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“A lazy person is as bad as
someone who destroys things.”
— Proverbs 18:9 (NLT)
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Dear Glenn,
I work with a lot of
independent contractors all over the country but would
still like to keep that sense of "team". How can I do
this and keep them involved as if they worked right here
in the office?
Dee in
Florida
Dear Dee,
Luke Montgomery, a
Gold Inner Circle member in
Mississippi, set up a company blog so that employees in
his 16 different locations can see what’s going on, and
post comments.
This is
less formal than sending out email, and allows people to
feel a sense of camaraderie and closeness.
You can
sign up for Google's no-cost blogging platform at
www.blogger.com
Thanks for your question.
Glenn in Nashville, TN
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Glenn's Personal Blog
Click on the gold
pen to see what Glenn's on a
rant about now |
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I was an Eagle Scout who learned to love my
country at an early age. But the cold hard truth is that
Americans have gotten lazy.
While people keep complaining about jobs
going to India or Mexicans coming to the U.S., that’s not going
to change until we get our work ethic back on track.
Because work is not natural, a work ethic
must be taught by someone.
When I was growing up, the unspoken rule in
our family was that I could be forgiven for becoming a drug
dealer, robbing banks, or even committing murder.
But the one unpardonable sin was being
lazy.
My grandfather came out of retirement three
times and was the #1 salesman at a Chevrolet dealership when he
was in his eighties.
But millions of young people today don’t
have a strong work ethic because their parents never instilled
this value in them.
So how does someone develop a work ethic on
their own?
It starts with believing that having one is
a good thing, but this isn’t easy.
As we say in my employee
E-training
program, hard work has gotten a bad name over the past
20 years.
Generation Y has grown up listening to
teachers and parents extol the virtues of “Work Life Balance”.
While this sounds good in theory, their idea of “balance” often
means that if they’re ever asked to work more than 40 hours in a
given week, they deserve a personal wellness day to recover.
Now that Congress is considering raising
the retirement age, this begs two questions:
1. What’s a reasonable workweek?
2. What’s a reasonable retirement age?
Many European countries have 35-hour
workweeks. Labor unions have fought attempts to extend it to 40
hours because it would "hurt their quality of life".
In Greece, retirement at 50 is mandatory
for hair stylists because it's deemed a hazardous occupation.
It comes as no surprise that Greece is broke.
It’s also no surprise that people want to hire
Mexicans, but one of the reasons will surprise you.
Immigration and pay scale issues aside,
Mexicans have a stronger work ethic, partly because of their labor laws.
The standard workweek for blue-collar
employees in Mexico is 48 hours, six days a week.
That’s 20% longer than the standard 40-hour workweek in the
U.S., and 37% longer than the 35-hour workweek in some European
countries.
Even if every Mexican who comes to the U.S.
— legally or illegally — were paid the same wages as Americans
doing the same job, many employers would still prefer to hire
Mexicans because of their stronger work ethic. I’ve met
thousands of business owners who have told me this again and
again.
But here’s the good news, no matter where
you live, or what your laws are.
The greatest and most empowering gift any
parent can give their children doesn’t cost a dime, but will set
them up for a financially successful life — a strong work ethic.
To Your Success,
Click here to
comment
on today's issue.
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