The internet was abuzz last year with the Steven Slater incident on the Jet Blue flight. He was the flight attendant who got upset with a demanding passenger and announced his irritation on the plane’s public address system and then quit his job dramatically drinking a beer and sliding down the plane’s emergency slide.
He was clearly not happy at work! He certainly found a spectacular way to give feedback to his employer and the rest of the world on how unsustainable his job had become. For me, this is a really sad example of how difficult today’s workplace has become. For many people, meaningful work is just a dream.
It’s no wonder Steven Slater has become a popular hero. People cheer him on by telling the boss what he really thought. Too bad he waited so long and got so frustrated, but maybe there was no other way. Companies have a way of ignoring situations until someone blows up.
I sympathize with Slater’s rage. I worked for a large company where they conducted an annual employee satisfaction survey. It gave employees the opportunity to share their thoughts on the business with management. I took the survey seriously and gave my comments as did many others. Our concerns were never addressed and the only comment I heard about the survey was that managers were baffled as to why job satisfaction was so low.
Management needs to observe, watch, listen and act. One year, the manager of my sales group hired a young woman in January. There were four guys on the team at the time and me. The woman was new to both our sales team and sales in general. The boss liked her and gave her at least half a dozen major sales leads during the year that resulted in sales for her.
At the time, he had had several major sales at the end of the previous year and was busy implementing them. We were paid for the revenue and the revenue didn’t show up until the systems were installed, so I was fully focused on my work. At the end of the year I realized how many sales the woman had. It was a slow year for everyone else. I kept wondering what the boys were feeling, but no one said anything.
In October a package was offered to managers who volunteered to leave. There was a pending layoff if not enough managers were offered. The boss took the offered package and left in mid-December. At the end of December, each of the boys in the group handed over their resignation to the branch manager and then shared with me the frustration of the year for the first time.
The company lost 4 good guys who were so frustrated that even without the old boss there they couldn’t stay. After all, they said the branch manager should have noticed and questioned how a novice salesperson could get so many sales while the veterans had lean years.
Sure Steven Slater was wrong to do what he did, but did Jet Blue give him an avenue for his frustration so that they could address it and resolve it? Perhaps these colleagues told the Branch Manager in their exit interviews what had happened, but it was too late and they left the company. In January, the woman and I were absorbed by other sales groups and went our separate ways.
Burning bridges may feel good in the moment, but there is a price to pay later. It certainly does not lead to professional success. Slater has become something of a folk hero, so he may have a chance to capitalize on his fame, but others who burn bridges by badmouthing his former company or manager are unlikely to benefit.
What lessons can we learn here? First, if you are looking for work, look for a company that values its employees by encouraging feedback and acting accordingly. Find current employees to speak off the record and ask questions about the work environment. Are they happy at work? Is the work they do meaningful work?
If you are a manager or business owner, you have a responsibility to listen to your team, to notice when things are not going well, and to find a workable solution. Don’t get so involved in your own day-to-day work that you don’t realize what your team is doing and if something is wrong. Having happy employees at work will help you maintain good client / client relationships.
Many years ago I read a book by the owner of a travel company, Hal Rosenbluth, titled Customer comes second – put people first and watch them kick butt. The title says it all. Today, more and more companies are beginning to worry about keeping good employees when the economy begins to recover. Perhaps putting employees first is the answer.