“We Eat Our Young”

By Rick Dacri, Dacri & Associates

Why do some employers feel the need to turn their new employees off and then wonder why they quit? Most do it unconsciously. Others must be doing intentionally. Either way, it has the same result: a good new employee gets fed up and quits and the supervisor cries that employees today have no sense of loyalty! Unfortunately, there are no winners in these situations. Employees learn, particularly those new to the workforce, that employers don’t care. Employers, who just spent big bucks recruiting, interviewing, and training these people, not to mention all the time and effort, find that they just threw that money away and must start all over again. Why? It is time to stop this vicious cycle because no one can afford it.

In my business I see this happen all the time and work very hard to help my clients correct this costly act of pure mismanagement. With one new client, we found that the unit managers at this nursing home took pride in the phrase “we eat our young.” In this case, the managers and the staff would quickly evaluate the new hires, decide if they “were going to make it or not” and if the consensus was that they were not (usually after one day!) they made the person’s life so miserable that they quit. Talk about positive employee relations. Needless to say, when this was discovered, changes occurred on that unit.

However, the issue recently hit closer to home. My son, who came home from college, ready and eager to work during his four month summer break, quickly set out to find employment. Since jobs are plentiful in our coastal community, he got four job offers and accepted two—one nights and weekends, the other days.

Now for the horror story: he accepted a local position at a hotel’s restaurant and was very excited about working there. Though the interview process was less than smooth (two managers calling him at different times and it appeared neither talked to each other), he finally accepted a position as a bus boy — clearly an upgrade from his job last year as a dishwasher. He and his mother went out to buy the appropriate pants and shoes (at great expense) and he went to work the first day. He loved it, though he said he wasn’t sure how well he performed since no one trained him. He simply tried to figure it out as he went along. His second day was a three hour orientation (I’m impressed that any employer would invest that in their summer help). Day 3 was the beginning of the end. He went in ready to work and his manager yelled that he was one hour late. Late? He was told to come in the usual time and he assumed that was the time he came in the first day. Wrong! Oh, did I mention that his manager never gave him a schedule? After one hour of work he was sent home because they had on too much help. For day 4, we made sure he got to work on time (I drove him). 90 minutes later I got a call to pick him up—same story, too much help on (you remember all the rain in early June. Turns out the tourists went home so my son wasn’t needed. Got to watch those labor dollars). Well enough is enough. Remember the 4 job offers. Well, my son soon starts job number three. Turns out they really want him. And the restaurant, they’re probably talking about how these kids have no loyalty and you just can’t depend on them.

Rick Dacri is an organizational development consultant, coach and featured speaker at regional and national conferences. Since 1995 his firm, Dacri & Associates has focused on improving the performance of individuals and organizations. Rick can be reached at 1-800-892-9828, or rick@dacri.com