So, the owner now is faced with making cuts.   But his staff doesn't  like it.   Whaaaat?  Come onnnnn!  How silly.

I mean... really....they show up for work consistently (some, a few minutes late), make personal calls on their cell phones during non-break time, and check their e-bay status during "down" time.   They all get along and don't make too much of a fuss... so the owner feels horrible and like it's his fault when they complain about losing benefits or the freezing of pay. 

Wait a sec. 

This is the same owner who for months informed his staff of industry changes and how sales is no better than it was three years ago.  For the last ten months he also told them exactly what each employee needed to produce in order to meet bare operating expenses.  He also personally took a 25% pay cut himself and went one month without pay to make up for the losses that accrued due to his top sales person being off on maternity for eight weeks....just to keep money in the business checking account. 

What's wrong with this picture?  

Yeah, a lot.

Whose business is it: his or his employees? 

What could he have done different?  How could he have motivated them better?

He couldn't have.

Why?

Because people have conflcting emotions about drive and comfort.  Usually, the desire for comfort wins over the desire to gain, especially when the gain comes at the expense of personal effort that is above and beyond an individuals baseline comfort level, which is itself entrenched in routine. 

Unfortunately, most people are not motivated by gain, but  instead are motivated by pain.   Plain and simple.   And until that pain is experienced, often times, there is little one can do to motivate an individual, let alone a group.  Warning the group is sometimes not enough.  The experience of loss however, is quite different.

But unfortunately it is usually too little too late as the owner has become caught up in the dramatization of the group and succumbs to the group rather than cracking the whip hard enough when he needed to in order to survive.  

The owner also needs to realize he doesn't owe his employees a job; conversely the employees should realize the same thing.   Unless they've been featured on "Dirty Jobs", an employee who has a comfortable and reasonbly responsible job should feel priveleged to have it.    For all of the risk, the headaches, and the long hours an owner has, to give up his own pay  or succumb to the wishes of employees who would jump ship at the next best-looking job is pure stupidity. 

Is there a better way? 

Of course. 

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