Y
ou had no idea the conversation you just had with an employee was coming. In fact, you hoped you would wake up and find it was simply a bad dream. Your best customer service representative has just told you she is leaving the agency for another position with a competitor. After hearing the news and clearing your head, you asked why and you got the response you wanted. She has been offered more money. Although losing your star CSR will be difficult, you feel exonerated since someone offered her more money than you were paying. At least you were not the reason she is leaving.
How many times have you seen this situation? Someone says he is leaving for more money, but in fact is leaving because he just does not like the current work situation. Saying salary is the cause for the departure is easy on everyone; however, it places the blame squarely on the wrong reason. The employee does not have to go through the distasteful conversation of why he does not like working in the office environment provided, and the principal or manager does not feel he or she has been part of the reason for the decision by the employee to leave.
Observation Haven’t we all seen many people with management responsibilities who do not pay enough attention to the office environment and the impact it plays on productivity, morale, lost time, and turnover? There can be several reasons for this. One is that proper attention and observation is not paid to employee mannerisms, behavior, and activity. As human beings we are behavior driven and our behavior is performed for a precise reason. It is a reason that makes sense to the individual who is behaving. If we would learn to read employee behavior, we would learn a great deal more about the work environment in which we place our employees. By learn-
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Resources Summer/Fall 2002