There was more misdirected compensation in corporate America in the past five years than in the 100 years before that.
Warren Buffet
During the research for this book I had a great interview with a very smart HR professional called Gayle Weibley. She is head of HR in Right Management Consultants and she has a very colourful turn of phrase at times. What she said to me made me stop and think. She said, ˜You know, during this recession we've thrown an awful lot of rocks at our employees . So many', she continued , ˜that I imagine they've got a pretty big pile of rocks themselves by now. Thing is, when do they start throwing them back?'
Over the last two or three years I have organised over 50 discussion groups with employees. The objective has been to ask them - off the record - what are their views of their management. The results are astounding. Indeed, it was as a result of some of those discussion groups that the idea of this book first emerged. Your average employee (and I don't care if they work in transport, retail, banking, energy, pharmaceuticals or whatever) in the vast majority of cases does not like his or her boss; doesn't think management has a clear vision and has no long- term plans to stay with their present employer.