8
FROM THE FOUNDER
The cancer within
Negative employees in AEC firms can undermine management, leading to declining morale, productivity, and company performance.
T here is a cancer that exists in so many established AEC businesses that no one talks about. That cancer is the negative, cynical, skeptical employee (or employees) who undermine management on a daily basis.
When combined with kind and good-natured, non- confrontational firm management – management that has limited confidence in their own abilities as businesspeople, and who do everything they can to avoid cutting anyone from their team – you end up with a company staffed by people who do the least amount they have to to keep their jobs and one that performs poorly in terms of profitability and growth. The longer you have been in business, the greater the likelihood you have this problem. Ignored over time, it grows. The financial performance of the company gets worse and worse, and the situation compounds itself. And the resulting employee apathy eventually spreads to management and throughout the entire organization and kills the company from within. It’s not the economy or the market or competitive businesses that ruins it – it is rot from the inside. None of this happens overnight. It can take years before the full effect of these people becomes
evident. And there are plenty of warning signs that the disease is spreading. Here are some of them: 1. Work hours are declining. You see an across the board decline in hours worked. Never a good sign. 2. Absenteeism is increasing. When you see a trend for more sick time and vacation time being used, it is not a good sign that morale is high. 3. You see and hear about more “meetings after the meeting.” Those are the ones in the parking lot or coffee bar where the old-timers (many times those who have been there the longest and are the most negative) are interpreting and editorializing on what management is saying for the rest of the employees. Most of the time in my experience it’s skepticism. 4. Staff turnover is increasing. The unhappier people get with smaller raises and bonuses
Mark Zweig
© Copyright 2024. Zweig Group. All rights reserved.
THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 9, 2024, ISSUE 1552
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