Business Education

Alex Jones, InfoWars, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube — Why it’s All Gone So Bad

Alex Jones is all over the news. His controversial content sparked a national conversation about free speech. And, social media corporations have received public pressure to remove the conspiracy theorist’s presence. They’ve mostly complied. Regardless of what you think about the man, it not only brings up the issue of free speech but also puts another dynamic at the forefront. That is the age-old saying, “One bad apple can ruin the bunch.” Or, in this case, how these various social networks put themselves in an untenable condition.

How One Bad Employee can Damage a Company

The real crux of the matter comes down to the fact that social sites do police and prohibit certain types of content. (Violent images, pornography, and more.) But, we’ve seen that just one user can easily tarnish the reputation of the entire platform. The same holds true for business. A bad employee can utterly damage a company. Once the damage is done, it becomes an even larger issue.

There’s that one person on your team — the bad apple who has nothing positive to say, riles up other team members, and makes work life miserable. If you can’t fire him, how do you respond to his behavior? What feedback do you give? How do you mitigate the damage he inflicts? —Harvard Business Review.org

All it takes is a single instance of an egregious behavior. Or, a pattern of bad practices that go without correction. This is why Disney parks enforce so many employee behavior rules. The theme parks are selling experiences. And, all it takes is one bad encounter to absolutely ruin a whole family’s trip. Because, that’s what they’ll most remember — the bad stuff. If you don’t believe this, just look at the statistics about how many people an unhappy customer will tell their friends about a bad experience. It’s double, even triple, the number of people a happy customer will tell others about a good experience.

3 Ways to Prevent Employees from Ruining Your Business

If you sense or have already encountered a situation where an employee is damaging your company, you must take action immediately. Here are some effective ways to prevent employees from ruining your business:

Privately deal with the bad behavior. Once it’s happened, you can’t ignore it. Bring the employee in for a private chat. Have an honest talk about the circumstances and give positive guidance. Then, follow up periodically to ensure things are going well.
Regularly monitor everyone for toxic behavior. Yes, one bad apple will ruin the bunch. And, this goes for employees. Bad attitude easily spreads throughout a business’ culture. So, keep your eyes open and listen for any negativity.
Encourage team members to openly recognize one another. It’s not just on you as the leader. Encourage employees to praise each other and encourage one another when appropriate. The more positive the environment, the better.

How do you deal with bad employees? What methods are the most effective? Please comment and share your thoughts and experiences!

Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

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Business Pros and Cons of Furloughing Employees

April 14, 2020 No Comments

Thinking about furloughing rather than laying off your employees? It’s an all-too-common conundrum right now, amidst the coronavirus pandemic shutdown. But, it’s something that a large majority of businesses must consider, given the present and quite uncertain circumstances. Read on to learn more about the upsides and downsides of furloughing your employees. Employee Furlough Disadvantages We’ll begin with the most problematic cons of furloughing team members. Doing so puts your company at-risk for permanently losing your top talent. Furloughs also undermine employee morale and may even damage it further, and if you have applied for the SBA Paycheck Protection Program, one of the conditions for the loan to be forgiven, is that you keep your employees on your payroll. An employee furlough is a mandatory suspension from work without pay. It can be as brief or as long as the employer wants. Furloughs can take place in both public and private institutions. An organization will furlough employees as a cost-saving measure when it doesn’t want to lay off staff but lacks the resources to continue paying them. —The Street.com Then, there’s the trouble of re-opening your business. Even after a short-term period, it takes a substantial amount of time to get things back up and running. Additionally, the cost savings might not be as significant as you might believe because it’s for a short time frame and not necessarily long enough to be worthwhile (though it can certainly prove helpful). Employee Furlough Advantages Since furloughs are happening in many industries right now, the temporary change can’t be all bad. There are advantages to furloughing employees, like the following: Avoids layoffs. The most obvious upside to going with furloughs instead of laying people off is that you avoid the latter. In other words, you aren’t terminating team members. Instead, you’re temporarily removing them from the business without pay. Reduces rehiring. Another benefit of furloughs is the fact that you won’t have to go through the trouble of rebuilding your workforce from scratch. Rather, you can just reassemble your team, either one-by-one or in small groups. Saves compensation costs. Of course, when you furlough employees, you don’t pay their wages or salaries. Since labor is most typically the largest business expense, this can really help your company financially. (Though, you may still opt to furnish them with benefits during their furlough period.) It allows you to better plan. Yet another benefit of furloughing instead of firing employees is that you can formulate a more workable plan during that time. The longer it goes on, the better grasp you’ll have of what to keep and what to jettison. To put it another way, you can use the opportunity to streamline things in order to make your business more productive and more profitable. What other business pros and cons of furloughs would include? Please comment and share your thoughts and experiences! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

4 Big Problems with a WFH and On-Site Hybrid Business Operation

June 15, 2021 No Comments

With the roll-backs of local, state, and federal COVID-19 restrictions, businesses are attempting to return to a state of normalcy. But, reinstating pre-pandemic conditions isn’t as simple as they ought to be, and too many entrepreneurs are experiencing such a cruel reality. So, some are experimenting with a hybrid solution: a combination of work-from-home or WFH and on-site business operation. Sure, it certainly sounds like a logical solution. But, every solution breeds new problems. Meaning, there are distinct disadvantages to adopting a WFH and on-site business model. Biggest Hybrid Workplace Advantages Obviously, corporations around the world wouldn’t put a hybrid model in-place unless it had substantial benefits. And, there are some compelling reasons, like the potential of increased productivity via a customizable schedule. After all, happy employees are more productive and that’s certainly good for the bottom line. Then, there’s the morale boost which comes from being able to choose from WFH and on-site. Employees cherish the freedom and that too, helps to boost both productivity and morale. What many companies are converging on is a mixture of remote working and traditional office working, known as the hybrid workplace. A hybrid workplace exists when a business allows their employees to work either remotely or from the office. In a typical hybrid workplace, employees have the choice of working in a central office, working from home, or splitting their time between the two. —WeWork Ideas Blog Additionally, it can help to reduce operating costs, which decrease with the lessened need of supporting individuals constantly on-site. Moreover, it allows employees to avoid toxic situations. For instance, two or more employees who don’t get along very well in-person can find relief by not having to be in close proximity. 4 Issues with a WFH and On-Site Hybrid Business Operation While a hybrid operation might sound like a perfect answer, that just isn’t the case. Unfortunately, there are big potential problems with adopting a hybrid model, as the following issues might present: Managing a hybrid team is very difficult. Anyone with experience in managing a team is familiar with the vast time and effort that goes into making it work. Now, add-in a bunch of other variables that weren’t present before and it’s easy to imagine just how more difficult or nightmarish managing people in totally different physical locations is in reality. Some WFH employees will take advantage. Put this problem in the all-too-obvious column: some employees will exploit the new policies to their own personal advantage, even if it results in harming others and/or the company. While it’s not something you might relish thinking about, it is most definitely a possibility or perhaps, even a probability. A hybrid scenario can easily foster resentment. Another potential problem is along the same lines as the one above — that one or more employees will gain a sense of others’ nefarious behaviors regarding the hybrid operation. That could very well cause resentment to rear its ugly head. Not everyone will contribute the same amount. Expounding on the last two possible issues, is the real possibility one or more employees will shuffle responsibilities off their own shoulders and onto their coworkers through a form of sleight of hand. What other suggestions do you have to deal with potential work-from-home issues? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts and experiences. Perhaps others can benefit from your unique perspective! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

3 Effective Ways to Beat Zoom Fatigue

August 21, 2021 No Comments

Family businesses generally operate a bit differently than traditional companies. While many aspects are the same or similar, odd situations occur more often in family businesses. And, that’s due to the fact it’s family and not “strangers” that are part of the day-to-day operations. So, common things in regular business arrangements might be quite different than in a family business. For example, employee compensation. Some family businesses neglect to give their employees pay raises because they are members of the family. In other words, it’s not a common practice, because the business is run by a family, instead of unrelated individuals. Of course, the phenomenon of unconventionality is something that can easily be part of a family business, simply because all the individuals involved are related and feel an obligation and duty to the company. Family Business Fringe Benefits are Fine, but Not Compensation Replacements Some family businesses provide their employee relatives with certain fringe benefits. These might be things like extra flexibility with schedules. Or, extra time off for vacations with pay. It could even be things like a company credit card and/or a company vehicle. The job of operating a family-owned company is often grievously complicated by friction arising from rivalries involving a father and his son, brothers, or other family members who hold positions in the business, or at least derive income from it. Unless the principals face up to their feelings of hostility, the business will suffer and may even die. —Harvard Business Review While such perks are nice, they do not take the place of compensation. But, it isn’t at all uncommon for the family business head to see such fringe benefits as a replacement for compensation. Since their relative employees enjoy perks, they view this as some type of offset to a raise and reasonable pay. This can create very awkward and sometimes even toxic situations to arise. Moreover, if non-relatives are working in the company, who do receive bumps in pay periodically, this can lead to outright resentment. How to Talk about Pay Raises in a Family Business Needless to say, it is a very frustrating and even unfair position to be put into by the very business you so loyally serve. Worse still, is that the longer you let it go on, the more normalized it becomes. And that is definitely something you don’t want to happen. Here is some effective advice for approaching the subject about a raise in pay from your family business: Determine your actual value. This applies to every employee, and not just individuals working for family businesses. You need to know for certain what your worth is, based on real-world comparisons. Unfortunately, too many employees overestimate their value and therefore, ask too much from their employer. So, be sure to do your research in order to determine your actual value in the workplace, base on your skill sets, experience, position, and responsibilities. Understand the company’s financial position. Before you bring the subject up, be certain that you know the financial circumstances of the business at large. Don’t assume anything, particularly if you’re not regularly involved in the company’s finances. Guessing and vague ideas will only lead to trouble in one form or another. If you do not have a firm understanding of the business’s financial situation, it might make the entire exercise moot. Or, it could also cause you to become envious and greedy. Be calm, reasonable, polite, but firm. There’s no question that being in such a set of unfair circumstances will cause you to have any number of negative feelings. Remember these are counterproductive to your end goal. You will get much further by being respectful but firm and by engaging in a good-faith negotiation, rather than starting a family feud. If you let your negative emotions get the best of you, it will only lead to a bad outcome in the short term, and perhaps even ruin your relationship over the long term. What other suggestions do you have for such a peculiar and awkward situation? Please take a moment to share your thoughts and experiences so others can benefit from your unique perspective! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.