When I started in business and the phrase “open-door policy” was thrown around, it sounded very progressive. It was also very confusing to me.

While it certainly makes sense, I couldn’t understand how a company could operate when there are always people walking into the offices to talk. The answer is simple: In in a well oiled machine, there are regular meetings and opportunities for people to speak up with complaints, comments, and suggestions. In less evolved companies, people are afraid to voice their opinion because they are afraid of being fired. An open-door policy is a good thing. The reality, though, is you need to do more than just use the phrase.

Continue reading "The Fallacy of an Open-Door Policy"

Over the years, I've been stuck for a lot of money by customers who went bankrupt. It's quite upsetting. I used to take it personally. Now I recognize that it's part of the "game" -- at least to some people.

I was in a business group with a guy years ago who was contemplating bankruptcy. In this case, he had done some irresponsible things that ultimately led to his company's demise. He announced to the group, "These days, bankruptcy is basically just a business tool." My initial reaction was to be appalled. I might call it a necessary evil, but I wouldn't call it a tool. Tools build things.

Continue reading "Is Bankruptcy Part of the "Game"?"

In 1978, when I graduated from college and decided to go into business, I was not called an "entrepreneur." The word was not being used. I was mostly called "nuts" (the word "loser" wasn't being used yet either). The most common line I heard was, "You're going to waste your degree?" People went into business for themselves because they had no other choices; a degree gave you choices. This was about the same time that Inc. magazine was launched.

Continue reading "What is an Entrepreneur?"

Over the years, I have taken numerous employees to trade shows -- either when we were exhibiting or as a buying trip. And I've learned the hard way that a lot can go wrong:

Continue reading "The Problems with Trade Shows (Like Where People Sleep)"

It's important for every boss to understand what his or her critical functions
are. These might change significantly as you grow. You might, for example, start out doing all of the sales for your company and end up doing very minimal sales as you grow. But it's important for you to decide what's most important to you.

Continue reading "What's Most Important? Profits? Customers? Employees?"

On top of drug testing, I've been administering personality tests for more than
15 years for customer service positions, sales people, and management. I have
found them to be pretty accurate. I can think of a few occasions that the
test indicated that someone was not ideal for the job but I hired the person anyway.

Continue reading "Do You Give Personality Tests?"

Sometimes when an employee does something that we're not sure is in the spirit of the rules, I need to check our employee manual. That happens a lot with sick days. They started out as true sick days for salaried employees who are, in fact, sick, but they've slowly morphed into "emergency days" or in some cases "personal days" -- at least in some people's minds. In discussions with my key management staff, I find that we aren't all sure what is meant by sick days.

You have to drive your mother to the hospital. Is that a sick day? You have to pick your kid up from the school nurse's office. Is that a sick day? Your water heater stopped working in the morning, and you have to wait for the repair man all day. Is that a sick day? Clearly, the employee is not sick in any of these cases; you could probably categorize them all as emergency days. Your son invites you to the birth of his child. Is that an emergency at all? I'd be interested to know how your company handles it. Are these sick days? Are they emergency days? Are they personal days? Do they carry over from year to year? Do you monitor them -- or are you just kind of hoping for compliance?

When a valued employee walks into your office and tells you he or she has accepted another job, should you try to negotiate with them to stay? If a valued employee came to me and said she had been offered a job, I would have a conversation with her to see if this new opportunity is best for her and consider whether I could change anything here to make her decision more to my favor.

I had my production manager come to me years ago with a job offer he had received. The other company had given him a tour of its facility and promised him more money. He came to me and told me. It just so happened that I knew who the company was. As a matter of fact, I had given the owner advice at a trade show the year before. I thought it was really tacky that he would recruit out of my company. After discussing this with my manager, he decided to stay. He's still with me and very happy he decided to stay.

There have been numerous other times that people have left without giving me or one of my managers the opportunity to discuss it. We graciously accept their resignations. Do you try to negotiate when someone quits?

My son called me yesterday to tell me about a recent hire at his company. After three weeks, they found out that the new receptionist was stealing credit card numbers from employees and customers. He asked me whether or not they should call the police. The righteous side of my brain said, "Absolutely -- she needs to be stopped!" And the practical side of me said, "Don't waste your time. The police don't care. She'll never be prosecuted."

Coincidentally, the next morning I read an article in The New York Times about a situation with the New York Junior League. The organization realized that its controller was embezzling but it negotiated a settlement and confidentiality agreement and she was not prosecuted. It reminds me of the numerous stories I've heard over the years of similar situations. Every day, hundreds or thousands of people are caught stealing at work. Often, they promise to repay what they took in order to not be sent to jail. It's gross.

What has your experience been? If you tried to prosecute, was it worth the energy and time invested?

In a previous post, I heard from someone who had to make a difficult decision on how long to pay an employee who'd had a heart attack. Unfortunately, this owner did not have disability insurance. He'd been paying the disabled employee for the three months he was off. But at some point he needs to replace this person and he's wondering how to end this. The question remains, how long do you continue paying an employee when you do not have insurance and when it's clear the employee isn't coming back any time soon? There are a lot of factors to consider: How long has the employee been there? How important is the person to the company? What can you afford?

With regard to the example raised by the person who commented on my original post, I believe that the amount of money paid to the employee was responsible, but at some point, the owner needs to be responsible to his business. Some jobs cannot be temporarily staffed.

I'd be interested to hear what others have done in this situation. Any thoughts you'd like to share?