The Enthusiastic Employee

Here are 33 traditional and voguish beliefs that, on the basis of their research, the authors of The Enthusiastic Employee say have little or no basis in reality. These beliefs, covering a variety of areas, are widespread and, when applied to the typical employee and work situation, are wrong. They also often contradict each other, as "common sense" beliefs often do. The 33 myths are:

All that most workers care about is their pay and benefits
People will never be happy with their pay
When employees complain about their pay, they are really unhappy with something else
To a significant degree, praise can be a substitute for money
Traditional merit pay systems work
Profit sharing is a major motivator of employee performance
To survive in today's fiercely competitive marketplace, companies should keep wages as low as they possibly can
Employees object to a large difference between their earnings and the earnings of senior management
People who feel secure in their jobs become complacent
Telling people they've done a good job makes them complacent
Companies that have no hesitation laying off surplus workers do better than companies that go to great lengths to keep their workers employed
Most people doing routine work hate it
Most people dislike work of any kind
Most people don't care whether they do a quality job
Professionals are much more concerned about doing a quality job than are nonprofessionals
Whether workers should be treated as thinking human beings depends on the type of work they do. For example, it is useless -- even counterproductive -- for employees doing routine, highly standardized work to be involved in decisions about the work
If they are not supervised closely, most workers will try to get away with whatever they can
Most workers dislike their immediate managers
It is the immediate manager that is the cause of most employee morale problems
No matter how nicely a manager does it, correcting an employee's performance will be resented by the employee
People who have too much to do are more unhappy than people who have too little to do
There are major differences between generations in what people want from their jobs
Young people today resent authority much more than young people did two or three decades ago
Young people today are much less concerned with job security than were previous generations
There are major differences between cultures and countries in what people want from their jobs
Loyalty between employees and their employer is -- and should be -- dead
Companies that are loyal to their employees are less successful as businesses
Traditional organization principles -- such as the need for hierarchy -- are stifling and outmoded in today's "new economy"
Whether a company is ethical and a good corporate citizen is of little concern to most of its employees
It is best to foster internal competition to improve performance
Most employees resist change, whatever the change is
"A bitching army is a good army" -- when employees are happy it is because their employer is giving them too much and not demanding enough from them
You can't generalize about people at work because every individual is different

The Myths vs. the Findings
The Enthusiastic Employee contains analyses of data from surveys of literally millions of employees in hundreds of organizations. In this section, organized by 16 topic areas, are the book's main findings in relation to the 33 myths:

About the Authors

David Sirota is founder and leader of Sirota Consulting, a firm with a national reputation for improving performance by systematically measuring and managing employee, customer, and community relationships. He previously served as IBM Director of Behavioral Science Research and Application. Sirota has taught at Cornell, Yale, MIT, and Wharton, and was a study director at the University of Michigan's Institute of Social Research. His work has been featured in Fortune and The New York Times. He holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan.

Louis A. Mischkind has researched organizational effectiveness for 30 years. Prior to joining Sirota Consulting, he was Program Director of Executive Development at IBM and Special Advisor on Human Resources to the President of IBM's General Products Division. He has taught courses in social and organizational psychology at NYU, Santa Clara University, and San Jose State University. He holds a master's degree in experimental psychology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from New York University.

Michael Irwin Meltzer joined Sirota Consulting full-time in 2001, after serving as its attorney for 20 years. He has advised businesses ranging from financial consultancies and real estate developers to sales, distribution, and construction organizations. He has also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Pace University, teaching business organizations, real-estate law, and trusts and estates. He holds a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.

For more information, visit www.enthusiasticemployee.com.