Employee Tip # 6 - Productivity Is More Important Than Attitude

Many employees don't understand one simple rule: each employee has a responsibility to ensure that their personal crap doesn't get in the way of someone who is doing a good job. It impedes those who want to move forward and is completely disrespectful. It's like saying "My bad attitude is more important than your good work."

How incredibly selfish it is when someone who has nothing good to say about their job, spews their verbal vomit all over everyone else in the hopes of getting someone to agree with them. Once someone agrees with their assessment of the job, they are simply encouraged to continue their bad behaviour.

As an employee, you have a simple responsibility: to keep your end of the bargain. You are being paid for your work - so work. When you stop working, the company has the right to stop paying you. See that was the understanding between you - work for pay.

However, you do not have the right to infect or affect the other people who happen to like their work with your bad attitude about the job. That is selfish. That is disrespectful. That is simply mean. You are welcome to have your opinions about the job and if you have positive suggestions, take them up with the boss - not the rest of the staff (who couldn't change things anyway).

As for the rest of the staff - when there is someone like this working with you, you have one expectation: do not let anything interfere with you keeping your agreement with the company. It's up to you to stop your fellow co-workers who impede your personal progress and attitude. You must speak up. If not to the offender directly, then to his or her supervisor. But one way or another you are responsible for putting a stop to this.

Left unchecked, someone's else's bad attitude can affect your paycheck. Speaking up also sends a message to the rest of the staff: "I will not let you rob me of my time, my productivity and my space. I am here to do a job and your opinions and bad attitude will not get in the way of my productivity."

Trust me, you will be respected for putting a stop to it. But sadly, you will likely forget or choose to ignore this. And you will pay.

Boss Tip #12 - Pruning The Garden Without Spraying Chemicals

For those of you who have never had a garden, this may seem completely incomprehensible but play along with me would you please?

In the park across the street from my house is perhaps one of the world's largest dandelion plantations. Now to choose between herbicides in a public park and weeding out a few dandelions a week in my yard is a simple decision for me: weeding is easy enough and better for the rest of us. With that being said, let me tell you that we have a good sized garden in our backyard. Strawberries, raspberries, peas, beans, carrots, zucchini and herbs are all up. So is the crop of chickweeed, quackgrass, dandelions and other assorted weeds.

The biggest job in the garden, after planting, is pruning - getting rid of the plants that suck moisture and nurients from the earth that the garden plants need.

This whole pruning concept is not much different for bosses: weeding out the people who suck the motivation and ethic from your good workers and kicking their butts to the curb. In the same way you wouldn't put weeds into a compost bin (you're just replanting the weed seeds in the compost), don't try to find another place in the company for the cynics, the ne'er-do-wellers, the negative Nellies, the slackers and the armchair CEO's (those who think they have all the answers and could do a better job than you). That's like pulling a weed and replanting it in a different part of the garden. By placing them in another department, you are simply encouraging their bad behaviour.

Don't think that a blanket policy is going to fix everything either. That's like spraying chemicals across the whole garden. Everything in the path of the spray will be affected. Do the hard work, the dirty work and get your hands dirty. Pull each weed by hand leaving the rest of the garden untouched and unaffected.

Weeds are not welcome in your department. As a boss, it is your responsibility to ensure that your good plants produce the fruits of their labours without being impeded by weeds.

Get my meaning here? Get it done ... today.

What To Do With Found $20 Follow-up

Hi all, Meghan here (with Kevin's blessing). I want to give you an update on Kevin's article from June 20th What To Do With a Found $20 Bill?

We had an overwhelming response of comments on Kevin's Blog (http://www.kevburns.com/2007/06/what-to-do-with-found-20-bill.html). There were a ton of ideas from giving to charity to letting Meghan keep the money, from trying to return the money to taking the family to Dairy Queen, from giving it away again to having our readers (you) match dollar for dollar to charity. There were a lot of things to consider and now we have an idea that involves you.

The first thing Kevin did was call the restaurant and then Direct Cash to see if there was any way of tracking down the person before him that used that particular ATM. Finding the rightful owner seemed appropriate. We can all rest easy today knowing that Direct Cash ATMs do not keep any financial records (name, bank name or number) in their machines. In today's world and with privacy concerns, these are for obvious security reasons. So, Kevin and I both sat here for quite a while wondering what to do next. We wanted to include as many of your ideas as possible, but how do we do that with only a $20 bill? One suggestion came in to give the money to me (thank you!) and let me choose where it goes. So we have decided to do just that - and then I decided to incorporate as many of the other ideas as possible all in one (with the exception of the trip to Dairy Queen for ice cream - sorry).

I have been a Foster Parent for some time now for a little boy in Mbulamuti, Uganda. His name is Regan Kiine and he is 2 years old. Regan once suffered from malaria but has received treatment and is now fully recovered. He and his family do not have fresh water or a lot of other things for example. When I received information on him I also received a catalogue of things that I could order for him and his family if I were prepared to top up my monthly contribution from time to time. This isn't any ordinary catalogue. This is a "frills" catalogue for such opulence as fresh water, pigs, cows, health facilities, school supplies, books, HIV and AIDS care kits, and many many more things for your adopted child. You get my sarcasm on the "frills" here I'm sure. (If you want to see what you can buy, you can view the catalogue here:

Now I've always been taught to do due diligence when it comes to making donations. Now I'm not skeptical about the foster parent industry, but if I'm sending my hard earned money, it had better be going to someone who needs it. After a lot of research, I believe very strongly that the Plan International does send the money and catalogue items to the child and his or her family. Hey, I'm Kevin's daughter, I'm no sucker.

So, with that being said, there goes Kevin's $20. He has stepped up and has donated his found $20 to Regan and his family. But now, Kevin and I would like to ask you to help us. On this page, you will see a "Make A Donation" link below. All you have to do to help purchase many useful things for Regan and his family (and the rest of his village if we do this right) is to click the link and donate a buck - $1. One measly dollar - less than a cup of coffee and together we can make a difference. Of course you may donate as much as you like and all you would have to do is change the amount when you click the link, and from the bottom of my heart I would thank you for that. But let's think big!

Click Here To Make A Donation

If every one of the thousands of people who receive Kevin's emails would contribute a buck, how well could we outfit Regan's entire village? Think big. Think "everyone heading in the same direction for the same cause" and watch what happens. Hey, if you even want to involve some of your co-workers and ask them for a buck, how much of a difference could we make together? Look, you already chip into the office pool for 6-49 hoping to make a difference in your own life. How about letting an African Village win the lottery for a change? A buck or two from everyone changes a lot of lives.

(OK, let me digress here for a moment. Here's what I've learned from my Dad: you get what you give. If you want to improve the chances of good fortune coming to you, you give good fortune to someone else. The Karmic wheel spins perfectly every time. Think about it, and then click the link.)

Kevin and I will keep all of you updated on what's being purchased and how much money has been raised. And so I can guilt you into pressing the button, attached is a picture of little Regan. So for all of you that have ever found a dollar (or twenty) on the road, pay it forward. The universe will then re-pay you. So my question now is, what are you going to do to change the world a little today?

Meghan

Jimmy Mac

Last Thursday's news was tough for me: in the paper was a news story of the death of my friend Jimmy Mac. He had died in a car accident Canada Day at the age of 46 - a month and a day older than I. Had I not read the paper I would have completely missed the traditional Irish wake of which 300 others attended that very night. It was a grand affair - and it had "Jimmy" written all over it. Music, drinks, partying and the remembrances of the wee man from Northern Ireland who touched so many of us in such a short time. His wife Barb, his son Simon and daughter Sarah all attended the wake for him as well.

The next day was Jimmy's funeral - in the largest church in Central Alberta. Good thing too as they needed the room. The parade of uniforms of fellow firefighters, the parade of the Royal Canadian Legion Honour Guard and the musical tributes at the funeral were heartwarming and gut-wrenching. We laughed. We cried. We thought and we remembered. The funeral lasted an hour and forty-five minutes and we were all sad to see it end.

Unannounced, Jimmy's father George, who had made the trip from Portadown in Northern Ireland to bury his son, took the stage. George said that he never really knew his son's friends nor did they ever really talk much about them on the phone. But then he said, "As I look over this church here today, I had no idea that this many people loved my son." There was not a dry eye left in the house.

It was a fitting affair for the man who left so many of us with a smile and a place in our hearts. But to try and describe Jimmy in a few words is difficult. Suffice it to say - he will be remembered.

I am proud to have known him. Rest well Jimmy. We'll do our best to live life the way you did - as though it all ends tomorrow.

Sadly, it did for Jimmy.