Employers are dishing out kudos to workers for little more than showing up. Corporations including Lands' End and Bank of America are hiring consultants to teach managers how to compliment employees using email, prize packages and public displays of appreciation. The 1,000-employee Scooter Store Inc., a power-wheelchair and scooter firm in New Braunfels, Texas, has a staff "celebrations assistant" whose job it is to throw confetti -- 25 pounds a week -- at employees. She also passes out 100 to 500 celebratory helium balloons a week. The Container Store Inc. estimates that one of its 4,000 employees receives praise every 20 seconds, through such efforts as its "Celebration Voice Mailboxes."
And my favorite line:
The average college student in 2006 was 30% more narcissistic than the average student in 1982.
OK, an amusing story. Worth a smug chuckle from those of us who missed that particular boat. And today came some letters to the Journal, just to underscore what some older folks in the business world are thinking:
I read with disbelief, then with laughter about the techniques for managing the younger generation of workers. Rather than calling in one of the balloon and confetti work force consultants, I think I'm going to call the offshore, outsourcing consultants.
John Seus
Gloucester, Mass.
So the wimps of the baby-boom generation have raised a wimpier generation that needs constant praise for just showing up at work? I remember a time not so long ago if you couldn't be at work on time or at all, you just lost your job. Now I have to praise some pup because he got out of bed today? Oh please, spare me the superlatives. The fascists won't have to fire a shot to take over our country. All they have to do is not praise us and we will kowtow to their every whim.
Bob Stocker
Lyman, S.C.
Those curmudgeons have no empathy. Anyway, which are you? Praise-dependent or just hunkered down and doing your job? It matters to your firm, if retention is on their minds.
Am I Good Employee? Huh, Boss, Am I? [WSJ - $]
The Most-Praised Generation Goes to Work [WSJ - $]
1 comment:
let me tell you about the scooter store, I was laid off for them after 5 great years, but, when money gets tight, they dump the high paying people, then, they hire a cheaply paid person to throw confetti at the lower pating jobs. What the scooter store is a rip off of medicare, now they are going after the VA, cause of what is happeneing with the war.
I once believed their crap, but the real world doesnt work they way they make it sound.
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