Orange County Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
If you were a boss/business owner...
What are some business practices that you'd put into place or make a priority?
I would allow employees, or at least a few, to work 6 hour days. Or, take Monday off instead.
I'd also buy donuts once a week for the whole office.
Buy lunch once a week for the whole office.
I think these things are good for morale.
You?
Re: If you were a boss/business owner...
4 10s OR option to telecommute one day a week. most people can't get sh*t done in 6 hours in my line of work. you need bigger, uinterrupted chunks of time.
stock some drinks/snacks but nothing too crazy.
i wouldn't do the lunch thing as when times are tough, that's one thing that usually will have to be cut. from having been on the other end, it sucks when the privilege is yoinked, especially for some people who feel like it's become a right rather than a privilege.
i'd be a boring boss.
These are all things I had when I first started the position I'm at, now.
We no longer have any of them, except they did cut our days to 6 hours... Either cut our hours or let the the lay-offs begin again. Cut hours didn't seem nearly as bad.
I can see D as the girl who ran for HS class president and promised no homework and free pizza in the cafeteria everyday.
The reason I say these things is that I feel like I'm really only productive 6 hours out of the day, but I get a crapload of work done. The other 2 hours I am eating lunch or playing on the internet (or both).
My old job used to get a keg on Friday.
I miss that.
Flexibility if people deserve it. At my previous job, I earned a ton of comp time when I worked late, on weekends, on holidays, etc., to the tune of three weeks extra time off per year.
At my current job, I fly on the weekends all the time, work about 30 hours a week outside the office, and get no time off to use all these great miles and hotel points. Supposedly I'm allowed to work from home whenever I want, but people make it a federal case when I do, and I can't if "there won't be enough people in the office to answer the phone."
We do have snacks and water and soda provided for us, though. That is cool.
Previously we used to:
- bring lunch in for our employees 2-3 times a week
- fully stocked kitchen
- donuts/cookies/cake once a week
- allowed pets to come in to the office (daily)
- Margarita Fridays (1pm every Friday, we busted out the blender and started to wind down for the weekend, usually allowing everyone to go home at 3-4)
However after being burned, I'll never have employees again.
Socializing foster puppies since 2009
Chart for TTC#2 - BFP 6.10.12, m/c 6.17.12 @ 4w3d ? BFP 7.14.12, EDD 3.27.13
Beta @ 15DPO: 441, P: 15.1 ? 19DPO: 2,784 ? 26DPO: 28,886 ? U/S 8/2: One happy HB!
Elective U/S @ 15w5d - it's a BOY! Confirmed at 19w6d. ?
In the past, my Mom and I had these options for employees and I will say that it makes it easier for people to take advantage but it also teaches you how to smell out and hire better people.
- Flexible schedules, as long as all communication is effective/taken care of
- Fully paid by employer benefits, though this is SUPER expensive and sometimes just not an option.
- Send people home when they're sick/don't promote a work environment that encourages people to come to work when they're sick
- AFLAC option
- No observance of religious holidays allowed. I really like this one, since I'm not a Christian nor a believer in any religion. People can still take time off to observe (and get paid if mandated) but otherwise no gift exchanges or holiday decor was allowed. Birthdays can be celebrated outside of the workplace on your own time. We had a Witness in our office who worked part time, and she really appreciated this.
- Optional morning warm up/stretching and walks around the block at lunch time that did not count as part of the breaks or lunches. Healthier employees = happier employees.
- Discounts or partial reimbursement for gym memberships.
The problem with not monitoring employee internet usage became a reality in an office I used to work in. The dude was looking at porn when he stayed late, and he had a fetish for underage girls. Not cool, and also not legal. He was a huge liability.
my current company just told us that for the next 10 weeks they are cutting our pay 20%/giving us a mandatory day off once a week.
I wouldn't do this if it were my company.
All these things are fantastic. I totally understand it's all dependent on available funds though.
Which is why I'd probably just run an office with a bare minimum of employees, expect them to work hard, and pay them more than enough to make them happy.
I'm also a fan of flexibility. I hate having to be here until 530 and to arrive before 9am(ish). If I could get in at 10am and leave at 4am, I'd be so much more productive bc I wouldn't be cranky from commute traffic.
This, we had a similiar issue. I spent NYE 2002 completely reformatting his system because of the spyware/bugs/virus issues that had come with his porn love. I was not a happy camper.
Socializing foster puppies since 2009
Chart for TTC#2 - BFP 6.10.12, m/c 6.17.12 @ 4w3d ? BFP 7.14.12, EDD 3.27.13
Beta @ 15DPO: 441, P: 15.1 ? 19DPO: 2,784 ? 26DPO: 28,886 ? U/S 8/2: One happy HB!
Elective U/S @ 15w5d - it's a BOY! Confirmed at 19w6d. ?
Perks, creature comforts, whatever you call them -- they don't make a lick of a difference.
I would take any funds for that ridiculousness and pay my employees more. Money is the bottom line.
That stinks! I hope it is only temporary.
This is easy .. I am the boss/owner. Here's what I do (and don't do):
I don't micromanage. In fact, sometimes I porbably manage less than I should.
I try and always be understanding and fair to my employees with regards to time off (and yes, it's bit me in the a$$ ... and those are the ones that don't work for me anymore) ... the only time I tell an employee they can't take a day off is when someone else has already requested it. I have been known to pay a day when they don't have any paid time off (they are all hourly) or allow them them to make up hours.
I respect that my employees have an outside life and that when they leave work they leave. If I speak to them outside of working hours it's generally not work related things and if it is it's because they call me.
I try and buy them lunch/coffee when I can (it's not weekly or even monthly but I do it when I can).
I always do some sort of birthday celebration (cupcakes/muffins/cake and flowers/plant) for the teachers.
I always thank them for their work, especially when they do something that isn't in their job description).
I can't afford to buy lunch weekly or cut their hours ... we teach kids, we don't get shortned work weeks.
I really do try and listen to my employees, take their opinions/concerns into consideration and make sure that they feel they have contributions to the overall company.
However, I will say this, at the end of the day it's my business and I do make all final decisions. I don't always work an 8 hour day but that is one of the perks of being the boss/owner ... I try not to take advantage of that as I don't think I'm any better than any of the women who work for me (they don't answer emails at night/weekends, meet the workers there on weekends when necessary, etc).
There's a lot of days I wish I could do more for my staff but budget constraints limit that. They all want pay raises and they all deserve it but at the end of the day I have to pay the bills too. It's just the way it is.