While I’m attending a conference at the LEGO HQ in Billund, Denmark please enjoy these great (and happy) links.
The Proper Use for Post-its.
Frode Heimen finds a great use for post-its and a great way to praise people.
A few days ago I wrote one post-it note to all my employees, they all started with these words: “I appreciate you because…” and I tried to write what I genuine appreciate about each one, all notes ended up differently, as all of them are appreciated for different reasons.
I thought this was a fun thing to do at the office and I hoped it would make them smile for a while. This evening I was walking around at the office and noticed that several notes where hanging at their partition wall. And I started to realize that this really meant a lot for some of them.
Pay Peanuts, Get Monkeys
Rowan Manahan goes to work on the bail-out mentality. Hilarious!
“And now, you want us to prop up your business.”
“Well clearly we can’t let the savings and deposits of millions of investors …”
“But while we’re propping up your business for all those unfortunate millions of investors, you expect ‘business as usual’ when it comes to your remuneration?”
“Of course!”
“Of course? Why of course?”
“Well if salaries or bonuses drop, we won’t be able to hold onto the brightest and best minds in the industry!”“I see. And these would be the brightest and best minds who devised and implemented the strategies that have led to the collapse of all these institutions?”
“Ah yes, but as I said, conditions became very hostile …”
“Mmmmm, very hostile. Because someone had the temerity to ask how much the houses behind the Triple-A paper were actually worth?”
“Well when you put it like that, it just sounds stupid …”
And finally the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on a plane: A flight attendant who raps.
That’s happiness at work right there!
Love the flight attendant video. What a great example of an employee who really enjoys doing their job. There’s no way an unhappy employee would ever spend the time writing or performing a rap like that.
I wonder how I can get on that guy’s flight the next time I’m traveling…
The video is great. Fantastic way to connect with the passengers that is personable and fun. I’d fly SW Airlines for that rap!
The post-its idea is really thoughtful and the employees
Thanks for this post, Alex. The SWA video is a great illustration of their employee engagement philosophy. We wrote a post and featured a video on the SWA way of working in our employee engagement series in February. Its a great way of dealing with engagement – Happy employees create happy customers. You can see it perfectly in that video – have you ever seen passengers that happy after an in-flight announcement before?
By the way, if you’d like to see Colleen Barret’s video on the topic, you can find it here: http://cli.gs/5YPJY8
It figures–Southwest is the only airlines I found that actively encourages their flight attendants to have fun like that while they’re at work. (I just flew with them last weekend, incidentally.)
…I still -really- don’t like their open-seating method (which is the main reason why they’re usually #3 or #4 on my list of preferred airlines). But while their ground service is stressful, they definitely have the best in-air service of any of the domestic carriers. If they switched to assigned seating like every other airline, then they’d be golden.
And he’s right. You definitely don’t get that kind of service on United. K
many employers often times do not realize that for many employees it is just the little things that sometimes count the most. People work very hard each and everyday at many different companies and never get any recognition.
How good is that!
I wish David would come to the UK and work for EasyJet!
M
I heard about SWA being creative. Now I have seen it. I am trying to book my next flight with them! It will help relax me.
This guy is a legend!!! I fly on a monthly basis and I book with SWA 95% of the time in hopes just to see this guy in action. Talk about employees truely enjoying their job. SWA was always used in my business classes as a great company that will succeed due to their employees. There’s even a video for SWA employee training where the CEO raps/sings.