Employee happiness and business success are linked • Hacker News Board

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#111

Post by Noumenon72 » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 3:31 AM UTC

arrozconcosas wrote: post #89

hanniabu wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever been in a real warehouse? One that's baking in the sun in the summer, no AC because it's too costly, probably 100 degrees inside, no ventilation, pallet dust everywhere and you get a nice inhale when something is moved on the floor, not being in a technologically present company where machines break constantly and you need to do a lot of manual work in these conditions lifting a 35lb box every 8-12 seco…

Yes, this was my first job as an 'employee' of a staffing company. They took $11/hour and gave me $7/hour to re-package and re-palletize boxes of P&G products. Literally we would open a box of 4 shampoo bottles, take the bottles out and then repackage then into a box of 6 bottles and stack them back up on a pallet. To open the boxes we put them on a conveyor belt that went through an oven to melt the glue on the box.…

My plastic factory issued Kevlar gloves, which prevent cuts from cardboard boxes and actually let you work faster due to not having to be careful. A good example where my happiness and business success were linked. Sorry it didn't work out in your case.

I would like for those kind of jobs are staffed by a staffing company so people can cycle through them rather than having to do it full time. I can put up with a lot for a few weeks at a time.

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#112

Post by ourcat » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 3:40 AM UTC

"Founder passion" is everything.

And nothing you ever do will be as successful as something you're passionate about.

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#113

Post by the_arun » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 3:41 AM UTC

achenatx wrote: post #94

I use a book called "first break all the rules" It is also based on gallup data. They determined that employee happiness was not correlated to company success. They did find that the following questions in order were highly correlated to company success. 1. Do I know what is expected of me at work? 2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right? 3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I…

These are really good set of questions to test "human" nature of the company

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#114

Post by Consultant32452 » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 3:42 AM UTC

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #53

ergothus wrote: post #29

I've seen these arguments repeatedly, yet I only see this mattering to those companies where employees have a relative level of power and choice (e.g. non-game industry programmers, etc). Elsewhere, the attitude appears to have remained: "use them as much as possible". Consider assistant managers at your local chain store. Pick a chain! Outside of a handful of companies that are well noted for their bucking of the tr…

I agree that there are many companies that ignore this correlation, but I'm not convinced those companies are making the most rational choice. If Burger King significantly increased the salary of their workers or otherwise found ways to improve their morale, would it benefit Burger King in the long run? I tend to suspect so, but it would be hard to prove. The burger joints known for taking care of their people are al…

In my limited experience big chains vary greatly based on locale, presumably due to those particular stores being owned by different franchises.

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#115

Post by sandmansandine » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 3:45 AM UTC

achenatx wrote: post #94

I use a book called "first break all the rules" It is also based on gallup data. They determined that employee happiness was not correlated to company success. They did find that the following questions in order were highly correlated to company success. 1. Do I know what is expected of me at work? 2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right? 3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I…

These questions are also rephrased versions of questions mentioned in most management books I've read that are focused on employee development. The more I dig into employee development and management the more I realize a lot of startups, claiming they're data-driven, just skip over all data related to actually managing people, managing work spaces, etc.

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#116

Post by tigershark » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 3:46 AM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #105

erikpukinskis wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true even within tech companies, but for hourly workers. Hourly folks are treated like trash. I’m talking people who live in the bay, and work side by side with other professionals in SF. In a position like that you almost have to take a “durrr, I dunno!” attitude to everything, because if you try to talk to salaried people about what you need to do your job, you are looked at like a dog who just started reci…

What kind of jobs to hourly people hold? I mean, if the company hires consultants then some of the Exalted Developers themselves will be hourly.

Exactly, I thought that in some areas in US was not that that uncommon to get north of 150/200 per hour? And that wouldn’t seem so despicable to me...

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#117

Post by LoSboccacc » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 4:38 AM UTC

can't read the article because limits. do that provide some source with the claim? doesn't appear to be that the fortune 500 are particularly happy places to be and would love to see that list correlated with Glassdoor votes.

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#118

Post by lcuff » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 4:53 AM UTC

The fact that this idea is deemed worthy of an article in the Economist, and then hits the front page of HN is, IMHO, a sad statement on the current quality of thinking about how to run companies. It's hard for me to summon anything but 'duh' in response to the headline. For intelligent commentary, give me Peter Drucker's "The Effective Executive".

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#119

Post by tomhoward » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 4:54 AM UTC

tannerc wrote: post #24

ph4 wrote: post #21

Serious question, why post something for discussion if it's behind a paywall?

I'll bite because it's a reasonable question. I think linking to paywalled content is allowed because there are fairly easy ways around paywalls, but posting a roundabout directly goes (I believe) against HN policy. An example of how to get around the Economist paywall is already elsewhere in this thread.

> but posting a roundabout directly goes (I believe) against HN policy

Not true; it has long been customary for people to share paywall workarounds in the comments, and the moderators welcome/encourage it.

Re: Employee happiness and business success are linked

#120

Post by pmiller2 » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 4:58 AM UTC

erikpukinskis wrote: post #87

ergothus wrote: post #29

I've seen these arguments repeatedly, yet I only see this mattering to those companies where employees have a relative level of power and choice (e.g. non-game industry programmers, etc). Elsewhere, the attitude appears to have remained: "use them as much as possible". Consider assistant managers at your local chain store. Pick a chain! Outside of a handful of companies that are well noted for their bucking of the tr…

This is true even within tech companies, but for hourly workers. Hourly folks are treated like trash. I’m talking people who live in the bay, and work side by side with other professionals in SF. In a position like that you almost have to take a “durrr, I dunno!” attitude to everything, because if you try to talk to salaried people about what you need to do your job, you are looked at like a dog who just started reci…

None of that is true at my company, in my experience. It is a large company, so I might not have the full picture, but my little corner of it is not like that at all.