Later That Day…

I’ve been asked to be on a panel discussing corporate responsibility in communication. Very cool. Yet when I look around my own little existence, I see so little of either corporate responsibility or corporate communication. Wait – make that effective corporate communication. See, I take onsite work. As someone who is literally on the outside looking in, I can see exactly where a company is screwing up. In one of my more recent projects, I’ve been witness to high-level changes that trickle down piecemeal to the underlings. I’ve also seen what appears to be a direct flouting of the rules or someone’s keen idea of how to skirt the law in order to save a buck.

If I were to be on that panel today, I would have to speak out against the following –

• Corporations that require degreed, salaried employees to punch a timeclock. If you make your employees slaves to the clock, you’ll get exactly that many hours and not a second more out of them.
• Corporations that lengthen the work day. Sure, your counterparts may be doing it. But that extra hour is someone’s kid’s soccer game or yet another reason for that potential candidate to look elsewhere for a more congenial, understanding boss.
• Office mismanagement. Come on. It takes nothing to jot down a quick agenda every day and distribute it to those who need to see it. One company I did a project for does a great job of this. As a result, their insane production schedule was attainable without too much stress.
• Lack of real rewards. It costs you nothing to say “thank you” or “great job” to someone who’s given his or her utmost. But the feeling that it gives the recipient is priceless.

As I said, I’ll be on this panel in a few months. Please, if you have any more suggestions of topics I need to address, you have my unwaivering attention.