How to motivate underperforming Employees

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NickM

Veteran
domtyler said:
What's your skill set? I am thinking of becoming a millionaire employer in the near future so may be able to make use of you...
Come off it - you don't want a misanthropic, unmanageable shit-stirrer like me in your shiny new office...
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
Twenty Inch said:
Life's too short. You're spoiling today for the sake of a possible tomorrow. The sooner you find some more fulfilling work, the happier you'll be.
Takes guts, but I agree. I can stomach my job (I get some enjoyment from it, and can live on the salary) and the Mrs'll do for the moment (;)). I know a guy who had a mid-life crisis...jacked in his well-paid job, left his wife (kids had left home), set up his own publishing company...seems to be doing v well too!
 

NickM

Veteran
My whingeing (hawk, spit) "line manager" has just enquired whether anybody else in our under-ventilated office suffers from frequent headaches in the afternoon.

I replied "No, but I do have a perpetual pain in the arse".

He didn't enquire further.
 
NickM said:
My whingeing (hawk, spit) "line manager" has just enquired whether anybody else in our under-ventilated office suffers from frequent headaches in the afternoon.

I replied "No, but I do have a perpetual pain in the arse".

He didn't enquire further.

I bet he just loves you ;)
 
NickM said:
My whingeing (hawk, spit) "line manager" has just enquired whether anybody else in our under-ventilated office suffers from frequent headaches in the afternoon.

I replied "No, but I do have a perpetual pain in the arse".

He didn't enquire further.


I'm sorry, but it just sounds like you're angry with yourself for being stuck in a job that you hate. I've been there and it sucks. You need to get out.
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
There are no substitutes for a good job or the "right" job.
having endured 3 redundancies over 6 years and 4 years of really stressful work that paid but nearly killed me and drove me to depression, I can say that I really appreciate finally finding a job to which I am very well suited.
It's not just the skills though, I work with decent people, good management and good sorroundings. I've also come to terms with my limitations too, I'm no longer striving for a career, just trying to be better at what I do and continually do it well. I'm happy (ish) with the mundane, and can just about deal with the exciting stuff. I've been through so much corporate bullshit over the years that I'm immune...I'm no longer interested in the bigger picture, just keeping my own bit in focus, one day at a time, with a smile on my face...

Gotta go now, day's been a madder than a barrel of monkeys and it looks like I'll be doing another late one....I'm lovin' it!
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
NickM said:
You'd probably be better off not reading this, then.
Hey Nick - I think that's the best explanation for Road Rage I've read in a long time...!

"We are so close to the world of work that we can't see what it does to us."

That's exactly what I've been trying to explain to people for over 4 years now when they ask me what I do. Sometimes I reply that I "ride my bicycles" or "play about on t'Internet" but of course I know what they are really after. When they push me, I tell them that I've had enough of feeling stressed, frustrated, humiliated, bored, exploited, spoken-down-to, lied about, abused, and cast aside when not needed any more. I'd rather accept a much lower material standard of living but have freedom and a sense of controlling my own destiny. I tell them about my ideas for earning a living online. They look at me as if I'm from another planet...

I have chosen to spend a few minutes back on the forum now simply because I wanted to. Nobody else can tell me to 'get back to work'. Only GCHQ knows or cares what I get upto online (nothing much btw!). I'll get back to my programming tutorials later and I'll work until about 10 pm - because I choose to. I switched the PC off at lunchtime yesterday because the sun was shining and I wanted to be outside on my bike. OTOH the weather here on Sunday was awful so I worked all day.

Nick, you are obviously an intelligent guy and in a way, you're a man on a mission. By putting up with your job for another 11 years just for the sake of a pension you are ignoring your calling.

There are millions of English-speaking people who are every bit as fed-up with the rat-race as us. I've been doing a lot of background research which might be of interest to you. I'll PM you with a suggestion...
 
to go back to the OP - explain, help, engage, intrigue, amuse, awaken, praise. Works for me.
 
ColinJ said:
Hey Nick - I think that's the best explanation for Road Rage I've read in a long time...!

"We are so close to the world of work that we can't see what it does to us."

That's exactly what I've been trying to explain to people for over 4 years now when they ask me what I do. Sometimes I reply that I "ride my bicycles" or "play about on t'Internet" but of course I know what they are really after. When they push me, I tell them that I've had enough of feeling stressed, frustrated, humiliated, bored, exploited, spoken-down-to, lied about, abused, and cast aside when not needed any more. I'd rather accept a much lower material standard of living but have freedom and a sense of controlling my own destiny. I tell them about my ideas for earning a living online. They look at me as if I'm from another planet...

I have chosen to spend a few minutes back on the forum now simply because I wanted to. Nobody else can tell me to 'get back to work'. Only GCHQ knows or cares what I get upto online (nothing much btw!). I'll get back to my programming tutorials later and I'll work until about 10 pm - because I choose to. I switched the PC off at lunchtime yesterday because the sun was shining and I wanted to be outside on my bike. OTOH the weather here on Sunday was awful so I worked all day.

Nick, you are obviously an intelligent guy and in a way, you're a man on a mission. By putting up with your job for another 11 years just for the sake of a pension you are ignoring your calling.

There are millions of English-speaking people who are every bit as fed-up with the rat-race as us. I've been doing a lot of background research which might be of interest to you. I'll PM you with a suggestion...

Nice one Colin.

I'm lucky. I've found a job that needs to be done, and I want to do it (one of the key points in Black's article that NickM posted). I wouldn't have been in this position if I hadn't taken some risks earlier.
 

NickM

Veteran
A friend of mine is (among other things) a professional singer. It struck me that he uses the word "job" entirely differently to most of us, the office-bound. For him it means going away from home, rehearsing, giving an agreed number of performances, coming home again and the money turning up shortly afterwards. That is one "job". A dancing friend uses the word in the same way.

Another is an organ builder. He has responsibility for the health and welfare of several of London's most famous organs. He regards each as a "job". So the Albert Hall is one job, St Paul's is another job, and so on. Each has duties and remuneration attached. Sometimes, my friend is needed to be on standby for important musical events, or to be available to star organists, who tend to do their practicing in the middle of the night.

However, most people think of a job as a period of confinement away from things they like doing and are interested in. My job is the period of time between 8:30 and 4:00 and sometimes the time spent in travelling to and from the place where I am confined between those hours. It's not what I do while there. It's the obligation to be there.

Each of these scenarios has a different relationship between responsibility, time commitment, the regularity of remuneration, security and the extent to which it is possible to retain personal autonomy; each is more or less demanding in its own way. I suspect that those who can tolerate employment without difficulty have quite unconsciously found a recipe which suits them.
 
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