11A. Back to the Opening Case
What role does the concept of "human capital" play in the T. J. Maxx case?

Author Notes 11-A: Back to the Opening Case T. J. Maxx is looking beyond its own needs to enriching the employee work pool for both itself and others, as well as helping to solve a community challenge--moving welfare recipients into--or back into--the workplace. The approach has been successful for everyone, reducing company turnover while giving some people a new opportunity for an independent life.

11B. What About Loyalty?
U.S. corporations lose half their customers in five years, half their employees in four, and half their investors in less than one. By fostering loyalty, companies can boost productivity, customer retention and referrals, and attract talented staff.

Mara Der Hovanesian, "When Loyalty Erodes, So Do Profits," Business Week (August 13, 2001):8.

Question: What are the linkages between people-centered practices and employee, customer, and investor loyalty?

Author Notes 11-B: What About Loyalty? Have you ever walked into a store and heard the employees griping about management? What kind of service do you get? In my experience, when employees are unhappy, their service is grudging at best. If you live in an apartment complex, how long do the managers stay? In my rental days, you were lucky to have an apartment manager last 6 months. There was one exception, my first apartment--a 50-year-old English Tudor building run by Mrs. Never. The apartment building supposedly didn't allow pets, but those of us "in the know" knew that there were exceptions. One friend of mine had been turned down for an apartment because of his cat, and later Mrs. Never invited him--and his kitty--to tea. He turned her down, and I had to inform him that she had invited him to meet his cat and audition him as a possible renter. Turning down her invitation cost him an apartment (with original wood floors and a fireplace) that looked down on the building's courtyard. I can promise you that once you moved into Ann Manor, the only reason to move out was to buy a house or move out of town. Many people had lived there for decades. Part of the reason was Mrs. Never. She knew the building, hand-selected the occupants--and their occasional pets--and took care of any problems. She didn't own the building, but the owners were smart enough to let her run it her way. It has been over 20 years since I lived there, and sometimes I still miss it. Think about the places you like to shop and eat--places where you're treated well. Ask the employees sometime whether they like working there. Chances are, they'll say yes; a situation in which we all benefit.

11C. Cool Tattoo!
About 42 percent of managers polled by Vault.com said they would lower their opinions of someone with tattoos or body piercings. Fifty-eight percent said they would be less likely to offer them a job in the first place.

Michael Rosenwald, "Tattoo Wearers Cover Up at Work," The Arizona Republic (June 3, 2001): D2.

Question: Are tattoos and body piercings fair game for discrimination in hiring or are they a matter of diversity? Explain.

Author Notes 11-C: Cool Tattoo! I don't like tattoos. I think anything that permanently disfigures the body that's done for the sake of "beauty," or "aesthetics," or even "being me," is nothing short of stupid. Now understand, I feel the same way about piercing--even pierced ears--and breast implants, etc. (Having seen some of the "before" and "after" noses, I make an exception for some plastic surgery.) Tattoos have the added disadvantage of getting duller and more fuzzy and smeared as you get older. By the time you're in your 70's, most tattoos look like an odd sort of bruise. The other thing a tattoo says to me is that the generally young person sporting it thinks that they will be the same person all their lives that they are at 18, 19, or 20. I happen to know--or at least to hope--that that's not true, and I have little or no respect for that type of shortsightedness. Mind you, I feel the same way when I see a young person smoking. I want to walk up, grab the cigarette from their mouth, and say, "Are you insane? Why are you allowing yourself to get addicted to this poison so early in your life just to put your money in the hands of the scummy owners of tobacco companies?" But I digress. Are tattoos and body piercings fair game for discrimination? I don't think so. They are both voluntary decisions. People who hire other people have the right to decide how they want their employees to dress--and I would consider both those a voluntary dressing choice. Would I hire someone with a tattoo? If it was for a position where the tattoo wouldn't cause a problem (NOT at Disneyland), and the tattoo wasn't obscene or otherwise unsatisfactory, sure, why not?

11D. The Word Ability Is the Most Important Part of Disability
Don't call people without disabilities 'normal'. They're 'nondisabled'. Indeed, some would add that those without disabilities are 'temporarily nondisabled.'

Marc Hequet, "ADA Etiquette," Training, 30 (April 1993): 33.

Questions: What are the implications of these statements for people with disabilities? What sort of accommodations to disabled people have you observed recently? How do any of these accommodations affect your life?

Author Notes 11-D: The Word Ability Is the Most Important Part of Disability If you think about it, reactions to people with disabilities are illogical. Some disabilities, such as vision that needs correction, are something that people don't even think about. Others, such as a condition that leads to limited control of various motor functions, lead to reactions that vary from embarrassment to disgust. Why do we forget that people are people, and people in wheelchairs, with canes, etc., are not that different from the nondisabled? Spending time in a wheelchair and on crutches after spraining a foot made me realize the critical importance of handicapped parking, store entrance ramps, and electric grocery carts. I recommend experiencing the situation yourself. Spend a day in a wheelchair or on crutches--and discover how "reasonable accommodation" is essential for some of us to operate effectively in today's world.

11E. Asking for Trouble
Research fact:

Job seekers asked an illegal interview question pertaining to race, age, marital status, religion, ethnicity:39 percent.

"Footnotes," Business Week (May 10, 1999): 8.

Questions: What inappropriate and/or illegal interview questions have you ever been asked? How did it make you feel about the interviewer and the organization? Explain.

Author Notes 11-E: Asking for Trouble I had a boss once who, after someone was hired, would take him or her into his office and ask all the questions he wasn't allowed to ask before the hiring took place. It wasn't that he was trying to break the rules or pigeonhole someone--he was just curious. Many companies have training programs for interviewing, which generally strongly emphasize the questions you're not allowed to ask. Other firms--especially smaller ones, don't provide any assistance with the process. One risk of not providing help is that illegal questions will come out in an interview. But the bigger risk is that people won't ask enough of the right questions--enough to find out whether the candidate is the right employee for the job and the company. One friend of mine found that interviewers kept asking how old her children were. She finally came up with an answer she was comfortable with, "Old enough to have a mother that works."

11F. Straight Talk
Dick Brown, CEO of Dallas-based EDS:

...people inherently want to do a good job. As long as what you say is well intentioned and constructive--if it helps them improve their performance--people will accept what you have to say, even if it's candid, even if it's kind of hard to swallow.

As quoted in "Personal Histories:Leaders Remember the Moments and People That Shaped Them," Harvard Business Review (Special Issue:Breakthrough Leadership), 79 (December 2001): 37.

Questions: Do you agree? Why or why not? Can how a manager comments on your performance be more important than the content of the message? Explain.

Author Notes 11-F: Straight Talk If I could only give one piece of advice to someone starting on his or her first job, I would recommend that they ask for, and welcome, all feedback--good and bad. I tell people that critical feedback is a gift. It's very hard for a boss to give critical feedback, and many bosses avoid it altogether rather than risk the defensiveness that it often causes. However, if your boss discovers that you want and value feedback, it gives you an opportunity to learn much more about what your boss thinks of your performance, and it gives you an exceptional chance to make the changes that lead to advancement and other opportunities. How a manager comments on your performance is important--you want to know how to do better, not just that you're doing something wrong. I had a boss who would wait months before telling me that he had a problem with my performance. He commented once that I got upset when he gave me negative feedback, and I told him that it wasn't the feedback, but the fact that I had been doing something wrong for months without knowing. I asked him to let me know right away when he noticed something he wanted changed, and we had a much better working relationship after that.

11G. Appraising "Rank-and-Yank" Appraisals
Jack Welch's approach when he headed General Electric:

The top 20% should be "rewarded in the soul and wallet because they are the ones who make magic happen. Losing one of these people must be held up as a leadership sin," Welch says.

The middle 70% should be energized to improve; the rest should be shown the door.

Not getting rid of the 10% early "is not only a management failure, but false kindness as well--a form of cruelty," Welch says. They will wind up being fired eventually and "stranded" in midcareer.

Del Jones, "Welch:Nurture Best Workers, Lose Bottom 10%," USA Today (February 27, 2001): 2B.

Question: Do you agree or disagree with Welch's approach? Explain.

Author Notes 11-G: Appraising "Rank and Yank" Appraisals This approach seems harsh, but realistically, it's the best way to run a company. The bottom ten percent of performers probably don't belong there. Often inertia keeps people in jobs that aren't a good fit. They may be talented, but they may not be suited to the company or the job they're in, or they may be unable to work well with their boss. One manager I know is on his way out in his organization. Everyone knows it, including him, but no one is saying anything yet. He is looking elsewhere, but not with any luck. In the meantime, he ranges between making nasty cracks to his boss and complaining to his subordinates that he's getting a raw deal. He's not. It's time for him to go, and no one is doing him any favors keeping him. I definitely think the top 20 percent should be rewarded. They make a company a success. Besides, it will encourage the middle 70 percent to work harder--because the rewards are tangible and visible.

11H. Subject: Sleeping in Class
Professor Roger Schank, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, identifies three major training flaws that dampen motivation:

One, it's boring....Second, it's not obvious why you need what you're being trained to do. And third, you're being trained in what you need, but not when you need it.

As quoted in Dianne Molvig, "Yearning for Learning," HRMagazine, 47 (March 2002): 68.

Question: Drawing on your many years of being a "consumer" of classroom instruction, what would you do as a trainer to avoid these three flaws?

Author Notes 11-H: Sleeping in Class As a trainer, I have a theory--not a popular one in my profession--that 90 percent of training is a waste of time. The challenge is figuring out what 10 percent is worthwhile. As a student, how many classes have you sat through that were simply a reiteration of what's in the textbook? Learning at its best comes through discovery and exploration. A good training class, like a good college class, does that. As a trainer, to avoid these traps, I'd first explore each situation to determine if training is the right answer. Often training is "thrown" at a problem, with the hope that it will get solved somehow. It's important to get a company thinking beyond training when solving people or organizational problems. To solve the second trap, every training program needs to have a WIIFM as part of the design (What's In It For Me). Without it, why should anyone listen--let's just pack up and go home early. The third problem can be logistical--the training is here now so take it--or just a case of a bad manager who is not truly on top of employee development issues. As to the boring situation--there are two parts to that--a good design and a good trainer. Organizations shouldn't settle for anything less, but they will unless they're willing to pay for the best.

11I. Hey, Buddy. Stop That!
Denise Barber, steelworker:

One time recently, there was a guy who started chasing me around whenever I was in his section. He wasn't trying to touch me, but he was too friendly. Now, because of the way things are here, I didn't even need to say anything. Another guy said, "Is he always doing that to you?" And I said, "Yeah, now that you mention it." Next thing you know, there's three guys talking to him, saying leave her alone. That's the way to deal with that.

As quoted in John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, and Sabin Streeter, eds. Gig:Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium (New York: Crown Publishers, 2000), pp. 34-35.

Question: What does it take to create this potent sort of "cultural barrier" to sexual harassment in the workplace?

Author Notes 11-I: Hey Buddy, Stop That Training helps, but the best tool to create this type of culture is modeling the behavior. If everyone knows that managers--from the top on down--and co-workers will stop the behavior, and every employee is expected to stick up for other employees, the problem behaviors will stop. Telling stories like the one in this annotation will help, but there is no better lesson than seeing a supervisor in the hall saying, "We don't use those words in this office." This is the one exception to the "correct your employees in private" rule. Everyone needs to hear a manager's response to inappropriate behavior.

11J. Time to Get MADD About Drunk Drivers
Fact: "Drivers age 21 to 29 drive the greatest proportion of their miles drunk."

Fact: "In the year 2000 [in the U.S.], ...16,653 people were killed in crashes involving alcohol, representing 40 percent of the 41,821 people killed in all traffic crashes."

Fact: "About one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of driving while intoxicated are repeat offenders."

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, http://www.madd.org/stats, March 19, 2002.

Question: What can you do about this terrible problem?

Author Notes 11-J: Time to Get MADD About Drunk Drivers As a college student, have you seen someone get in a car after a party that you know shouldn't be walking unassisted, let alone driving? Have you gotten in a car to drive home when you know you've had too much, but home is "just a few miles away"? Here's the most important thing to understand. THE SAME ALCOHOL THAT MAKES YOU TOO DRUNK TO DRIVE HOME MAKES YOU TOO DRUNK TO MAKE A GOOD DECISION ABOUT DRIVING HOME! Don't be stupid, and don't let your friends be stupid. Make the decision before you start drinking about how much to drink and who's driving, or not driving. Do this and you will save lives--yours or others. But you're young and feel indestructible. Maybe you won't follow this advice. And chances are pretty good that one of you reading this will die or kill someone else because of it. A car is the most lethal weapon most of you will ever wield. Treat it with the respect it deserves. Please.