A Happy Working Climate
How important is it to you to work in a place that has a happy and productive climate where you feel useful and appreciated by bosses and co-workers alike? For many, that must sound like a real nice place to be working, right?
Well, one of the items high on the agenda at this cargo airport is to make it a happy workplace where people can take pride in their work and be appreciated for their contribution to a thriving and successful business. So how is something like that achieved when so many places of business appear to promote a more aggressive and hard line approach to the way things are done?
Recognizing the Most Important Resource
Did you ever stop to think what the most important resource in any business is? You don't have to look very far when you peer into the offices, warehouses and factories that form the basis of a particular workplace.
It's not the building or the location. It's not the machinery or the raw materials or even the finished consumables. It's not the pay structure or benefits.
It's the people that work there!
The people working at Florida Trade Port are generally pretty happy and contented whether they're busy in an office, serving food and coffee in the diners or loading air freight equipment onto planes. It takes a lot of people doing a lot of different jobs to keep an airport running smoothly and efficiently and management have come to recognize those people are invaluable!
Correcting the Mistakes of the Past
If you go back say 30 years into the past and look at the way most companies ran their businesses, you'd find the workers pretty low down on the scale of importance as far as the governing top level management were concerned. The thinking back then was that people were an expendable resource that could be quickly replaced when needed so there was no point in displaying any real value for anyone that could up sticks and go work for a competitor at the drop of a hat.
Loyalty was not earned, but usually bought with a package of attractive pay and benefits that was typically just enough to keep a worker on the payroll but not too much that they felt particularly valued. Of course, there were always a chosen few that were fast-tracked through the ranks to loftier positions but these were certain individuals that displayed charisma and capability to do more than was asked and go that extra mile.
Since the majority of workers seemed content to just have a decent job and reasonable pay, the common mindset was to do as much as was expected but no more because they weren't being paid to do any more. This was not the fault of the average worker, but a trait covertly promoted by business leaders to cultivate a large compliant workforce that didn't rock the boat.
Growing into the Future
Business leaders were historically afraid of real free thinkers and innovators that have a lot of confidence because they question things and have the potential to come along and replace top executives or even bosses. This is because they can generate potent ideas that often require change to implement but that can increase a company's business yet destabilize a contented workforce by planting seeds with the promise of better working conditions or pay which can lead to dissent.
The positive aspect of employing such a person is they can bring future growth to a company as long as their ideas are implemented in ways that maintain the equilibrium of management and workforce contentment. Hence the fast-track to high stations for people that can bring about positive change and expansion.
The Way Forward
A very small number of people are learning that they can greatly improve their employment prospects by fostering a work ethic that breaks out of the older, restrictive mold that was personified by the attitude of, "Why should I work harder than necessary for the money I'm getting?" It was that attitude that has kept the vast majority of people in low paid and unappreciated jobs with little or no chance of promotion to better stations in a company.
By changing the thinking to cheerfully do more than is asked for brings a person into a much more interesting place in any company. A good boss will recognize when one person stands out from the crowd because they're doing more than they're being paid for and reward that person with a better job.
This happens because when a person grows bigger than the job they're doing, a better one that suits their increased work ethic will be found and filled. The reason most people don't get this chance is that most people don't realize this can even happen and it's very difficult to break out of the "do the minimum required" mindset.
You Make the Climate
What all this is leading onto is that it's not the bosses or the company or the location or the pay structure that makes the happy working climate that people outside such a company can only look in with envy. It's the people working there that create their own internal micro-climate by getting together and breaking the old fashioned, restrictive and limiting mold.
When everyone who works in a team does more than just pull their weight, the team excels at its job and productivity goes through the roof. A company made up of several such teams cannot fail to be very successful indeed and the upshot of that is that the work climate is a happy and fulfilling one for all involved.
The old saying, "give and you will get" holds true in this case, because it is only by giving your best to the job you do will you reap what you sow and be rewarded with a better working condition and better pay and benefits to match!
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