Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When employees feel slighted, they work less

penntoday.upenn.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 279 posts

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#161

Post by gwbas1c »

pinnochio wrote: post #21

There's a lot of jeering, I suspect at the headline more than anything, but having documented research can be helpful in changing management behavior. The changes in employee behavior documented here are not ones that managers would easily connect to their past behavior, such as a late birthday recognition. When you train a dog, you have to give a reward very soon after the desired behavior, otherwise the dog won't a…

Please don't compare employee relationships to dog training. I've had a few encounters with poor managers (or potential managers) who wanted to treat me like a dog.

I turned heel and ran in those cases. It's a bad analogy for managing people and should not be perpetuated.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#162

Post by jstummbillig »

The first two paragraphs of that article are a wild incoherent ride, mixing all kinds of things, that have very little to do with each other (feel slighted [...] even the slightest mistreatment [...] failed to deliver birthday greetings on time)

Regardless of the analysis and without having read the study, I agree with the sentiment in the headline and it's sad agreement that matches my experience: Making employees feel not slighted works really well – for both the company and the employee. It does not require that you respect anyone, and actually often runs counter it.

Once you figure that out as an employer, I can see why you would chose to just get better at fooling and distracting people.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#163

Post by pastel8739 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #161
pinnochio wrote: post #21

There's a lot of jeering, I suspect at the headline more than anything, but having documented research can be helpful in changing management behavior. The changes in employee behavior documented here are not ones that managers would easily connect to their past behavior, such as a late birthday recognition. When you train a dog, you have to give a reward very soon after the desired behavior, otherwise the dog won't a…

Please don't compare employee relationships to dog training. I've had a few encounters with poor managers (or potential managers) who wanted to treat me like a dog. I turned heel and ran in those cases. It's a bad analogy for managing people and should not be perpetuated.

It sounds to me that they are actually saying that managing an employee is _not_ like training a dog

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#164

Post by SkyeCA »

njhnjhnjh wrote: post #142
SkyeCA wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are few things that make me irrationally seethe like being called a resource. I understand why they do it, I even accept that I'm nothing more than a resource to them, but it really isn't a big ask for them to refer to us as humans when speaking directly to us.

[flagged]

Anger is one of the core human emotions. I am allowed to be angry and upset when they constantly try to strip the humanity from myself and the people I work with.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#165

Post by drweevil »

The subject may sound silly, but we evolved this way. For the greatest part of human existence we were part of small social groups. We each took part in every activity. Our 'work' was for the group, and for ourselves. Those we worked with, we lived with, so in order to maintain group cohesion (and to not get stabbed in our sleep) we learned to get along. Current work practices violate a lot of those deeply set social mores. I'd love to see a study that looks into this hypothesis. Could explain a lot of the misery and depression in our modern life.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#166

Post by nicbou »

drweevil wrote: post #165

The subject may sound silly, but we evolved this way. For the greatest part of human existence we were part of small social groups. We each took part in every activity. Our 'work' was for the group, and for ourselves. Those we worked with, we lived with, so in order to maintain group cohesion (and to not get stabbed in our sleep) we learned to get along. Current work practices violate a lot of those deeply set social…

Isn't that Karl Marx's theory of alienation?

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#168

Post by amarant »

gwbas1c wrote: post #161
pinnochio wrote: post #21

There's a lot of jeering, I suspect at the headline more than anything, but having documented research can be helpful in changing management behavior. The changes in employee behavior documented here are not ones that managers would easily connect to their past behavior, such as a late birthday recognition. When you train a dog, you have to give a reward very soon after the desired behavior, otherwise the dog won't a…

Please don't compare employee relationships to dog training. I've had a few encounters with poor managers (or potential managers) who wanted to treat me like a dog. I turned heel and ran in those cases. It's a bad analogy for managing people and should not be perpetuated.

I read gps comment as the reverse: in their analogy, the manager is the dog.

On a related note, I wouldn't mind being treated like a dog by someone who is up to date with modern dog training practices: instant rewards for success, no negative feedback(unless I'm being aggressive, but I think I can manage that much), and tons of belly and/or back rubs! Where do I sign?

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#169

Post by eep_social »

dbcurtis wrote: post #154
t-3 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American, I would be totally creeped out if a manager even knew my birthday, let alone gave me a card. When I've seen people feel slighted in the workplace, it's usually due to uneven praise or criticism, or discriminatory stuff like passing over all the black workers with years of experience to promote the one white guy who's been there for 6 months.

Well, if your manager can see your employee file (which they can.... certainly in Worlday) they will know your birthday. Oddly, at my employer, celebration of individual birthdays is discouraged, I have heard it is because it might make someone feel uncomfortable being called out for aging. As someone who is probably in the oldest 1% of the company... I find that amusingly curious. Birthdays are a good excuse for a t…

A company I worked for used start date anniversaries rather than birthday for a variety of reasons.

Re: When employees feel slighted, they work less

#170

Post by MSFT_Edging »

nicbou wrote: post #166
drweevil wrote: post #165

The subject may sound silly, but we evolved this way. For the greatest part of human existence we were part of small social groups. We each took part in every activity. Our 'work' was for the group, and for ourselves. Those we worked with, we lived with, so in order to maintain group cohesion (and to not get stabbed in our sleep) we learned to get along. Current work practices violate a lot of those deeply set social…

Isn't that Karl Marx's theory of alienation?

I believe that's more along the lines of being alienated from the work itself.

IE a potter sees the results of his work in the pots he creates.

A worker in an assembly line sees a small aspect of the pot creation and is separated from the end result.

Many of us will understand the joy of a personal project and the lack of joy in completing an issue ticket. It's generally good for one's mental health to have some kind of purpose behind their work.

Post reply on HN