First of all a lot of young people today have low work morale.
Training and educating young employees today must also include work morale and ethics as a part of any training program. They need to know what is expected of them. And you as a manager need to follow up and take action. The generation born in the mid 80’s are used to get away with a lot, and they have parents that are financial secure. They are also a part of an upbringing with a lot of free limits. Arriving on time is not important; working does not need to be a necessity and they want to have the economical freedom as their parents have from day one of leaving the nest. The last decade also provide a situation where you get work before you are educated, making education a waste of time for a lot of jobs. This all results in an “I do not really care”- attitude. Kyle must be either stupid or he just do not care about consequences. He works in a call centre just like I do. People do not stop calling us just because someone is sick, resulting in Kyle leaving all his work for his co-workers, frustrating customers and provide a worse customer experience. This shows no respect for fellow co-workers, no respect for customers and no respect for management. When you decide to skip a day, think about the extra work your co-workers will end up doing in you absence.

Facebook rocks as a communication device.
There are a lot of articles about why you should use facebook at work and a lot of articles why you should not use facebook at work. I do not accept the use of non work related surfing during work hours, unless during breaks, facebook included. But I use facebook myself on my spare time and if employees have a lot of updates happening during work hours I get disappointed, as the focus are of track. The great thing is that using facebook as a communication channel is an underestimated tool. There are a lot of people that are easier to reach in the facebook society than by e-mail, even by work e-mail. Bringing information trough this channel might be more effective than updating the intranet. And as a manager you get to know more about your employees as they keep updating what they do and what they like. As an employee you might think twice before your Curriculum Vitae spreads to newspapers all over the world, as in Kyle Doyle’s example. I can imagine his next job interview; “So you are the famous Kyle Doyle, do you still skip work?”

Action and consequence.
Late for work = Annoying to 30 % of fellow co-workers.

Call in sick when not = more work on your fellow co-workers, and frustrating your manager.

Surfing the internet during work hours = Less efficient, making more work for your co-workers, helping your manager not to reach goals, making your manager annoyed.

Getting fired = Hard to get a new job as a new employer might call the old one to ask how you where performing. If this call goes well, it might be worth more than an education.

Remember as an employee you have people around you, and you need to think as a team player. You need to remember that it is also your obligation to contribute to a better work environment by being friendly, positive and caring and not giving your co-workers extra work by skipping work.

What about management?
It might not be Kyle Doyle’s fault that he became famous. His manager has failed to implement good work morale, and maybe even failed to give Kyle Doyle the feeling of success and ability, maybe he felt useless at work, performed poorly and felt that his job was a burden? All this is also management responsibility. Kyle might feel that he lack abilities, management should provide more training. He could lack motivation; management should provide more fun and challenging work. I would like to know how long he has been working there and how many times he had been coached by his manager? Well Doyle might be careless and useless for all I know, but even his manager could have been careless and useless if Doyle lacked proper training, not just for skills but also for work morale and personal development. Maybe both of them should be reading my blog. I feel that I have failed if any employee fail.

Kyle Doyle; His fault or managements fault?

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