legal sanity

My 5-year-old son is a mega fan of the Transformers toys and television show. For all of you in the dark about these “robots in disguise,” you’ll find a nice overview here. These aren’t your standard-issue machines fighting the ultimate battle of good vs. evil. They’re “more than meets the eye” in many ways. Primarily, they stand out because they experience and project the full gamut of human emotions – they’re passionate and dedicated warriors who think and feel deeply. A fusion of the robust and robotic gives these characters their mass appeal.

Blogger Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users picks up and runs with the robotic-robust theme in a post called Knocking the exuberance out of employees. In it, she questions why some companies pursue a mode of management that kills off employee energy and excitement (along with their “desire to learn, grow, adapt, innovate, and care") and breeds automatons.

Sierra comes up with a brilliant, 16-point list of reasons why many managers believe that “Robots Are the Best Employees.” I won’t reiterate the whole roster. But here’s a snapshot of its contents. Managers prefer robots because robots (as opposed to robust humans): “have no strongly-held opinions; have no passion, so they have nothing to "fight" for; are always willing to do whatever it takes (insane hours, etc.); never make the boss look bad (e.g. stupid, incompetent, clueless, etc.); and don't need ‘personal’ days ... because they don't have a personal life.”

Firms recognizing the dangers inherent in fostering mechanical employees can look to the wisdom that John Moore shares in a recent post on Aligning the Employee Experience with the Customer Experience. Drawing from his book, Tribal Knowledge, Moore states that “creating meaningful employee experiences revolves around making the company something employees can believe in.” He goes on to posit that the best companies (you can sub in law firms) “realize that happy, knowledgeable employees will usually translate into happy, knowledgeable customers.”

Those of us wishing to proactively avoid robotic employment will benefit from the guidance Jim Citrin  offers in an article compelling us to consider the fit of any job we apply for. Towards the end of the piece, Citirn identifies the underpinnings of job contentment as an “environment of trust, a person or people with whom you enjoy spending time, feeling at home in the workplace, [and] relationships that nourish you.”