EMPLOYEE'S MOUTH - public debate / research

Your employees talk! Bad news?

Let’s say for example that the boss of a company which sells a very nice/successful product is a 'bad' boss and his employees ‘hate’ him.

The boss can’t prevent them to talk to their friends and families. When they will be asked about the product (as insiders) how do you think they will respond?

• Is their negative emotional bias towards the boss going to affect the way they will talk about the product?
• Are they more likely to emphasize the negative aspects of the product?
• How many potential customers can this boss loose by bad mouth of his employees?

And finally, do you think today employers(with exceptions of course) underestimate this angry-employee-bad-mouth effect?

TOM PETERS

How good is the stake?

Employees are insiders so people think that they know 'the secrets', the things that are carefully hidden by the company owners in their advertising/ marketing campaigns, even if they don't.
No matter if they are telling the truth or the lie, their word counts.
No matter how good is the product itself.
If a friend of yours works as waiter in a restaurant won't you ask him about how good is the stake? Won't you trust his words?
What do you think he is going to say if he is under-paid and treated badly by the restaurant owner?
And even worse: what are you therefore going to say about that restaurant to your friends on Facebook or Twitter just because you've heard it (not even tried!).
Boooom, if the owner is unlucky, the bad virus spreads fast, right?

Revenge?

I've been trough this. I was myself an employee and my boss was, hmm, no words to describe him. Nevertheless I kept working for him. Why? Because at the time I saw no other option. I simply needed that job.

How many people are in this position?

Are you?

Of course it was my decision, but sometimes you are pushed in the corner by the circumstances.

What happend?

Most of my fellow co-workers had the same bad opinion about the boss and while talking we were just amplifying the bad mood.

The result:

After a while, all my friends any family knew about this because I complained a lot. I was so angry and I would tell the whole world never to buy that company's products again if I had the opportunity, just for revenge.
Is this a bad thing to do? Of course. But I didn't care.

Who said:'It is all about relationships!' ?

Why am I doing this?

I certainly don't want to encourage bad mouth, no matter what are the causes, personal or business-related.

What I want is business owners TO CARE about building and maintaining a good relationship with their employees.

Why?

For two reasons:

1. Obvious: In a warm human environment the productivity and effectiveness of any company can be much higher. 

2. Not that obvious: To prevent and cure the "angry-employee-negative-word-of-mouth" virus which directly affects the company profits. 

It is in the best interest of both parties to do so. Isn't it?

I warmly invite to  join/help me!

Is the boss always the bad guy?

I am talking about 'the boss is the bad guy' stereotype or prejudice. Some people just have this perception and most of them cannot even explain why.

Why do you think is that?

Envy towards successful/wealthy people?
Emotional bias against authority?
History?
Just wondering. You tell me. I don't want to speculate too much.

Whatever is the reason for that, it is just not fair.
This prejudice certainly cannot help in building a nice boss-employee relationship. Right?

Don't eat our cheese!

Essentially it is all about a question of loyalty. Why some employees lose their loyalty?

Years ago someone (an employee of a food company) once told me not to eat/buy a certain processed cheese because she knew and told me what is it made from (things you'd never eat).

Now till that point I liked very much that cheese and I was a happy customer. It is very tasty and I loved it.

From that moment on I quit buying it because every time I saw it and remembered what I was told, it made me feel sick. Now, the product itself was surely genuine because I believe with all the microbiological/ chemical tests it has to pass before going on the market. So there is no reason to worry about health issues. So the reason she told me that probably wasn't that she worried about my health.

Said that, why do you think she told me that?

I suppose I wasn't the only one she told that information and I am not implying she had bad issues with her supervisor or company in general. We didn't talk about that.

Employer's attitude

Working hypothesis:

Your employees talk with their friends about your company's products with the same attitude you talk with them.

"The customer comes second" - Hal Rosenbluth

Tom Peters on Organizational Excellence from Tom Peters on Vimeo.

get the Rosenbluth's book

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: )