Scott Pitasky spoke about Microsoft’s staffing department, yesterday, and one statement stuck in my craw. Microsoft employees don’t have goals. They have commitments.
Ho-lee-crap, dudes. Commitment? Like Mormons? Like a dysfunctional marriage?
- I made a commitment to my husband when I married him in Las Vegas.
- I made a commitment to my cats when I adopted them.
- I made a commitment to stop eating Domino’s Pizza because they support right-wing political candidates and causes.
When I work for a company, I do a job and you pay me. When I suck, you fire me. When you suck, I quit. This isn’t rocket science.
Now my good friend, Jessica Lee, told me to stop being snarky. She wrote, “I like the positioning of commitments over goals – it ties to core values and seems less transactional.”
I understand Jessica’s perspective, but I believe that work is a transaction. Life is a transaction — and to pretend otherwise is to corrupt the employment relationship and impede productivity & innovation. How can you be an efficient and thoughtful entrepreneur when you’re worried about meeting emotional commitments to your company? Furthermore, what kinds of commitments does a company make to you? (Answer: they don’t. They pay you.)
You are not paid to commit, and you should really think about the emotional capital you invest in your job. It’s not healthy, dudes, and it’s not right.
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Unless it’s quid pro quo, I ain’t making a commitment. What is my company going to commit to me. Are they prepared to commit to not raising my benefit costs while maintaining service levels? Are they willing to commit to my professional development with real dollars? You blink first and then will talk. That’s how the Puf rolls.
It’s not either/or…but one supporting the other. In the workplace…commitments, promises, pledges, etc. often end up being more aspirational and ultimately are the activities vs. the results, the how vs the what and the means to the end, which is the GOAL.
That being said, I think it comes down to what your culture rewards and whether you connect to your work more emotionally or intellectually. I’ve worked in both extremes and in the middle and I’m a much bigger fan of goals.
With record layoffs, I think it’s very timely for us all to realize that it’s not personal, it’s just business. We’re participating in exchange of $$$ for our expertise and hopefully doing in a good place with good people, but ultimately it supports the real “Big Picture” that is family, friends, health, giving and fun.
It’s not personal, it’s just business
craig
If it were 50 years ago, commitment would of been a big deal, but there are a lot of things that have change and the only commitment you can do in business is for whhat is best for yourself, either monetary or leisurely.
I understand from Microsoft and Jessica are talking about is that you have to be commit to the work and there are no shortcuts. You have to work hard for it. But, I agree with you on the big picture, a commitment to a company is too much to ask for, unless you hit the work lottery and founded a great company and great people that you’re willing to work for, and that’s one in a billion opoortunity.
Laurie, I’m totally with you on the committment definition. I made that committment to avoid Domino’s too (and, more reluctantly, Chick-fil-A).
And yeah, work is transactional and reward-based. No one wants to be a puppet.
Though I can understand an employers’ desire to drive home the need for individual responsibility and diligence. Not everyone understands or executes those concepts the same way.
I am committed to go to every one of my daughter’s travel soccer games this season…I committ to things that are associated with family and close friends…I committed to take care of my brother’s family while he was very sick with cancer too/ These are things that have real meaning (to me)…Work is a “lease arangement” you treat it like you own it…respectfully and appropriately…but you know that you or the land lord can break it at any time…and this is coming from MR. CORPORATE HR…
M
Transactional gal all the way. When you give me leadership that commits to acting the part, is accountable for their actions, and is transparent, then I might entertain the idea of a commitment, but I doubt it. Otherwise, I provide my services towards the company’s profit and in return they pay me. End of story.
Don’t get me wrong, I love where I work, but commitment implies a relationship that just isn’t there. My employer doesn’t write me love letters, doesn’t have to understand why I love The Poseidon Adventure more than any other movie ever made, and they for sure don’t hold my hair when I vomit. That’s commitment, yo.
Jackbuilt
Laurie, one additional commitment you should consider: being snarky whenever you please. It’s one of the things I like best about your blog.
…. well, I want to agree. If this is about HR-speak and the inanity of the latest buzz words and bafflegab, then I’m in and agreeing whole heartedly.
When we get to the part about commitment though… sorry, I just think it’s misdirected wit and cynicism (I’m all for the attitude, just think it could be directed to a better cause this time).
I figure there are all kinds of commitments. The emotional one that I made to the love-of-my life is one kind. The financial commitment I made to the bank when they gave me money to buy my house is another.
Commitment is just a promise, really. Some are from the heart and some are way more pragmatic.
HR Good_Witch I think you nailed it…
“Commitment is just a promise, really. Some are from the heart and some are way more pragmatic.”
Two things:
1. OMG about Dominos. I had no clue. This is why I like being ignorant.
2. Don’t EVER stop being snarky. It’s my favorite thing about you.
While I can definitely see there being an ethical question, I was taught in business school that organizational research indicates transformational leadership — where followers adopt the group’s goals as their own — achieves more results than transactional leadership. So, it might pay to call them commitments.
@David I don’t think it pays to call them commitments — in the figurative or literal sense. Ever.
@Jenn I want to be edgy and biting. Snarky? I dunno.
@Witch/Craig I think words matter, and while we make all kinds of commitments, we have goals & metrics & challenges & relationships — important ones — at work. Commitments? Maybe I’m just not ready to make that kind of commitment. I wonder if it’s a generational thing, too. I’m part of the last cohort of Gen X, and I’m passionately cynical and independent. Commitments seem private and intimate, and there’s nothing private and intimate about work.
@GeorgeL I’m committing to being your biggest fan!
@JackBuilt I’ve never see The Poseidon Adventure, but I get your overall point. Here’s what I want to know — when did transactions get such a bad rap?
@Tracy There you go again being all logical & shit.
@HRPuf You are my idol. You roll like the bad mofoz out there — tough, determined, and totally in control of your destiny.
@Mark OMG, thank you. I needed your affirmation on this one. I’m glad you have my back!!
Commitments, goals, objectives, development plans, scorecards… All in service of perpetuating the artificial construct of the 20th Century industrialized/manufacturing organization – which is decidedly counter the natural order of humanity, a set of norms created around a century ago – but now considered ‘the way things have always been’.
Here’s the myth that perpetuates the madness:
By controlling your work for efficiency, I will limit your capacity to be more of who you are and do what you’re made to do
You will feel a little bit more awful every day, increasingly dying inside
but you will compromise because I will offer you just enough sense that you are aspiring to something so close that you might just achieve it tomorrow
Meanwhile, life slips away and the carousel continues
The most innovative organizations in the world don’t perpetuate that myth, they invent a different future. And increasingly, talent doesn’t have to settle for the carousel.
Commitments are good, but only when they are voluntary and at the volition of the individual – there is nothing better in life than being truly committed to something. People make commitments. Not companies. I hope you watched and listened to this session with an ironic smirk and an eye for the potential opportunity (we love dumb, rich clients).
I am a commitment to throw s*** at the fan every day.
Damn, Laurie, every time I think that HR is a fallen, bitter career field, you come along with some common sense wit and wisdom. It reassures me to know that HR is in some very good hands. I shall retire in peace. Sigh.
As for the committment stuff, do you get ring? My granddaughter did. The kid was ugly.
I’m with Puff on this one. Maybe I’m a committment-phobe but seriously, if I gave my “committment” to my company- what would they give in return? More and more work with less and less appreciation? No thanks. I’ll continue to do the job I’m paid to do and that’s it. Anything extra will require dinner and a movie first.
Laurie, I don’t know when transactions went out of fashion. And to be fair, I wrote my comment after explaining to an employee that he was to be relieved of all duty during his meal period and that no, his boss didn’t get to come ride him about the job that was waiting for him when he got done eating his lunch WHILE he was eating his lunch. I also got to explain to him that it is not in his job to come in and set up PPE and Fall Protection programs on his own time, a project his manager delegated to him, gave him no time to do, and wouldn’t pay him OT for.
He viewed his volunteering of time as a commitment to the company. I view it as illegal and so should his manager. So if I’m just a little down on throwing out words like “commitment” in the employment relationship, I will happily be out of style. Because the problem with many committed relationships is that at some point or another someone may be giving more than they are receiving, while entering into that committed relationship with an expectation of equal reciprocity. Let’s not set up the expectation that our employment relationships will be based on commitment and equal reciprocation because my definition of commitment as a person is completely different than the meaning of commitment the company has. Let’s call the employment relationship what it is and see it for what it is. Let’s call work work. I for one am tired of sugar-coating it.
And if you haven’t seen The Poseidon Adventure, not the new version, the old one with Shelly Winters and Gene Hackman, Go. Rent. It. Now.
Snark on, sister.
Jackbuilt
damn. all these commitment-phobes leads me to believe there are a lot of disgruntled peeps out there. geez! y’all are bringing me down…
to quote someone i respect, our friend Frank Roche… “companies ARE their people… you know how to be loved? love someone. it has to start somewhere. committing to doing the right thing that’s good for you and the company is the way to go.”
i guess my glass is more than half full…
@jessica lee, I’m a wicked positive dude, but you can’t expect to feed someone horse doodoo and expect them to believe is filet mignon. Companies have never been about their people. They are about profit (committed if you will), that is why they exist, and if their people obstruct them from their profit, well then they act on behalf of their true commitments, which is profits. Now I know there are a few insignificant exceptions to this rule, or even worse unvalidated hokum, but if we can learn anything from history, it is that just as sure as the sun will rise in the east, companies will exist to make money for themselves (or investors or stake holders, etc, etc, etc.). Revolution has changed this, some would argue divine intervention hasn’t changed this (don’t think the Egyptians, started hiring high priced pyramid builders after their free labor left). Puf don’t fight nature, Puf finds happiness and positivity around the things Puf can control, but I do not commit first in anything related to work.
FYI, I’m a walking typo, the pharse above should read “revolution hasn’t changed this” my apologies to Wat Tyler.
There’s a huge difference between commitment to an institution and commitment to the ideals and mission of an institution, and they are easily confused.
Davita won our biggest honor at the ERE Excellence Awards, and in his acceptance speech Tony Blake spoke about recruiting’s direct impact on saving lives (they are in healthcare.) I’m a hard, hard man, but I was actually touched by it, and it was obvious that he and the entire recruiting team standing behind him believed every word
I think that people who are enthusiastic about their organizations missions are not suckers, as a number of the commenters here seem to.
They are choosing to work at organizations who are speaking to a part of them that is not motivated by money alone, and if they are laid off tomorrow (which is always possible) then they will remain committed to the ideals and mission no matter how they feel about the company itself.
I want so badly to LIKE (even just a little) Microsoft….but they make it so hard.
So, did they make a commitment to all of those “temps” they had working for them that they treated like employees for years….just without the benefits? Microsoft would make a pretty crappy boyfriend if you ask me.
Jessica- Hate to tip your glass but companies don’t “love” their employees. They need employees to (as Puff puts it…) make their profit. The love in that relationship is about the $$$$$.
I, also, am not a “negative nancy” but rather a realist. I know where my committment lies and it ain’t with corporate America. It is with my family- those who are committed to me as well. Why waste more of my time and energy on something that only pays me for 40 hours a week, eh? Corporate Amercia doesn’t come home with me at night, isn’t at my kid’s bday parties, doesn’t visit my family members when they are sick…..
For me, it’s a paycheck. I am not defined by the work that I do or the company that I do it for.
P.S.
Don’t get me wrong…..I’ll throw on the John Lennon t-shirt. It just isn’t in the dress code for work.
@Bad Consultant This is exactly why you are my friend. Your perspective on commitment is right. fucking. on.
@Ali You get a cheap, fake-gold ring when you commit to a company. It turns your finger green.
@HR Chick ?…all we are saying/is give me a paycheck…?
@Jackbuilt Awesome, as usual, and I’m putting the movie on my Netflix!
@J.Lee I won’t settle for half-full. When you make really great choices in life and you define your relationships according to your values, your glass is totally full. Or at least that’s my experience.
@Puf LOL, don’t worry about the typos. Your point is well made. I wonder why WordPress won’t let readers modify their comments? Weird.
@David When I worked for a company that made Twizzlers, I didn’t feel committed to the mission. When I volunteered with animals, I was totally committed. Sometimes the best experiences in life are the ones that don’t pay the bills. You work in order to have a fuller, richer life outside of work.
@Sarah Yeah, they committed to a larger pool of contingent workers so they could avoid paying benefits. Commitment FAIL.
Hi Laurie,
Just to add my own pov, I understand where I think you and a lot of your commenters are coming from in that I don’t think that many organisations today deserve our emotional engagement. Which is I think one reason why quite a few of us don’t work for one anymore.
However, I don’t think it’s unhealthy to commit to an employer if they deserve this relationship. Work makes up such a high proprotion of our lives that I think it’s actually quite unhealthy to spend that long in a relationship, or in a contract if you prefer, and deliberately remain at distance during this time.
The key battleground today is about providing an environment, culture etc where employers are more worthy of these commitments being made. And I think making commitments can be a very powerful source of high performance and competitive advantage, as well as personal growth, in environments where they can still properly be made.
@Jon I support commitments in an entrepreneurial environment where the goal is to grow, thrive, and change the world. In 99% of the cases, this does not apply to employment relationships. Where it does, I’ll make an exception.
I don’t have a problem with work=transaction. I enjoy my work — I like to like it — but bottom line? I do it because it results in a paycheck.
As I have said a million times over, my employee doesn’t own me, they just rent (a portion of) me.
Often commitment is just another form of guilt. And snarky is just another form of funny. But in employment, commitment is either a contract or a myth.
Unless you have a written contract, almost all employment is “at will” which means you can be fired or you can quit for any or no reason at all. So if an employer starts promoting commitment, tell them to price it, put it in writing and sign on the dotted line.