Sunday, May 17, 2009

Fal, Sprng, Sumer and Wnter


(Sign reads: "Tigers & Casino Trips All Sumer Long"; sorry for the poor image -- my cell phone camera stinks.)

I know what you're thinking: the worst part about that sign is the fact that the word "summer" is misspelled "sumer." But you'd be wrong, IMHO. There are a couple problems here, the least of which is a misspelling.
  1. Whoever hung this sign -- and it's probably a two-person job -- noticed the misspelling. It's simply too egregious to overlook. But instead of noting the misspelling, delaying the task and notifying a supervisor, the sign went up. You have to imagine there's some supervisor resentment going on here. Something like, "I know there's a glaring mistake on this sign and I shouldn't hang it, but I'm gonna stick it to the man! Haw!" Employees so openly contemptuous of their work environment are a great big problem.
  2. But our employee fun doesn't stop there. Because I'm willing to bet that another employee, and possibly more than one, noticed the sign and committed to doing something about it ... later. Like, maybe on their next shift. Maybe after the weekend. Maybe when they had the time. Perhaps they'd already punched out and couldn't be bothered until they punched back in. So the actions of the openly contemptuous employees are supported by the inaction of the candidly disinterested ones.
Reprinting the sign can't cost that much money. But successfully addressing that many human resource issues? That will cost a lot of money and even more time -- certainly longer than just one sumer.