disgruntled: Yeah, I think most managers consistently underestimate the cost of treating employees badly, because those costs stay hidden.

Here’s an article that supports your story. From the article:
Even model employees can become negative and unproductive if their bosses are rude or mean-spirited, according to a new University of Florida study.

Gossiping, pilfering, backstabbing and long lunch breaks become the norm not just for workplace malcontents but even for exemplary employees who feel put down by their supervisors, said Timothy Judge, a UF management professor who led the research.

I work in a hospital that has downsized staff to the point that it is an utter living hell to work there, and I can guarantee the deliberate waste and extra costs caused by disgruntled employees far outweighs what they think they’re saving from keeping the place understaffed. Just on the ward where I work, three orderlies (that I know of) *never* take time to put dirty linens in a hamper unless a nurse is watching. They just bury them in the trash and throw them away. And let me tell you, the linens that get thrown away from a single bed change cost more than paying for an extra body for an 8-hour shift. What’s really cool is to put all the linens in a big red biohazard bag so the hospital has to pay by the pound to have its own linens incinerated.

Likewise, patients get a whole lot of free stuff because those three don’t take time to swipe the bar code and charge the item to the patient’s account.

This is actually pretty constructive, considering so many of us are so disgruntled that the alternative is to gut-shoot everybody in the management suite and get on the six o’clock news.

Brian: Well if it ain’t working, at least I’m sure they’re open to changing it? Just kidding :o)

Josh: That Paul Graham guy gets it, doesn’t he :o) Those are some great quotes – especially the “flame” ones.

I love Paul Graham’s essay, “What Businesses Can Learn from Open Source”.
http://www.paulgraham.com/opensource.html

“To me the most demoralizing aspect of the traditional office is that you’re supposed to be there at certain times. There are usually a few people in a company who really have to, but the reason most employees work fixed hours is that the company can’t measure their productivity.

The basic idea behind office hours is that if you can’t make people work, you can at least prevent them from having fun. If employees have to be in the building a certain number of hours a day, and are forbidden to do non-work things while there, then they must be working. In theory. In practice they spend a lot of their time in a no-man’s land, where they’re neither working nor having fun.”

“The atmosphere of the average workplace is to productivity what flames painted on the side of a car are to speed. …”

They can save a few bucks a day if they eat at the plant.

I asked my father the same question about the “2 hours early”, it’s because they need to rest for a while before start working. As they operate laser cutting machines all day, nobody wants a sleepy Jedi knight with his light saber on walking around the assembley plant. :o)

Brian: And how is that working for them? Are employees happy, engaged, motivated and getting great results?