Thursday, December 4, 2008

Is a Good Employee Someone Who is Not a Bad Employee?

The Workplace Attitudes Test is designed to screen out people who have a propensity to be disruptive in the workplace. I refer to these people as “turkeys” or “jerks.” They are disruptive all out of proportion to their numbers. An assumption underlying the Workplace Attitudes Test is if you avoid hiring problem employees you will ipso facto hire good employees.

But we can turn this upside down and ask what constitutes a good employee? You say you demand a better definition than “A good employee is someone who is not a bad employee.” Well, I’ll take a shot.

A good employee is one who is not disruptive. Not good enough? You say you want something more proactive? How about this, a good employee is a person who is slow to judge, who sees the world in gray rather than black and white, and has genuine concern for one’s fellow man.

In sum, a good employee is a person who is decidedly disinclined to say, “I am doing this for your own good.” See www.workplaceattitudes.com

2 comments:

Andrew Katz said...

Love this blog but have missed you since your last post...hope you are coming back soon!

-Andrew

http://astronsolutionsworldofhr.blogspot.com/

Dale Paulson, Ph.D. said...

Andrew, thank you for your nice comment. I admit that I have been a bit lax, but I will get back to this in the near near future.

Dale