The real reason employees don’t live up to expectations

You look at Pete with his shirt tails hanging out.

You shake your head when you look at Tasha with more cleavage on display than a woman silhouetted in the red glow of an Amsterdam window. 

You see when your business partner, Robin, ignores the ringing of three phones, leaning back instead in his chair doing his best “boss” posture with hands behind his head.

You feel like thumping the contract labourer who left the tools on site to get stolen.

You want to throttle the scumbag that left a sticky trail from an exploded can of Coke across the tearoom floor.

You’re exasperated that this is the third draft Alice has given you and still she can’t see the spelling mistakes. 

And you’re resigned to taking the brush to the toilet bowl yet again because some filthy bugger thinks it’s beneath him to clean up his own skid-marks.

Even the new guy, Jeff, who seemed to have a really great work ethic when he started, has picked up the “turning up late” virus.

You just don’t understand what’s wrong with people these days.

What happened to having pride in your work?  

What happened to caring?

What happened to personal standards?

What did you ever do to deserve the slack behaviours you have to put up with every day?

Is it that your standards are too high?

Do you expect too much of people?

Is that the problem?

You’ve copped criticism for “expecting too much” often enough, so maybe that’s it.  

Your wife, your business partner – even your own brother, for Christ’s sake – they all think you push people too hard. “No one can live up to your standards,” they threaten.

But are your standards really that high?  

Is it unreasonable to expect people to do a good job? To care about the quality of their work? To treat the place like it was their own?

Now there’s a thought…maybe they do treat the place like it’s their own! Could they really live like this at home???

Well, even if they do, it’s not the way YOU want it done. You’re fed up with putting up with it.

So, what do you do?

Fire the lot of them and start again, hoping that the new people will have better standards?

That’s not really an option, is it?

Besides firing someone for not cleaning the toilet bowl probably isn’t grounds for dismissal.

And wouldn’t that be an uncomfortable conversation!

In fact, when you come to think of it, everything on your list would mean an uncomfortable conversation.  

And that right there is the biggest part of the problem. My bet is you’d rather avoid confrontation – because it can turn nasty all too easily…and then where would you be?

People would lose respect for you. They’d make things tougher for you…do little vengeful things to get back at you. Talk behind your back. Mess up stuff deliberately.

You can’t afford that. You need to keep them all happy so they don’t leave; so they keep doing their jobs. You’ve worked hard to create a family atmosphere in the office, and a bit of mateship with the subbies, and you don’t want to risk that by rocking the boat.

Looks like you’re back where you started. Muzzled in your own business. Master of nothing. Resentful. Frustrated. Angry. A silent, ticking time-bomb.

But don’t worry. You’re not alone.

Tens of thousands of workplaces are going through exactly the same thing.

The thing is, employees (and subbies) are like children. They need boundaries.

But how do you do that exactly?

After all, you want to be a “good” boss, not a micromanaging ogre.

The thing is, you can’t just waltz in one day and change all the rules. But there is an effective, professional way to turn it around and have the staff, and sub-contractors, you’ve always dreamed of. 

To help you, I made this report on establishing boundaries with your staff – without seeming like an ogre☺. Click here to gain access to the report.