Clever chap Seth Godin has written a new book called Free Prize Inside. Hal Macomber has a nice introduction here and here .
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an early copy. It's very good. It's a short book but in parts it is eye openingly good. I'll get to those parts over the next week or so - in particular, the middle part of the book "selling the idea" ties in perfectly with what I am planning to write for my "selling agile" theme (except Seth's stuff is way, way, better written).
But in the mean time, page 43, sent a wee shiver up and down my spine.
Seth talks about how Henry Ford decided to pay his workers way above the market rates because it made them more productive. "It meant that nearly every factory worker at Ford was dramatically overpaid! When there's a line of people outside the door waiting to take your job, weird thing happen to your head. The combination of repetitive factory work plus high pay for standardized performance lead to a very obedient factory floor. People were conditioned to do as they were told, and traded autonomy and craftsmanship for high pay and stability".
But, hang on. That's happening to me right now.
Four years ago, when I first joined my current employer - the one that is probably about to downsize me, that is - a new colleague, Douglas, told me that "we get paid above market rates and the pension plan is fantastic. In fact, it's considered a very prestigous company to work for in Scotland. We are very very strong company and staff turnover is very low". ... sounds good so far ... "But", he continued, "the downside is that, since no one ever leaves, it's a difficult place to be ambitious because promotion is usually into dead mans shoes. They don't ask much of you so don't offer too much". "Basically", he said, "its a great job to retire from, but don't expect too much in between".
I figured he was just a bit bitter.
But over the next 4 years I noticed that everything he said was true. People did join the company with the intention of retiring. I work with people who've been in the company for going on 30 years. Since I joined, I know no one personally - apart from mothers-to-be and contractors - that has left the comapny. No one. This is weird - in IT you're supposed to change jobs and/or companies every 2,3,4 years - or you go stale. And go stale many have. I should be clear here - I work with some lovely, talented, bright and even brilliant people, but the company wastes these talents by dumbing down their jobs and beating them up when they think for themselves. I'm lucky that 7 years ago I had a fantastic job and I haven't forgotten it, but many of my colleagues have never seen the sunny side of the street, and don't even realise it's happening.
But - here's the said bit - many of my colleagues joined the company with the expectation of retiring here. But, 1 in 4 will be downsized.
In Seths words they "traded autonomy and craftsmanship for high pay and stability". Bad swap.
