Turtles at Work

Towards the end of my tenure at my first company (see post: Stalin and the KGB) I was recruited by a financial company in the Philadelphia area. I had posted my resume on Monster.com and within weeks had gotten contacted by my soon to be new company. The HR representative from the company was extremely courteous which was encouraging. I was asked to visit the company for a formal interview with the VP of my future department.

When I arrived for the interview I was further encouraged by the professional surroundings and the approach of my interview. I was basically treated like a king as I was toured around the building and introduced to the various groups I would be managing. The VP would comment “This is our new Client Services Manger (referring to me)” following up with “He will bring tons of analytical skill, background, and professionalism to our company.” As the interview processes ended that day my VP left me with the comment “we’ll be looking forward to your input and ideas.”

“Wow”, I thought “This company really wants me.” I was offered and accepted the position shortly after the interview and was completely pumped to start with my new company. My offer was generous as my salary and benefits exceeded my expectations. As I drove in for my first day I felt that things couldn’t be better. I would be working for a first class company that respected me for my skills and abilities and compensated me to boot. I thought my new job was perfect, but unfortunately my thoughts of work utopia were to be dashed.

I began at my new company with only positive thoughts. I immediately worked hard at building relationships with my peers and subordinates. I listened to their concerns and problems and began to plan out projects that would address and correct issues. In particular I involved front line employees, because those people are the folks that really know what is going right or wrong.

After completing my first improvement project, I scheduled a meeting to present my results and recommendations to the VP and Directors of my department. I had sent out an agenda, complete with a detailed project summary document prior to the meeting. As I began to review my project and recommendations I hit the wall of indifference with the VP and Directors. Each of my recommendations got shot down with comments like “this is a nice idea, but…” or “this is something we should do, but now is not the time.”

I didn’t let the defeat of my first project stop me. I took on many other projects however they all ended with the same result as the first. I thought back to my interview when my VP commented about my “skills” and how he’d “be looking forward to my input and ideas.” I thought my ideas would count. Didn’t they were bringing me in to try and improve the company? Suddenly though I felt like I was the village idiot as all of my ideas were “nice” but not used.

The last straw came with reporting I was assigned to do weekly. After submitting the reports, I would follow up with my VP and Directors just to see their thoughts or answer any questions they had. They never really had anything to say and I began to become suspicious that they weren’t even reading them. I decided to insert some bold text in the beginning, middle and end of the report that said “If you read this line please contact me at extension 2175.” I sent out the report and did not receive a response from anyone. My reports were very informative and contained information that would help my peers understand what was going on in the department, yet they weren’t reading them. I next decided to insert photos instead of content in my reports to see if anyone would notice. Week after week my reports would contain pictures of clowns, bears, batman, etc (actually pics I used below). Still no response or comment from my peers.


I was brought into the company under the pretense that my skills, abilities and ideas would be taken into account, yet none of that held true. The VP and Directors of my department had no interest in actually improving things, they simply wanted to just come in and run things without having to listen to me or the front line employees. They were arrogant and un-involved.

Executive arrogance is extremely common in companies. Many executives feel that they attained their position for a reason and know the pulse of the company. The truth is that the further up the ladder the executives go the less connected they are to the employees that actually make the company successful. This arrogance prevents middle level managers, like me, from actually implementing improvements because the arrogant executive doesn’t think improvement is needed. The executives believe that if they didn’t think of the improvement than an improvement isn’t needed.

Be wary of companies that say they are bringing you in to help make change and implement your ideas. The arrogance of executive leadership somehow builds you up during the interview process but dumbs you down as you work for the company.

This was another major experience in my work life that led me to become a Work Turtle. I left that company and joined another company that touted me for my ideas and skill, yet fails to allow me to make any changes. Even when I have proven that my changes would save money, improve customer satisfaction or improve employee satisfaction I’m still ignored. Oh well, back to my shell for now.

Posted by The Turtle King at Thursday, April 12, 2007 0 comments    

Labels: Shell-Shocked

In my experience I have worked for more poor leaders than I have good leaders. It is almost by bad example that I have learned "what not to do" when leading my own group of people. As I reflect on my past and current list of bad leaders I clearly see one who is the crème de la crème of poor management practices and behavior. I look back almost 10 years ago to my time working for a gem of a boss I’ll refer to as Stalin (named after the former cold hearted Soviet leader).

• Stalin had hand picked several of "work moles" to infiltrate the various management groups within our large department. The "work mole" would come into your group as a new hire of Stalin’s. They would attempt to blend in, all the while compiling information to report back to Stalin. The "work mole" in my group was named Nancy and she was very clever.


• Any managers that were not "in line" (as she would say) with her commands were frequently belittled in front of the group. . I can remember one massacre meeting in which she, one by one, pointed out the faults of each team member in the room. She’d break you down, but never build you back up. This ensured conformity with her dictatorship as the weakened cannot rise up against the strong.


• She would setup interogations or "fish sessions" in which she would at first act like she was just getting updates on your work. The "fish sessions" would slowly evolve into her attempting to pry information out of you about other members of the team. She used "smear tactics" as she would make up something derrogatory that a fellow co-worker said about you to see if you would then spill your guts about that employee. She was always looking for an angle to take advantage of people and situations.

I had been under her KGB rule for over 2 years when I tried to lead a revolt. My fellow managers had always looked to me for guidance and assistance. Many of them came to me and we began to discuss how bad things were and how sick we were of Stalin. The stars seemed to be in alignment as we had a new VP who was very interested in learning about each member of management. Although, I would normally follow the chain of command, this was not possible in this case as Stalin was a dictator and would not take my comments about her leadership seriously. Dictators don’t listen to reason, they send you off to some deserted wasteland and leave you to die if you remotely oppose them.

Our new VP had gotten to know me and was impressed by my work. During one of his visits he had asked if I would like to go to dinner with him to "talk about the department". During our dinner he had eluded to Stalin’s dictator style and asked for my comments. At first I was aprehensive in answering questions about my boss as I always believe in the chain of command. But then I thought about the past two years and how badly my co-workers and I were treated. I spilled my guts on her. I didn’t feel good about it, but I felt it necessary to overthrow our ruthless dictator. My VP assured me he would look into the situation and try to make things better for all of us.As I said, Stalin was paranoid and caught wind of my dinner with our new VP, through her "work mole" Nancy. She called me in the next day to "fish" about what I had discussed with our VP. Despite her "fishing" I stayed strong and left the interrogation unscathed.

My downfall in my revolt efforts came with one sentence said out of frustration. Since my meeting with the VP, Stalin had been increasingly cruel and demanding with me. She had called me one day before she was flying out to Ohio on business to rip me out about an email I didn’t copy her on. Upon ending our conversation I slammed the phone down and uttered "have a nice trip, I hope your plane crashes!" I’m not trying to defend my statement, because it was wrong, but I was frustrated and we all say things we don’t mean sometimes. Unfortunately I was in the presence of Nancy the "work mole". Nancy had heard the comment and I was doomed.
Stalin returned later in the week and I was immediately called into her office. She started the meeting by saying "so, I hear you want me to die in a plane crash!" My heart dropped and I knew my days at the company were coming to an end. I tried to explain, but you can’t explain a comment like that to a dictator. She had siezed the opportunity to discredit me and the revolt was over. It was not long until she had told my VP of my comments, probably adding on to the story. A few months later, to the dismay of my co-workers, I left the company for another opportunity.

Why leaders like Stalin exist in the workplace is beyond me. They do exist though and almost thrive as companies pay less and less attention to what and how leaders manage. It’s unfortunate because many innovative people are squashed each day by poor leaders who only regard people as pawns, to be used and disgarded. The bad leaders out there just drive people to become Turtles at Work. Being a Turtle is may be all you can do to survive, so stay within the shell!

Posted by The Turtle King at Tuesday, March 27, 2007 0 comments    

Labels: Shell-Shocked

Today I'm going to introduce a new section of the Turtles at Work blog titled: Shell-Shocked. As commented in some of my previous posts, workers do not turn into Work Turtles overnight. There is a series of events or experiences that erode at the once high performer that leads to the Turtle mentality. From time to time I will post a "Shell-Shocked" story from my past that contributed to me becoming a Turtle at Work.

"Cut Some Coupons"

Let me start by laying some groundwork for this story.

It was nearing performance review time at my company. I was not completely a Work Turtle at this point and had achieved "exceeds expectations" on each of my past 3 yearly reviews. I had been led to believe by my current VP that I would be promoted to his position upon his retirement, only to be screwed (that's another story for Shell-Shocked).

My wife had just given birth to our first child an we were struggling over whether my wife would stay home with our son, giving up her $32k a year teaching job. I had thought I was going to be promoted to VP (higher pay) but as stated earlier I was misled.

I was called into the President's office to discuss an issue that he wanted me to address. We chatted about the issue and then began to talk about my newborn son and wife. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity (before review/raise time) to slip in how hard it would be to make it with only my income. My plan was that although my company was cheap when it came to increases (even with high performance), I could play on the sympathy factor. My chance with the President, I thought, would really improve my chances of getting a better increase.

So I unleash my plan with the comment "yeah, it's going to be hard to make it with only my salary, but it's best for my son that my wife stay home." The Prez looks stone faced, ponders a second and then responds with the Turtle changing comment "Well, you'd be surprised how much you can save by cutting coupons." Cutting Coupons is all he could offer in response!!!! He then receded smugly into his comfortable, leather President chair. We were finished and I had obviously failed in my attempt to sway him or receive the sympathy pay increase I had been seeking.

Now, this guy makes around $500k in salary plus bonuses. I make a fraction of what the Prez makes and had just come off a year in which I saved my company over $250k due to process improvements I implemented to reduce damage. I call my wife and break the news. "How did it go" my wife asks. "Coupons" I reply "Flippin coupons is the only answer he gave me."

My review time came and went and again I received my "exceeding expectations" rating. As expected I received my 2.5% increase without a bonus for my "exceeding" efforts. This was one major defining moment in my transition from ambitious Wolf (high performer) to slow and steady Turtle.

As a joke I keep and excel chart tracking my coupon savings posted on my office bulletin board. My Prez comes in one day and looks at the board. Seeing my coupon savings chart he quips "Well, looks like you took my advice." Gee thanks!

This was one of the many moments that led me to become a Work Turtle. It's funny because, as I think back, I realize that executives at most companies have pretty much lost touch with their employees. Executives at solid companies are highly compensated and are probably worth every penny, however at the mediocre company the highly compensated executives are just a drain on the workforce. It's easy for an executive, and in my example, our President to tell me to cut coupons. He has totally lost touch with what it is like to not be "highly compensated". The cut (pardon the pun) runs even deeper because in my situation I have performed at the highest level for 3 years and instead of getting a solid increase or even a bonus, I get "cut coupons". Meanwhile I get to see the Prez driving his Lexus SUV and the other mindless VPs driving their luxury vehicles. As they say "the rich get richer" and that is certainly the case in mediocre company-land!

Feel free to post any of your Shell-Shocked moments. I'd love to hear them!

Posted by The Turtle King at Friday, March 23, 2007 0 comments    

Labels: Shell-Shocked