I am amazed at the myths about employees that are repeated on a regular basis.
- Employees don’t want to work hard
This one is interesting because “working hard” is a subjective term.
Will the employee work as hard as the founder/entrepreneur? Of course not! Should they work that hard? Of course not!
In over 30 years of work, I have found employees want to do a good job. Yes, there are slackers in any group but most want to do a good job.
What I have found is that employees can be discouraged by not getting appreciation for their work and eventually their productivity fades.
But, given the right environment, employees will generally be very productive.
2. Employees will waste time
I worked at a small company where one of the owners would give us the evil eye if we stopped for a moment to talk.
Heaven help us for wasting 5 minutes in the hallway! Put me on the torture rack and pull!
Employees are not robots and cannot work a full efficiency every hour for 8 hours. Nobody can do that. Especially knowledge workers who are stuck in front of a computer screen. See my blog post on how much productivity a knowledge worker achieves each day.
Yes, there is wasted time but most people will not let it get away on them and last for hours.
There are experts on work efficiency who says it is important to take a break every hour. Follow the psychiatrist model where each hour is 50 minutes long.
I would make the pitch that even if you can only put in 30 minutes of focused work every hour, that would be fantastic!
3. High Pay Will Retain Employees
This is partially true.
Pay an employee 50% of going wage for a position and you won’t hang on to them for long.
However, paying them 10-20% above market rate won’t necessarily guarantee you can keep them in your group.
If you have a bad workplace, the money advantage will fade.
Work environment is a critical element in employee retention.
4. Employees Prefer Leisure to Work
This one make my jaw drop.
I am speechless.
I am unable to find the words to express my frustration with this statement.
I have find very few people in the last 30 years who didn’t want to work.
There are people that have given up because the work environment is so lousy.
There are employees who are in the wrong job and their skills don’t match
There are employees who are afraid to make a decision because of management ineptness.
But…most employees I know want to have engaging, purposeful work that they can feel successful on a regular basis.
Give an employee the right work, with the appropriate training, management them properly and watch them soar.