Workers are Unhappy with their jobs

From Management Issues
Australia may be renowned for its quality of life, but the quality of its managers just doesn't stack up. More than half of Australians are unhappy with their jobs, new research has found, with poor management the overwhelming reason for their discontent.

The dire state of management in Australian organisations is revealed in the annual SEEK Survey of Employee Satisfaction and Motivation in Australia – a title that is something of misnomer given the shortage of satisfaction in Australia's workplaces. More than half (56 per cent) of those surveyed said they were unhappy with their jobs, a rise of 11 percentage points over last year.

Yet as Matthew Rockman, Executive Director of SEEK pointed out, the figures come at a time when Australia's unemployment rate has hit a twenty eight year low, meaning that employees are now faced with more choice than ever before.

"With unemployment being so low, Australian companies are sitting on a potential powder-keg, unless management begins to address staff issues, to keep morale high and employees satisfied with their roles," he said.

All of this comes at the same time as people in Australia are listening to the final debate on the IR legislation.

Is this information right?

If it is then why is there such a huge debate about workers' rights being in peril as a result of the IR legislation? Workers, according to this information have the upper hand. They are able to walk in and out of jobs at will and can make or break companies by whether or not they choose to work or not.

More to the point what is the view of the people who are working in jobs on which they rely to be in a position to pay off their mortgages and to keep their families from the bread line?

The criticism of bosses in Australia is not new. In 2003 the following was said:

The UK's much-criticised managers might be releaved to find out that they are not the only ones in the firing line.

A survey by organisational development specialist Human Synergistics has found that a whopping 87 per cent of Australian companies have management cultures wracked by "blame, mindless conformity and indecision", while their managers lack basic skills such as setting goals, using rewards, giving feedback, and conducting fair appraisals.

". . .executive behaviour bred a culture that encouraged people to treat rules as more important than ideas, switch priorities to please others, avoid taking any blame for problems, follow orders even when they were wrong, defer decisions to people higher up the food chain and not rock the boat."

"It's Simply Not Cricket"

The media is making a great fuss about the PM attending the PM's Eleven Cricket match on Friday, the same day when a convicted drug trafficker is being executed in Singapore.

Whatever your views on cricket and whatever your views on the death penalty, I don't think it's cricket to castigate someone for showing up at a cricket match especially when he is the host.

"It's Not Cricket"

What about all the fuss that has been happening in the media about John Howard attending the Prime Minister's Eleven cricket match on the same day that a convicted drug trafficker is being executed in Singapore.

Most of the media seem to be focused on the fact that this would not be appropriate.

As the PM is the host of the PM's Eleven it would seem to me to be even more inappropriate if he cancelled the occasion.

Whether you agree on the death penalty or not, whether you support the fact that a death sentence is mandatory in Singapore for certain crimes, it's almost criminal to take the PM to task about this, it's certainly not cricket!

"Salmon Day"

Yesterday I had a 'Salmon Day' at work, defined as follows:

The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die.

Just imagine coming into work early so you can get some work done and then finding the computer system being 'down'. Why? Because so many people are moving from one 'cube farm' to another that the system simply cannot handle the traffic that is generated.

[What's a 'cube farm', you ask? A 'cube farm' is an office space filled with cubicles or work stations.]

I suppose that when I tried for the fifth time to reboot and log back on again, only to be thrown out I may have let out a small scream of frustration. This has no doubt caused at least some people to think of me as a STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

However if YOU were at work all day but could get nothing done while people kept calling you and demanding things what would YOU have done?

For all of those who have now indicated that they would have gone out and had a coffee or a beer I express my gratitude. Your views are called "justification" [grin]

Wasting Time is Wasting Money!

Found at Management Issues.co

British workers waste nearly a month each year struggling to keep up with demands placed on them for which they have not been given proper guidance, a study has suggested.

The study by training body City & Guilds found nearly one in five office workers had difficulty coping with the simple tasks asked of them.

A further third felt frustrated when unable to handle the daily demands of the office.

Today's office worker was simply expected to keep up with new technology, with one in three complaining they had not received any training from their employer to help them manage their administration."

Author: Nic Paton

Pete's Points:

If you do NOT identify with this story then you are amazingly lucky!

If you DO identify with the story then for goodness sake tell your boss.

If he or she is still not convinced, put your tale into simple dollars and cents. That is to say a minimum of 1/12 of your salary is already wasted and on top of that there are the potential costs related to breaches of the occupational health and safety requirements if you fall over ill because of stress in the work place.

The CHEAPER alternative is either to match your skills with the job or to provide adequate training before people ask you to do work and then some coaching and mentoring when you first start.

I simply cannot believe what I am reading these days

found at . . .

WAYCROSS, GA—A routine laying-on of hands ended in a fatal cardiac embolism for a worshiper at the One, True, Glorious, Excruciated, And Risen Christ Traveling Gospel Church Sunday. "Losing a fellow Christian is always the hardest part of this job," attending faith healer Harlon Pearcey said. "I invoked the name of the Holy Trinity to drive the sickness out from the poor sinner's heart, but sadly, a blockage in the sinner's pulmonary artery stopped God's love, and much blood, from getting through." The American Faith-Healing Association issued a statement saying that Pearcey followed trinity-invocation and snake-handling guidelines during the procedure.

Pete's Points:

If ever there was a week of weirdness this must be it!

I mean "trinity-invocation and snake-handling guidelines" - you have to be kidding!

Another "Conservative" approach?

found in Ananova . . .

Russia offers football thugs to France

A Russian politician has offered to send the country's violent football thugs to France to sort out the rioters.

Far right politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky says he already has hundreds of volunteers many with special forces training.

In a telegram sent to France, Zhirinovsky, who is also Deputy Speaker of the Duma, said: "We are ready with volunteer units of football fans and activists who have served in military combat hot spots.

"I am convinced that our initiative would restore total order and calm the rioting within 48 hours."

Pete's Points:

I apologise dear readers, I think I understated the problem of the world going to hell in a hand basket. It's going NUTS!

If this story is true - then we really need to start being afraid!

Then there is this article. Is it just me or does anyone else think this is beyond decadence?

The world's most expensive mobile phone

The most expensive mobile phone in the world - costing more than £500,000 - is being made in Austria.

The phone, designed by luxury accessories maker Peter Aloisson, has sections of pure gold as well as 2,950 blue diamonds embedded into the cover.

Aloisson has for the past few years been taking existing phones and customising them with jewels and precious metals.

"I knew that mobile phones would become part of daily life, and as with all things that are part of daily life, such as watches or tie pins, there should be luxury versions of them," he told CNN.

Aloisson currently produces about three phones per year, depending on orders from his celebrity and wealthy clients, mostly retailing for about £20,000.

On the same theme . . .

By Alan Elsner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them on Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck. . . . .

Last summer, he hit the headlines by calling for the assassination of leftist Venezuelan Present Hugo Chavez, one of President George W. Bush's most vocal international critics.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said

Pete's Points:

Just when we are looking at our religious leaders for something sensible in this world of non sense, this comes along.

This is not a conservative view. It is a licence to print money.

If you are paying to see this stuff on TV I would urge you to see someone about financial counselling - you need help!

Shocking! So what are we going to DO about it?

Amelia Hill and Gaby Hinsliff
Sunday November 13, 2005
The Observer

A culture of violence in Britain is to blame for an epidemic of school bullying that is devastating the lives of millions of children, according to a devastating attack by one of the country's leading experts on young people.

In his first major interview as the new Children's Commissioner for England, Al Aynsley-Green said nearly every child was affected by the problem: 'I have no doubt that children are being brought up in a society where violence is the norm in many ways. I include in this the violence on television, in the workplace and in the home.

But, as Aynsley-Green points out, behaviour that is not curbed in childhood is likely to be replicated in later life, a claim supported by a TUC report last week showing that two million people were bullied at work in the past six months, mostly by managers and supervisors.

Pete's Points:

I don't know whether it's just me but as I said in my last post, the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Maybe it's just something that is peculiar to the people in the developed and western world but I doubt it.

More on Bird Flu and the World

OK I admit it when I saw this from the BBC I started thinking about all the things that could kill us:

"Eighth bird flu outbreak in China

China has conducted mass culls of birds in a bid to stem the virus China has confirmed a fresh outbreak of the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu - the country's eighth within a month."

When we were in the midst of our paranoia during the cold war, we heard the media talk about the "Yellow Peril" when referring to a projected invasion of Australia from the north. Once again we are being provided with more to worry about although this time the form of the 'Yellow Peril" is a little more deadly.

If the birds don't kill you then terrorists will. If it's not terrorists then it's riots by disaffected people. If they don't get you then a car accident will. And if you are still living then there are heaps of other diseases and potential accidents out there just waiting for YOU.

No wonder the religious freaks of the world are telling us that the end of days is nigh!

And what do we do?

We keep going to work, we keep slaving away and we keep getting anxiety attacks about whether or not we will be fired now that the new legislation on IR is being passed in our parliament.

What's it all for? Why are we 'saving for a rainy day'

Hellooo - The drought has broken - we are all DOOMED!

The world is going to the dogs in a hand basket!

I for one am going out for my walk in the sunshine and let someone else get stressed.

Salut!