Work Relationships Matter

While I was in the hospital, I shared a room with another patient (I'll save the customer sat aspects of that policy for another blog post...). 

For a few days, one of the patients was a 9-year-old boy who was hit by a car while riding his bike without a helmet.  He had a 10 inch scar down the side of his head that I'll always remember.  Remarkably, he was in good spirits, and will likely recover nicely. 

His father and mother were there in the room with him most of the time.  Just after they moved in, I heard the boy's father on the phone with his company.  He was asking his boss for two things: 1) for two weeks vacation to help take care of his son; and 2) access to his retirement account (401k) funds to help with medical bills.  His company flatly denied both requests.  Because he was two weeks shy of being there a full year, he was told he had no accrued vacation.  They told him if he took any time off, he'd be fired.  Additionally, he was told the only way he could access his retirement account was if he left the company. 

Contrast that to my situation.  My wife called my manager on Monday morning, and I was immediately told to take all the time I needed, even if was going to be for an extended time.  People from work sent flowers, books, goodies, and even arranged to have meals delivered for my family.  I got personal notes from folks I hadn't seen for months.  Everyone understood the situation, and were forgiving of missed deadlines or canceled meetings.  And when I returned to work, my office was decorated with balloons and streamers to welcome me back.  And many of the important projects I was working on were on track by the extra work of people on my team. 

Even when it's a family member with an illness or injury, my team's been unquestionably supportive.  Several years ago, my wife was diagnosed with cancer, and I took three weeks off without advance notice while she underwent several emergency surgeries.  The reaction by my managers and co-workers then was almost identical.

It makes me sad to think that the injured boy's father had to deal with the stress of possibly being fired, on top of his son's near-fatal accident and lengthy recovery.  I didn't even know the guy, and I wanted to call a lawyer and drag his company in federal court.  I know in this case, he didn't choose his company based on the people with whom he'd work (he is a truck driver), but it made me think about the team I have, and the importance of the personal friendships we've developed. 

It sure makes it easier to get through the rough spots when I know my co-workers are there backing me up.  And ultimately, it makes it easier for me to trust them to help with the mundane aspects of my daily job.  All that leads to a more engaged team, better productivity, and ultimately better results in the marketplace (and better products for our customers). 

Comments

[Marcus]

I came across your blog from Alfred Thompson's on thespoke. Myself and two other CS students from JMU, one of which is the MS Student Ambassador, are getting a company started up down here in Harrisonburg, VA. I am always interested in seeing what are essentials for employee satisfaction because I know what an important that factor is -- especially in a startup. I have had a quite a few experiences, considerable for someone my age, and have had a large range of results in the quality treatment. I think more companies need to pay attention to that from large corporations to the smallest stores. Turn over costs and unmotivated employees can be an anchor on growth and profits. I came across this article and thought I'd share it with you:
http://www.optimizemag.com/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=60405780

Take care and hope all works out!

[Joel Richman]

Name the Truck Driver's company so the Blogosphere can get it around.

[Denis]

Well, I think scoble (scoble.weblogs.com) has a point in commenting "[...]naming the company might bring a lawsuit so it probably isn't wise. Sigh". So I wouldn't do it...

[SomeDude]

Well this is far too common of a story nowadays with the economy such as it is companies are finding it easy to find people. There is a large amount of turnover at my company for this reason, that and the pay sucks as well. When these people create paid prisons all the people who work there do is try to find other places to work.

You know you have a problem when the most popular section of the paper read in the breakroom is the classifieds. When poeple start arguing over who gets to read it first management should start to wake up and notice that there is a problem with their workforce treatment policies.

[Dan Hartung]

A factor worth noting is that the Family Medical Leave Act covers all companies with (basically) more than 50 employees -- I think that includes Microsoft. Smaller companies lobbied to be exempted because of the greater hardship the loss of a single employee represents. But even the FMLA doesn't kick in until 12 months of employment.

At least part of the difference between these two experiences is because you and your employer were covered by the FMLA, and your suitemate wasn't.

Obviously Congress could revisit this issue and broaden the employer base (some state legislatures have), but I suspect they won't do that soon.

The lesson, of course, still holds -- employers offering this kind of cooperative benefit stand to improve employee loyalty and productivity in the long run. Before the FMLA was passed, though, very very few US companies offered that sort of benefit (which is very common, even standard, in Europe).

I think it's debatable, though, how much productivity and loyalty benefit the employer of a truck driver, compared to a software engineer. I'm just sayin'.

[Douglas Reilly]

FMLA is a good thing, however the leave is unpaid.

I have worked for a number of companies, including some that I really disliked on a technical basis (they did terrible things with technology, used the wrong technology, etc.) but one in particular stands out for their treatment of me when diagnosed with liver cancer within a couple of months of starting at the company. They not only treated me with kindness and respect, I actually had to insist that they stop paying me, because I felt terrible that they were doing so, and I had extended disability benifits that would be more than enough.

The way they treated me in my time of need kept me there far longer than I might have otherwise. The eventually outsourced all software development, and while they did not let me go, clearly as a sortware developer it was not the best place for me. But their humane treatment is not forgotten.

[Liz Lawley]

One of the reasons that I stay at RIT, despite the occasional temptation of a higher-paying or higher-prestige job elsewhere, is that RIT is remarkably generous with benefits. In fact, they're in the process of revising sick leave and short-term disability to make it even more generous, rather than following industry trends of scaling back benefits.

I'll be spending a year as a visiting researcher at MSFT starting July 1, however, so I'll have a chance to compare the two places side-by-side. Hope to have a chance to meet you while I'm there; I enjoy your blog.

Wishing you a speedy recovery...

[Dale Wolf]

One of the themes I write about at a blog for marketing and PR students at Auburn University is somehting I call "corporate love" -- a company that acts in a caring way toward its customers. In encourage these students to take this calling as a serious personal mission when they enter the business world. The same clearly goes for a sincere caring for the employees who help owners and managers deliver their vision.

Employees and customers can both spot a fraud.

Thanks for sharing your story. My guess is that you give back far more than you take from your company. Smart company managers know that.

These are things that really matter. A post I made on my personal blog (http://contextrulesmarketing.blogspot.com/2005/01/what-matters-most-in-inernet-economy.html) discusses some other things that matter.

[Piers]

Nice post, and congrats on your recovery. Thought the engagement and productivity bit was spot on.

Reminds me (bleakly) of a friend's boss who asked to take two weeks off after the death of her mother. The company said no because a) someone she worked with was going on holiday at that time, and b) that would take her over her quota for the year. She came in, but (not in the least surprisingly) was by all accounts a zombie, and close to useless.

I'd be very surprised if this (and the father's) companies don't have employees productively roaming the job ads.