Be part of the solution
To boil it all down, employees have just one role to play in any organization: be part of the solution.
Those who are smart enough to come up with solutions to problems tend to get a chance to be promoted. Those who can't come up with solutions can play an important supporting role by helping to implement the solutions. At the very minimum, the employee should play a cooperative role in their own way.
For example, if a company is not doing well and is lacking sales, the person who can generate sales is coming up with the solution. Those who cannot sell well, can support that sales person e.g. help process the orders, communicate with new customers, etc. Others can cooperate by helping to do research to fill the prospecting pipeline for the sales person or at the minimum, get out of the way if needed.
Employees who find themselves often saying "that cannot be done" or "let someone else do that, not me" cannot be said to be a part of the solution. If an employee is the person throwing all kinds of roadblocks in the path of others within the firm, then they are not only not being part of the solution but are also not cooperating. Over time, it would be painfully obvious that such an employee is worse than dead weight; they are in fact a part of the problem. If they are unable to cooperate, the least they can do is to get out of the way rather than taking up others' time by being a constant naysayer. Ultimately, this employee will always end up cooperating -- by permanently getting out of the way.
If any employee is about to complain to their boss about something, I would suggest that they do a self-evaluation of whether what they are about to say or do contributes to a solution or is at least cooperative with others within the firm. If not, it's really difficult for any employer to justify paying this person's salary for long, especially for repeated occurences of lack of cooperation. After all, any person off the street can say something cannot be done or someone else can do it, not them. Why would any employer in their right mind pay anyone to tell them something can't be done? The value in any and all employees lie in getting things done. Nothing gets accomplished by naysayers.
Every single day, it's helpful for each employee to recap their activities for the day and consider if they have been a part of the solution that day. If so, there is a high chance they will keep their jobs, perhaps get promoted and recommended for other job opportunities by others they have worked with.
Those who are smart enough to come up with solutions to problems tend to get a chance to be promoted. Those who can't come up with solutions can play an important supporting role by helping to implement the solutions. At the very minimum, the employee should play a cooperative role in their own way.
For example, if a company is not doing well and is lacking sales, the person who can generate sales is coming up with the solution. Those who cannot sell well, can support that sales person e.g. help process the orders, communicate with new customers, etc. Others can cooperate by helping to do research to fill the prospecting pipeline for the sales person or at the minimum, get out of the way if needed.
Employees who find themselves often saying "that cannot be done" or "let someone else do that, not me" cannot be said to be a part of the solution. If an employee is the person throwing all kinds of roadblocks in the path of others within the firm, then they are not only not being part of the solution but are also not cooperating. Over time, it would be painfully obvious that such an employee is worse than dead weight; they are in fact a part of the problem. If they are unable to cooperate, the least they can do is to get out of the way rather than taking up others' time by being a constant naysayer. Ultimately, this employee will always end up cooperating -- by permanently getting out of the way.
If any employee is about to complain to their boss about something, I would suggest that they do a self-evaluation of whether what they are about to say or do contributes to a solution or is at least cooperative with others within the firm. If not, it's really difficult for any employer to justify paying this person's salary for long, especially for repeated occurences of lack of cooperation. After all, any person off the street can say something cannot be done or someone else can do it, not them. Why would any employer in their right mind pay anyone to tell them something can't be done? The value in any and all employees lie in getting things done. Nothing gets accomplished by naysayers.
Every single day, it's helpful for each employee to recap their activities for the day and consider if they have been a part of the solution that day. If so, there is a high chance they will keep their jobs, perhaps get promoted and recommended for other job opportunities by others they have worked with.
Comments