Michael Cole, a smart and savvy hair-stylist and businessman, says that in order to make more money, hair stylists need to be nicer to their respective front desk people (See video below.).

“Stop being hateful, and start being grateful!”

This is good advice.

I was a front desk person once.  I loved my job.  Seriously.  I loved coming in every day to work. My co-workers were a joy to work with, and I was given responsibilities that fall well outside of what is generally considered “front desk work”.  I was asked to write articles, build websites, schedule events, benchmark similar offices, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

While I always worked to give everybody great service, folks who were courteous and nice definitely got preferential treatment, all other things being equal.  For example, if I had two meetings to schedule, I would likely have scheduled the nicer person’s meeting first.  This might sound like a small thing (it is), but sometimes being a priority makes your day.

Also, it is important to note that front desk people are the hub of offices.  They are the first point of contact for pretty much everybody that comes in.  A front desk person in a bad mood can really mess with the overall mood of the office.

The following is a true story.

Back in 2001 I was interviewing for a job.  I was neither nice nor rude to the front desk person.  I merely walked up and asked to see the person that I was scheduled to interview with.

Well, I lost that job partly because the front desk person thought I was being rude to her – it was noted in the reasons why I didn’t get the job.  If I had come in and chatted the front desk person up, who knows?  Maybe I would have got the job.

On a similar level, when I worked my front desk job, the higher ranking folks would often come out and ask for my opinion on possible new hires.  They would ask me about the prospective hires’ demeanors and attitudes.  While I made a conscious effort to never tank someone’s chances no matter how rude they were to me, it just goes to show that front desk people are often more powerful than their job title might imply.

So, do what you can to be nice and lift the spirits of your front desk person.  It can’t hurt, and it just might make somebody’s day!

“It all comes from the top and filters down!” I yell at my girlfriend who is sitting next to me.

I am incensed.

My girlfriend has worked in the same job for the last 3 years, and over that time has learned to hate it.

I worked in my last office for 4 years, and loved every second of it, until….a new boss took over the department.

Where my old boss fostered openness in communication and trust in getting the job done, my new boss fostered an environment of fear from retribution and a “cover my ass” mentality that saw, sometimes, 5 or 6 people being carbon-copied on emails that had nothing to do with them.

Where my old boss let me make decisions, my new boss had every decision go through her.

My old boss offered us flexible work schedules that were especially helpful for working moms.  My new boss made us work Saturdays, Sundays, and 9-5 on weekdays (with two random days off per week).

My old boss used my talents at writing and the web to make the organization stronger.  My new boss tied my hands behind my back and took away all of my responsibilities.

I enjoyed working for my old boss.  I enjoyed every day.  I hated working for my new boss.  I dreaded coming into work every day.

The old office was bright with laughter and chatter.  The new office saw, for the first time in 4 years, a higher-up walk by the water cooler and tell us to “get back to work.”

By the way, by all measurable results, our old office was much more productive.  Why?  Because we liked coming in to work.  We enjoyed each other’s company.  We liked working together.  How did this happen?  Our boss set a tone that was fair, flexible, encouraging, and respectful.  Put simply, we wanted to work for the company.

It only takes one bad boss to ruin a whole office.  It takes a lot more bad underlings to make things miserable.  But it’s not the people that makes for a bad work environment.  It’s a bad boss.

I am convinced that you could put any 15 people under my old, good boss, and they would have had an equally-great time and would have been equally-productive.  You could put any 15 people under my new, bad boss, and they would all suck.  It comes from the top!

I am beginning to think that all webpages should allow the ability to leave comments.  Almost all blogs allow comments on entries – why not web pages?

I got thinking about this today when I had a question about the Rock the Garden event at the Walker Art Center.  My question, “Is re-admittance allowed?”, is simple and could probably be answered quickly by any number of staff members over at either the Walker or at The Current.  The problem/opportunity is that the official web page advertising the event for The Current does not allow commenting.  There is also no contact email listed on the page.  So, I am left without any recourse for finding an answer to my simple question about the event.

It seems that web pages don’t allow commenting, simply out of tradition – an old tradition that pre-dates Web 2.0 functionality.

Are there other reasons why people shouldn’t allow comments on web pages?

Have you ever met someone and left thinking, “I don’t trust that person”?  That happened to me yesterday.  Here’s the scenario:

I walked up to a person at a conference and introduced myself.  I quickly learned that we work in similar fields, so I started up a conversation about that.  After a few minutes, I realized that the person was not sharing any information about her work beyond the basics, whereas I was sharing details of my day-to-day experiences on the job.  To make a long story short, the person did not reciprocate my level of sharing.  This left me with a feeling of distrust of that person.

My friend, Megan, always says, “Share and share alike!”  Usually, she is referring to the Snickers bar that I am holding, but it can also apply here.  “Share and share alike” is actually a great rule for trust-building in relationships.

It can be especially helpful to remember the rule when dealing with new relationships.

BUT…There is a point where you have to draw the line in the sand and stop sharing, and the difficult part of all this is that everyone draws that line in a different place.  This is evident by the way that different people approach blogging – some blog about intimate personal details while others stick to facts and figures.

The problem with these lines is that nobody knows where they are until they ask, and by then it’s probably too late anyway.  So what are we to do?

Well, firstly, it is ALWAYS a good idea to wait as long as possible to pass judgement on people.  This is also the most difficult rule-of-thumb to follow in the world.  First impressions mean the world to us humans, which isn’t always a good thing. 

Secondly, be flexible.  If someone is sharing less or more than you’d like, take note of that fact and respect that person’s shareability index.

So, can you handle that?  It’s a surprisingly tough row to hoe. 

photo credit: davef3138

Do you send emails without signing your name at the end?  When booking shows for my band, I have noticed that a lot of venues don’t have a name attached to their email addresses (example: booking@thebar.com).  To complicate the problem, whoever is sending/responding to emails does not include a name or signature at the end of her emails either.  In addition to being poor etiquette, this practice leads to confusion and a lack of trust (If they aren’t willing to share their name, can I trust them to pay me?).  So I don’t know if I’m talking to the owner, a volunteer, a friend of mine, or a professional booking agent that I have a professional relationship with.  As in any interaction, information about who I am talking to informs the way that I communicate.