I have to say that when I read this article, I wasn’t quite sure if I believed it – but it must be true if it’s in the Guardian!

The Guardian recently reported that employees had been asked to help pay for a boat as a leaving gift for their departing Director. Now, I’ve had some really lovely gifts when I left my previous employers, including some rather lovely LululGuiness luggage, a Mont Blanc pen, but I didn’t ask for a Porsche or a Harley when I left those businesses!

What do you do when people are leaving? I would imagine there’s a quick whip round and then somebody gets nominated to go and buy a gift for the person that’s leaving and this will usually be in the region of £10-£10 maybe – but a boat?!

What made things even worse is that from an employee perspective, the Tate are looking at outsourcing some of its functions, as well as being called out for low pay and has recently put an end to staff discount in the canteen. Couple these things with a ridiculous request like this and you are going to make your employees blood boil as it is a highly inappropriate comment/request in the circumstances!

It highlights to me the importance of knowing what is really going on with your employees, how are they living and feeling about things, and you won’t know that unless you ask! This shows just how disconnected from reality the management at Tate are, and they have made a serious error of judgment here.

So, if you want to make sure that you don’t get into a ridiculous situation like this, think about the impact of your actions and what you say to your employees, know and understand what they are doing, feeling and thinking about your business and the world in general. Knowing your employees and what will motivate and make them more engaged with your business will help you to manage a highly effective and productive business.

Want to know how you can gauge the mood of your employees – then get in touch for a no obligation chat about how we can help you find out what’s really going on in your business.