I'm an avid movie buff. I'm the guy in my circle of friends that they all turn to during movie trivia games and random questions about actors and quotes. Recently, as a present to my wife, I purchased a year's subscription to the Starz network so she can watch her favorite book-turned-TV series, “Outlander.” I wasn't expecting anything out of it and began surfing through their various channel options. As an added bonus, I found that they were running a continuous marathon of my favorite anti-Christmas movie, “Bad Santa,” starring Billy Bob Thornton. If you haven't seen it, and you consider yourself a cynic when it comes to the mass consumerism aspect of the holiday, check it out.
The film follows an alcoholic safe cracker and his dwarf associate who work as a mall Santa and elf so they can rob holiday shoppers blind. The film reminded me of an important lesson: bad employees will sometimes do whatever it takes to keep their bosses from knowing how unhappy they are in their job. Let me explain.
Thornton's character, Willie, hates his job, himself and, therefore, his life. But he keeps going, dragging himself evermore reluctantly to the next city and the next mall, thanks to his diminutive associate. Although Willie is vastly unhappy with his life, he goes on, getting worse every year, to the point where his partner becomes fed up.
To find a solution to his misery, Willie befriends a troubled 10-year-old who teaches him the true meaning of Christmas. This leads to his epiphany that family and doing what you love are the keys to happiness, not money.
As the busiest season of the year has just passed and the New Year knocks, knowing the types of people you work with is critically important, both for the business owner and employees. It's easy to overlook an unhappy staff member who pretends to enjoy their work. This facade takes shape mainly due to one steady influence: fear. Some people have a fear of success, which includes the anxiety of too much work, or a fear of failure and having to start over at a new job. The mindset of many people is to look at a job as just work rather than as an integral part of their life.
A study on employee health published by Gallup Press in the book, “Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements,” showed that worker discontentment takes a huge toll on quality of life both inside and outside the workplace. Employees who said they like their jobs are twice as likely to be thriving in their lives overall. They reported strong relationships, effective money management, good health and engagement in their communities.
As business owners, who wouldn’t want workers like that? It’s understandable, however, that finding such workers can prove difficult. Simply put, your passion is not necessarily that of your employees. At the very least, it’s important to help employees understand the purpose of the business, their contributions to it and that you are business partners, but not necessarily friends. As many industry veterans have said over the years, the goal is not just to sell car audio and services but to sell yourselves. Nobody wants to buy from someone they don’t like. Be the kind of person you’d want to buy from. Promote a positive workplace environment where negative comments are not tolerated and the only goal is self-improvement.
No matter the employee, business owner, installer, or sales clerk, quality of life should be the goal. If the employee isn’t happy, perhaps it’s time to have a talk and learn what they really want to do. If there’s a personal matter involved, talk it over and see if you can help. What you don’t want to do is ignore it until it gets out of hand.
Like Willie, many employees will try to hide the fact that they are unhappy because they don’t want to face the reality of their own misery. The best way for people to get happy is by confronting their demons and finding what kind of work does make them happy. By doing so, like Bad Santa, happiness becomes infectious and can only result in a happy ending.
