November 6; Does Working Apart Really Work?
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Eleven: Failure; 6 November

Every day they continued to meet together

in the temple courts.

They broke bread in their homes and

ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

Acts 2:46

Remote Control

“How many vacation days will I get?” The interview was not going well and had now gotten a lot worse. I stopped and had to ponder for a minute.

…I was thinking of the last family get-away where Charmaine and I visited with a client. It was a “vacation.” I guess. How many days off?

Who knew?

Not me…

So I answered the job candidate’s question with a question, “Why do you ask?” There was some mumbled response but it didn’t matter; I didn’t listen. I had written him off and was now mentally on to the next candidate. (I really need to work on that empathy thing. Please be patient with me.)

Your Business Professor gets this same nonsense from students on the first day of classes. The question comes up, “How many absences are we allowed?”

This always bothers me and I let it show. “The work of the semester hasn’t started and you are asking me how little you can work?”

I profile (in the worst meaning of the word) the student or the job seeker or the employee. Anyone who asks such revealing questions about holidays will get one of The Three Fs: He will be Fired, or will be a Failure or will earn an F. Workplace absence does not make the heart grow fonder. We need to be able to socialize. Like it or not.

Social Capital is defined as the, “Goodwill stemming from your social relationships.”  (Management 3ed, Bateman, Snell, McGrawHill, page 17)

Long distant relationships seldom work out. They are not productive.

Nobody gets any work done in a railroad station waiting room; no one gets much work done as a transient. The individual needs to belong to a “community” in which he knows people, in which he is known by them, and in which his own relationship is anchored. (Drucker 1973) p 555

Being on site is best. If the sales pitch or communiqué is important, show up in person.

There are three events in life that demand-command a person’s presence: Births, Deaths and Marriages.

And, it should now be added: work.

Miranda Priestly is a fictional character based, some say, on the editrix of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour. (Some call her “Nuclear Winter.” But never to her face.) As the story goes, Anna/Miranda is directing changes at a new initiative,

You’re going to have to change your staff. I want only the best team…the transition will allow us to clean house of some of the hangers-on.

Oh, and there will be no more “flexible work schedule” rubbish.

No more “working remotely.”

We banned it at Runway and it’s made a huge difference. (Page 340, Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, Lauren Weisberger, 2013)

We work with people in person in the office. ‘Phoning it in’ is taking a short-cut; a joke among reporters. It is what an amateur journalist does when he doesn’t want to work.

A conference call-in is about as effective as enjoying a box lunch date with a squawk box. Be at work and share time and experiences with your workmates. Be there. Be happy.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, Acts 2:46

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