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Even though he seemed incapable of doing much of the work and uninterested in taking direction from me, his boss, he had become indispensable. He knew stuff I didn't, so firing him would screw up client relationships and exhaust me further. I was frozen in frustration.
Then Elliott said, "We need to talk compensation. People at my level get paid double what I make. I feel I'm getting shortchanged, Mike. I don't feel good about that and suspect you don't either. I hope you will fix that for me before I'm needed to save a client from a network disaster." OMG. Seriously? Was my employee shaking me down?
I started to think, Maybe if I pay him more, he'll be more motivated. He'll listen to me. He'll do better. That moment introduced me to the weirdest employment vortex I have ever experienced. The exact guy I wanted to fire so badly was the exact guy I was trying to figure out how to pay more. Maybe if I took the few dollars I had been allocating as a salary for myself and gave it to Elliott, it would convince him to stay, and stay happy. (I made $17,000 in my third year of owning a company in 1998. In today's dollars that's negative $500.)
It wasn't so much that Elliott was shaking me down. I was shaking myself down. In the hopes of converting him from a bad employee to a good one, I wanted to pay a guy who sucked at his job more money. I held on to a not-working-out worker because I was terrified of the hiring process that clearly didn't work. The thought of the effort needed for training and retaining made it worse. And now I planned to forgo the few dollars I took home to pay an employee who had all the power.
Maybe I could work with him to improve his job performance.
Maybe I could come up with a way to motivate him to be more invested in our company's success.
Maybe unicorns would fly down from Mars and sprinkle him with magic "caring" glitter, so he'd suddenly start doting on our clients instead of on himself.
In mid-December, about three months into his employment, all my "maybes" were answered with a clear "F no." Elliott left a voicemail for me with some sad news. "My grandmother passed away yesterday, unexpectedly. My family and I are devastated. I have to go to Georgia for her funeral this Friday. I will be gone for a week."
Elliott seemed dismayed about losing his grandmother, and yet something seemed fishy. First, his voice sounded funny, as though he had cupped his hand over the receiver to block out surrounding party noise. And he left me the muffled message at 1 a.m. on a Saturday. And, and, I could hear the infectious beat of "Jump" by Kris Kross cranking in the background. Not the typical mournful music played when a loved one passes. We all grieve in our own way, but with wiggida wiggida wack hip-hop?
Despite my apprehension, I would never deny an employee time off to go to a funeral, so I left him a return message offering my condolences and gave him a week off—paid, Then I immediately went to work covering our clients, with one-third of our staff out of commission.
That's when the Bahama Mama hit the fan.
About midweek, one of our clients left me a voicemail. "Oh my gosh. You're the best boss ever," he said. "I ran into Elliott in the Bahamas. It's so amazing that you gave him a week off to be at The Buzz 99.3 FM party."
Say what now?
Elliott had been kicking it at some sort of weeklong party on a Caribbean island while we picked up his slack—and paid for his vacation?
And wait. Just. One. Second. He might not be partying the blues away. Maaaaaybeeeee his grandma's death was a story. As in the made-up kind.
I started my business as an entrepreneur, but after hiring my first employee I was now a career sleuth in training. Since I wasn't 100 percent sure our client had the right guy, I sent a bouquet of lilies to Elliott's parents with a note that read "I'm so sorry about the passing of your mother. Elliott told me how much she meant to your family."
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***** TABLE OF CONTENTS *****
INTRODUCTION
Your team will care about the business to the level you care about
them.
1. Why Most Teams Just Don't Care
2. Eliminate Entropy
3. Recruit Potential
4. Adopt the Five-Star Fit
5. Maintain a Secure and Accepting Environment
6. Foster Psychological Ownership
7. Establish a Retention Rhythm
8. Master the Ultimate Motivational Tool
9. Build Community First
10. Up-Level Employee Experience and Performance
11. Adapt to Changing Work Environments
12. Let People Go
CLOSING
Your Leadership Lives on for Generations
...
