Many agency owners lament their staff’s lack of a work ethic. Agency owners typically judge their employees’ work ethic against their own, which often border on masochistic! In comparison, most employees inevitably will fall short.
Even if employees were masochistic, they probably still wouldn’t work excessive hours (unless they had very dull lives), because no one pays them to do so; their schedules are arranged so they don’t go into overtime. For an agency owner, long hours result in tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For the wages most CSRs receive, I’m often amazed at how hard they actually do work. In most of the agencies I visit, I find hard workers with good attitudes who really care about their customers and their agencies. They also have families they prefer to spend time with before and after work. As a small-business owner, I know it’s nearly impossible for principals to limit their workdays to 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Most staff members aren’t going to be successful business owners; they don’t want to be. Therefore, agency owners’ definitions of hard work, dedication, and loyalty just don’t apply to most of their staff.
Is it really such a bad thing that your employees are like this? Anyone willing to work incredibly long hours in sales is a competitive person. Can you imagine an office full of these highly competitive individuals? Think about the personnel issues you have now and how much more difficult they’d be if everyone was like you. Imagine the power struggles! The high-tech world gets long hours out of its people by promising stock shares upon the company’s sale. When you’re ready to sell, do you want to share ownership?
Sometimes it’s best to be grateful for what we have.