What Am I Doing Here?

Have you ever had one of those times when you walk into a room in your house or office and then ask yourself, "What I am doing here?" For some unknown reason you cannot remember why you went there. Some folks call it a senior moment. My theory is that we have way too much information swimming around in our brains that we let the small things escape us.

While observing a group of employees for a client, I overheard one of them ask to no one in particular, "What I am doing here?" Interesting question.
What if it were one of your employees? I imagine you might be upset. Fire them? Yell at them? Throw them in the stockade?

There are many ways to handle this situation, but probably only a few good legal ones.

First, your employees need to know why they are there and what their job roles are. If they don't, it is usually not your team members who are at fault. It is either you or the leadership that you put in place. Communication is lacking at some point. Either when you hired the person, your expectations were not communicated. Perhaps there was a glitch in your orientation program. Maybe your employee handbook is not communicating what is expected of them. How about your job descriptions? Are they up to date and have they been read by your employees?

You should be able to go to any employee and ask them what their role is in the organization and they have a good answer that just rolls off their tongue. The should know how their job fits in the overall success of the business as well as the definition of success for the business.

If you have an employee that is overheard asking, "What am I doing here?" let it be because they are experiencing a senior moment and not because they don't have a clue about why they are there.

Wishing you a profitable Spring!

HR Guy