The turkey story that follows was from a management book I read ages ago, but the title and author escapes me. If anyone can enlighten me, please do and I'll update this blog. I’ve been telling the story to my management teams for years.
The story goes that an American farmer decided to start a turkey farm, and at the end of the successful first year decided to give his three employees a free turkey at Thanksgiving.
Business got better and better year after year, and now he has 1,000 employees. Guess how many free turkeys he now gives away.
Now this not to say he is unhappy with this arrangement, but rather that, if he was, he is well and truly stuck. “Sorry guys – business has been bad and this year we can’t afford to give any free turkeys.” BASTARD x 1,000 employees. They see their missing turkey, not the cost for the 1,000.
A more personal story from an IT company I worked with many years ago. In good times the management bought nice water chillers and the fridge was full of Coopers each Friday afternoon. Then business got tough, and we all knew it was too. But when the water coolers and beer disappeared, we were like kids. Moan moan moan. It left a bad feeling all round.
The moral is, it might be great to offer all manner of lovely things to your first few employees. But when the proverbial hits the fan one day (and it will) your employees will not be happy if you take them away. Whereas if it was never there, no problem exists.
So before you implement that great new perk, be really sure.
Brad Deveson 1/3/2015
The story goes that an American farmer decided to start a turkey farm, and at the end of the successful first year decided to give his three employees a free turkey at Thanksgiving.
Business got better and better year after year, and now he has 1,000 employees. Guess how many free turkeys he now gives away.
Now this not to say he is unhappy with this arrangement, but rather that, if he was, he is well and truly stuck. “Sorry guys – business has been bad and this year we can’t afford to give any free turkeys.” BASTARD x 1,000 employees. They see their missing turkey, not the cost for the 1,000.
A more personal story from an IT company I worked with many years ago. In good times the management bought nice water chillers and the fridge was full of Coopers each Friday afternoon. Then business got tough, and we all knew it was too. But when the water coolers and beer disappeared, we were like kids. Moan moan moan. It left a bad feeling all round.
The moral is, it might be great to offer all manner of lovely things to your first few employees. But when the proverbial hits the fan one day (and it will) your employees will not be happy if you take them away. Whereas if it was never there, no problem exists.
So before you implement that great new perk, be really sure.
Brad Deveson 1/3/2015