When Bad Weather Is Not A Crisis
The bad weather has crystallised some interesting attitudes amongst companies and their staff. Travelling home yesterday I overhead two people praising their company for encouraging its people to go home early whilst they could, or to work from home if travel was really impossible for them. When I got home my wife told me of a radio report decrying companies who are telling their staff that if they don’t get to work in the bad weather they will lose pay. Two very different attitudes.
There are two extremes amongst staff also. There are those people who use bad weather as an opportunity to take a day off- even if they could get in to work. And others who will move heaven and earth (sometimes literally) to get in.
Crises can often bring our deep rooted attitudes to the fore, making us much more transparent. Those companies who are prepared to assist their staff who have difficult journeys to work are almost certainly the same companies who recognise the value of their people and understand that a motivated, supported workforce is likely to be more productive and successful. Those that penalise their staff for circumstances beyond their control are unlikely to be happy places to work.
Similarly, those who take every opportunity for a day off are probably working in jobs they do not value, whilst those who make every effort to get to work are the fortunate few who have found jobs to which they are well suited and which are important to them.
Even though most of us – whether as employer or employee- fall between these extremes, our instinctive reactions at times of crisis can tell us a lot about our real attitudes to our jobs and people. The way in which we individually react to the problems caused by bad weather can be an opportunity for us to assess our attitudes and our true feelings about our work and our companies. Snow and ice need not be a crisis, They can be a catalyst for change.
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Tags: Bad Weather, job satisfaction, Work Values
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