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Employees: looking for “the great boss who cares about their development”

gallup.com

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Re: Employees: looking for “the great boss who cares about their development”

#21

Post by mattlutze »

danieltillett wrote: post #10
js8 wrote: post #4

I think employees want control of their own life, more share in decision-making. Essentially, they want democracy, even if they can't articulate it. But in capitalist society, where the ownership of capital decides, this cannot happen. There are attempts to tiptoe around this problem with holacracies and Agile methodologies and similar concepts, but the main problem still remains.

In theory workers co-operatives are this, but they have a habit of not doing so well in the real world. It is a really interesting question why this is the case. Why should a business owned by a capitalist for their own benefit be able to outcompete a workers co-operative?

Sometimes, what the worker wants isn't the option that will make the most profit.

Re: Employees: looking for “the great boss who cares about their development”

#22

Post by crimsonalucard »

vinceguidry wrote: post #17
crimsonalucard wrote: post #15

This article is wrong. Why is it wrong? It talks about fulfilling work and a great boss as if it's the ONLY thing that employees look for. BY common sense what employees look for is a huge multitude of factors combined together part of which includes "Free lunches, more vacation time, latte machines --- and don't forget a ping pong table." It is stupid to discard all of these things as inconsequential when the employ…

Not all jobs can offer growth. It's in everybody's best interests if you just move on from such jobs once you outgrow them. I spent two and a half years at my current job maintaining a legacy codebase. I looked for, and explored, growth opportunities at that job. In the end, I had to find them myself. Nobody at the company could really put in the effort it would have taken to keep me fulfilled, so I did it myself. I…

>I firmly believe that anybody can grow at any job. It's nice when the company can help you do that, but your own growth is your responsibility, and nobody else's.

I'm not talking about personal growth.

I'm talking about growth in benefits, like salary or working environment. People leave companies or learn new skills to get more benefits. The company needs to provide better benefits, continuously, or the employee leaves. Simply buying a ping pong table or giving an employee "engaging work" isn't enough.

Re: Employees: looking for “the great boss who cares about their development”

#23

Post by lhnz »

People want to be happy, it doesn't really matter how.

Often they don't really know themselves. But they're quite sure it'll happen if only they were able to become more impressive. They will be happy once they are promoted, treated with respect, and given more money.

A great boss feels like an ally, and often it's not the outcome that makes you happy but the hope of a better future.

I think there are many people in an organisation that can alleviate this desire. It's not just managers offering personal development or leaders inspiring people to be bold, sometimes it is your friends that make you see a better perspective on how your life already is. I think it's important to think about how you can make others feel good, and not just how you feel about your own position.

Re: Employees: looking for “the great boss who cares about their development”

#24

Post by spacecowboy_lon »

jasode wrote: post #18
danieltillett wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory workers co-operatives are this, but they have a habit of not doing so well in the real world. It is a really interesting question why this is the case. Why should a business owned by a capitalist for their own benefit be able to outcompete a workers co-operative?

>It is a really interesting question why this is the case. Why should a business owned by a capitalist for their own benefit be able to outcompete a workers co-operative? Because 99.9% of typical workers don't have the money to build the business. Take for example, Google Inc. origins in 1998. Both L Page and S Brin came from upper middle class families but neither of their bank accounts nor their parents' bank accou…

That (access to capital) is the big issue for coops. I used to be a member of a UK coop in the technical space (poptel) and we did do some work with VC funding.

As long as the coop members have 50% +1 that ok but it can go wrong (thank you very much ICANN) as we found at poptel.

The other problem is the coop movement in general is very old fashioned and isn't really embracing technical changes. Which is a pity as if poptel had been brought out by the main uk coop we woudl have all had a very nice 6 figure payday.

Re: Employees: looking for “the great boss who cares about their development”

#25

Post by spacecowboy_lon »

tehbeard wrote: post #14
danieltillett wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory workers co-operatives are this, but they have a habit of not doing so well in the real world. It is a really interesting question why this is the case. Why should a business owned by a capitalist for their own benefit be able to outcompete a workers co-operative?

Too many cooks spoil the broth? A single /small group of owners is more likely to reach a consensus quicker (no guarentee it'll be a good one, just quicker) than a larger group whose ideas/goals will be more diverse between each member, and more likely to be a compromise.

Most workers even in coops don't want to engage with the political (small p ) side of it.

And you do get into silly arguments over exactly which version of STV you use ;-)

Re: Employees: looking for “the great boss who cares about their development”

#26

Post by crimsonalucard »

lhnz wrote: post #23

People want to be happy, it doesn't really matter how. Often they don't really know themselves. But they're quite sure it'll happen if only they were able to become more impressive. They will be happy once they are promoted, treated with respect, and given more money. A great boss feels like an ally, and often it's not the outcome that makes you happy but the hope of a better future. I think there are many people in…

People are also designed to never stay happy for long. We will always need more to be happy.

Re: Employees: looking for “the great boss who cares about their development”

#27

Post by vfc1 »

This is great stuff. Problem is there is the work the company needs you to do, and the work you want to do.

Both of these change overtime, for example in software development when the lifecycle of the project advances. As the project reaches maintenance mode, you can no longer design the architecture and implement things from scratch, its already done.

So the work the company needs you to do now is very different.

Then there is your personal preferences that change over time.

So the work you want to do and the one the company wants you to do will probably only overlap for a short period of time.

Re: Employees: looking for “the great boss who cares about their development”

#29

Post by js8 »

toyg wrote: post #6
js8 wrote: post #4

I think employees want control of their own life, more share in decision-making. Essentially, they want democracy, even if they can't articulate it. But in capitalist society, where the ownership of capital decides, this cannot happen. There are attempts to tiptoe around this problem with holacracies and Agile methodologies and similar concepts, but the main problem still remains.

> where the ownership of capital decides Well, "the ownership of capital", in a lot of public companies, is basically an absentee landlord. So it's not entirely about ownership, but rather about management. You can have cooperatives that are de-facto feudal/tyrannical structures, and private companies that are de-facto democracies.

I was talking about democracy with respect to employees. Even then, an important aspect of democracy is one person one vote (equality of access to power), which is untrue in public companies.
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