Ah, it’s Wednesday…

One-Eighty-Two-One

Four really cool numbers. Added together they equal eighty-four. Subtract the first, third and fourth number from the second and you get seventy-six. Add the first number and the second number, divide by nine and you get nine. Math is good.

180:1? That’s the pay gap between top executives and the average employee according to the CRS (Congressional Research Service). The highest gap ever. Said a different way, it takes 180 hours of an average employee’s pay to equal one hour of a top executive’s pay. One full month of work compared to one hour of work. 10,800 minutes vs. 60. Three minutes vs. one second. Whew.

It’s amazing top executives are able to squeeze that much more productivity into those sixty minutes. Their ability to read through email at the speed of light is something to behold. Their meetings normally take less than 75 seconds compared to 75 to 90 minutes for Managers, Supervisors, or Individual Contributors. Watching them eat is akin to watching the star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata), the fastest eating mammal on the planet (Google it and check). They type as quickly as Edward Scissorhands cuts hair.

If companies were made up of only “senior managers”, think how much money they would make! The key to profitability is more top managers. Pay always leads to performance, right?

I love my job.

Getting Ready for Another Wave

Cowabunga Dude! Yea, that’s right. I watched TMNT with my son when he was growing up. No Barbie Dolls or GI Joes. All about Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael.

But the wave I’m excited about is the third wave of my national benchmark study. Now I’ve been doing national benchmarks since ‘97, however these three use my own survey design, the Workforce Engagement Assessment. I’ve released a little of the data at speeches here and there and the results do not look real promising.

Whether speaking about local or State government workers, employees in New Mexico, Texas, Indiana, and Ohio, or hospitality workers, there seems to be little change from the 2006 results. And that doesn’t bode well for today’s employers.

OEVQTJESOEMOEHOEDOEWOEMOEY: One Employee Voluntarily Quits Their Job Every Second Of Every Minute Of Every Hour Of Every Day Of Every Week Of Every Month Of Every Year. It was that way in 2004, again in 2006, and again in 2008.

Happy Hunting… keep on the lookout for releases of the national benchmark results… coming in mid-May!