View Single Post
Old 10-25-2004, 09:05 PM   #60 (permalink)
Xenomorph
Crazy
 
Location: St. Louis, MO
I had a carrot manager and a stick manager at the same job one of my high school summers. The job was set up so that there would be one manager and one assistant on duty so I got to see a lot of managing tactics on the ground level, mano e mano. Both systems had their merits, but in a work environment where I was already motivated (a video game store) I was a much better worker under the guy who would throw me a bone from time to time.

The carrot guy, the store manager would go to one of the demo machines and challenge me to a game whenever we didn't have any customers, which was probably half the time if not more. We shucked about games like two random friends in any other setting. He didn't really care if I read a game magazine when the shelves were straight, the store was clean, and nobody was around. He'd call me on my mistakes if I got caught up in a hurry and forgot to give someone their receipt or didn't get their signature on a credit card transaction, but other than that, he didn't really order me around at all. He'd basically tell me what needed to get done at the beginning of the shift and then work side-by-side with me rather than above me so long as I didn't screw up. When I did exceptionally well on my sales numbers for sustained periods of time, he was the one that wrote up commendations and sent them up the pipe, and he'd tell the assistant managers that had to moonlight for the regulars from time to time that they'd get good sales numbers when I was on the job. The happy-cicle that Obtuse described was our situation.

The other guy, the assistant manager, constantly made a point of asserting his position relative to mine on the chain of command. During our frequent 30 minute-2 hour lapses in business, he would search for jobs for me to do just so I didn't appear to be standing around. If I wandered on a circuit around the store looking like I was trying to look for stuff that was out of place he would forget that I existed, but if I picked up a magazine or, heavens forbid, started up a game on a demo machine, he would scramble for some tucked-away archive box of ancient Game Boy games for me to realphabetize. I respected his right as my supervisor to make me do that sort of thing...after all, it was company time and I was being paid to spend it working, not playing. Still, the thoughts of how satisfied and indeed happy I was with my job were knocked down a few rungs whenever I saw he and I on the same schedule time.

When school started up and the job got inconvenient, I stayed onboard...until the store manager got promoted up to a busier store and the assistant inherited the supreme command of the store I was working it and the extended load of hours that came with it. I politely gave my two week notice of resignation. I was very good at my job and did it happily for mere nickles above minimum wage, and I realize I was an asset to the store. The moral of the story that I taught myself for when I found myself in a management position was that it doesn't hurt to give your workers a few bonuses that you don't absolutely have to if they're motivated and don't need a kick in the ass.
__________________
The facehugger is short-lived outside the egg which normally protects it. Armed with a long grasping tail, a spray of highly-concentrated acid and the single-minded desire to impregnate a single selected prey using its extending probe, it will fearlessly pursue and attack a single selected target until it has succeeded in attachment or it or its target is dead
Xenomorph is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360