Are Your Employees Like Cling Wrap?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 26, 2012
For those who don't know, Cling Wrap is this very thin plastic covering that you can wrap foods in. I didn't want to assume that everyone who reads this would be familiar with it, though I pretty much think everyone is.
Almost every household I know has some kind of cling wrap in their house; that is, unless it's a single male household. Cling Wrap is amazing stuff. Obviously you can use it to wrap all sorts of foods and even other items in it. It clings, which means you can wrap your foods air tight, or at tight as you'd like to. You can then use the same thing to warm your food up in the microwave by poking a couple of holes in it, and it's sturdy enough to handle it without melting. Frankly, it's wonderful stuff.
Sometimes. The problem with Cling Wrap is that if you get too much of it the stuff binds to itself before you can use it unless you're careful, which makes it an unworkable situation. There have been times when I have gotten a big sheet without being careful and it binds itself so much that I just can't get it separated and keep it separated long enough to do anything. And if you get a piece that's too small, then you have to toss it and grab another piece. Luckily it's not expensive, but it's irritating. It's great for what it does, but it's not always the easiest thing to work with.
Compare that to some of your employees, if you will. I think all of us love having brilliant employees. But one of the problems that can occur is that you can have so many brilliant employees that they're either hard to work with or, well, not really workers at all.
I've always believed that the best mix within an office is having some thinkers, some workers, and one or two with leadership capabilities.
Think about it this way. If everyone is a thinker, it means you're probably going to have dissension often because everyone will have their way of wanting to do things.
If everyone is a leader then there's no one to do the work.
And if everyone is a worker, it means they will only do what you tell them to do and not even try to think of any solutions on their own, or not do whatever is necessary other than what's expected of them. In that sense they're binded to you and makes your job harder to do because if you don't think of it then it won't get done. That's a heavy load on anyone for the 8 or 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, of being a leader.
Those are broad statements, yet it's been proven over and over in many businesses. That's why every person working in a law office isn't a lawyer, and why every person working in a hospital isn't a doctor. You need people who not only can fit into other roles, but are easy to work with and ready to accept those roles and their differences.
That's why we don't only have Cling Wrap in our kitchens. We have aluminum foil and we have plastic wrap and we have plastic bags. That's why we have forks and spoons and knives, different sizes of plates and glasses and cups and mugs. The diversification of employees and what they can offer and help us with is far more valuable that having just Cling Wrap; don't you think?
The perfect balance is very important and when you see it, you know it. It takes great management to create that balance and to know how much control is just enough that allows everything to work smoothly. Being too ‘clingy’ will hurt performance. lol
Seriously though, it also really stands out when the majority of the employees are those doing just enough to keep their jobs. I’ve even seen good employees leave because they felt they were the only one that cared or no one else was pulling their weight. A bad mix isn’t only bad for business, it’s bad for decent employees and breads more bad behavior. Hey, I sure do sound smarter here than in our videos. lol
My favorite line: “If you get a piece that’s too small, then you have to toss it and grab another piece”.
A lot of us grew up calling it Saran Wrap, which is one of those HUGE marketing successes.
Great comment Brian; you get it. Perfection can’t be attained, but when everyone is great and knows it sometimes it’s hard to get work done. Factories would never work if everyone was a Ph.D. They’d be the smartest factory workers in the world, but they just wouldn’t gel with the work.
That is how I am at my work, now. I used to care and I would try to do what’s best. But everyone just did enough, while all the responsibility fell on me. We all get paid the same, so why should I have to deal with it. Now I don’t. I just pretend I’m dense and have no mind of my own. While some other poor guy gets all the responsibility’s. I’m just Clinging to the cling-wrap until I’m fired. Good post, Mitch! -Scott Craighead
That’s too bad Scott but I do understand how it goes. If it were me I’d continue working hard, mainly trying to learn as much as I could so I could go elsewhere. That was my personality; I wanted to be seen as the best and give people a reason to try to keep me, and if they didn’t then it was on them.
I also think so, Mitch – too many experts at same place would be definitely a bad situation and for sure this will lead to bad team work. Most likely nobody would listen. I have been in that kind of situation as a worker and it didn’t lead to anything good for company.
Oh yeah Carl; when employees think they know more about the job than the people they report to, things can get ugly fast.
I was working for a company where the boss idea was weird, he wanted me to hire at least 3 experts in my team and trying to put a challenge between them. Of course I refused telling him that this would be ridiculous and really bad idea. Well, even that he did it and things are getting suicidal for the whole work process.
Yeah, I’ve always hated the thing about having employees compete against each other. How does that foster teamwork?
Mitch, I love how you compared this to cling wrap and our kitchens!
Years ago at my day job we took personality tests. We all were assigned one of four letters.Some with higher degrees of a letter, or a combo of 2.
I guess they did it because we work on sales teams and would clash if all were the same types.
Interesting topic Mitch.
Thanks Lisa. I don’t have much faith in personality tests; not sure if you remember I wrote a post earlier this year (or maybe it was one of my newsletters) where I talked about failing a personality test. lol
However, this does show how it’s a great thing to mix up employee types and personalities. More diversity across the board always seems to work best.
CLINGwrap is annoying to even say. Its a pain to use also as it always does a better job of clinging to you than the bowl of rice you’re trying to cover up.
Having an employee like that means you have taught them this behavior by providing them solutions whenever they get into a pinch. They have essentially turned the tables on you and now you are working while they do the talking err whining.
Not a good place to be.
LOL! Jacko, it’s both a curse and a blessing, and sometimes that’s how it is with the people you work with. Brilliance isn’t always perfection unfortunately.
I like how you compare employees to cling wrap and alu foil etc 🙂
But it’s true. I also believe that it’s important to have a good mix of people, just like in football (well, “soccer” to you), you need different players to cover different parts of the playing field.
And you’re right about cling wrap – get too much and it sticks to itself, then you’re pretty much screwed, you’re never going to get that piece completely unwrapped as if it was new again. Sometimes a little bit of luck does make it possible to re-use it though.
Thanks Klaus; been awhile since I’ve seen you. Glad you agree with me on this concept. It’s good to have great employees but if too many people have qualifications that are way over the job they do it’s hard to get anything done. Every business needs a proper mix of people to run well, but it’s not easy to achieve all the time.