes and convinces you that he’ll work tirelessly to drum up all kinds of new business

With almost 2 million YouTube views in three days, this video has definitely struck a nerve with parents everywhere. (To get the full effect of his extreme measures, you have to watch to the shocking end.) There won't be any gray area; you are either going to love or hate his parenting tactics. Has dad gone too far, or not far enough? What would you do if your kid posted this message for the world to see? How would your parents have reacted if they knew you even felt thi

Chilly weather has presented me with an opportunity to watch television with my 4-year-old granddaughter, Brooklyn, who controls the remote. Her favorite show is the wildly popular preschool phenomenon, ‘Dora the Explorer.’ This program looked so simplistic and unimaginative to me, I thought I’d never make it through an entire 21-minute episode. However, after watching a few episodes, consider me a fan. It’s not the content of the program that I find so compelling; it’s th