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| Humor at Work |
ISSUE 515 - Nov. 20, 2013 |
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Inspiring Prescriptions for Job Descriptions
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Job descriptions are rapidly becoming so yesterday. More and more organizations are eschewing formal job descriptions, opting instead for, well, nothing. Companies that shun job descriptions tend to be highly innovative and they believe that job descriptions pigeonhole people into a box. Some feel job descriptions are a subtle way of telling people what they can't do and only serve to foster the archaic, silo-creating, productivity-sapping, mind-numbingly annoying, "It's not in my job description" mentality so prevalent during the Jurassic period (it's the real reason dinosaurs died out).
If you must have job descriptions, ask yourself this: Do they energize people? Are they hopeful, daring, challenging, creative, unconventional and fun? Do they open doors or close doors? Do they connect people to a meaningful sense of purpose? Do they get people thinking about the possibilities of where there job could take them? Are they fun to read and conversational, or do they read like a punch line to a Dilbert cartoon? If you use them for recruitment purposes, will they attract the right candidates with the right attitude for your workplace?
Here's the start of a job description that's a bit of a hoot, from the internet retail company Woot:
"You're so bright, people mistake you for the Greek god Apollo. You're so
adept at multitasking, you're reading this while juggling. You're so self-motivated,
your application is half-submitted and you haven't even gotten to the
requirements yet! You love details, you crush deadlines, you organize like a
Trapper Keeper and switch gears like Steve McQueen at Le Mans. Discrete like
Bond, professional like Jobs, and with the kind of humor that means you understand
why a job description should be fun to read!" |
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Mike's Fun at Work Tip |
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One of the product design groups at Microsoft has a daily ritual that helps energize people when they are beginning to suffer from the afternoon blahs. Each day a person signs up to choose a song that gets played across the office right at 3:00 p.m. Depending on the song, some employees dance, some sing along, everyone claps when it's finished, and a few probably say, "Seriously, that's the song you chose?" It's short, simple, a bit goofy, but it works to energize folks and build a sense of community and anticipation as people wonder what the song of the day is going to be. Now even if you can't, for whatever reasons, blast a song through your office at a regular time, why not at the very least post a "song of the day" somewhere prominent as a simple way to generate conversation, remind people of old classics they may have forgotten or to maybe get people humming to themselves (where, let's be honest, some of the best singing occurs.)
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Quote of the Week |
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"Most companies have it wrong. They
don't have to motivate their employees. They have to stop demotivating
them." Harvard Business School article |
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It's a Wacky World |
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Today, November 20th, is Absurdity Day, Globally Organized Hug a Runner Day, and Name Your PC Day (I'm going with Hal...for the obvious reasons).
Tomorrow, November 21, is World Hello Day, so why not have everyone at work wear those simple, "Hello, My Name Is ____" name tags all day just to see the response folks get. And Friday, November 22, is Start Your Own Country Day, which offers a great meeting opener question: If you could start your own country, what would it be called, where would it be located, and what's the first law you would pass?
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Cost Savings to Book Mike
Kelowna: Dec. 12 - 18
Vancouver, Dec.5-12;
Montreal: On-going;
Frankfurt or London: second week of February, 2014;
Toronto: February 27, 28
From the Humor at Work TV archives: Reward Yourself in the Face of Stress
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Copyright © 2013 Humor at Work. All Rights Reserved.
mike@mikekerr.com
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