How to motivate underperforming Employees

[NickM]

No one is forcing you to be an employee of anyone else...

True; I heartily wish I had found some outlet for my skills which lent itself to self-employment years ago. However...

...you have the power to change things but if you are honest with yourself, maybe you don't have the courage to take the risks necessary to break free?

It wouldn't make sense at this relatively late stage of my working life to abandon the one good thing about the job - the index-linked final salary pension scheme.

Which I intend to keep collecting well into my nineties. Unless of course they screw me on that front too - in which case I'll probably be the oldest murderer in the UK prison system shortly after I find the individual responsible.

 

[ChrisKH]

True; I heartily wish I had found some outlet for my skills which lent itself to self-employment years ago. However...

It wouldn't make sense at this relatively late stage of my working life to abandon the one good thing about the job - the index-linked final salary pension scheme.

Which I intend to keep collecting well into my nineties. Unless of course they screw me on that front too - in which case I'll probably be the oldest murderer in the UK prison system shortly after I find the individual responsible.

My Dad fully intended to do this being on a final salary pension scheme. Just before he retired he went a bit funny (told one of his bosses he was a c%^t - and he never swears). By 64 he was in a home with a form of dementia. Now he can't speak or walk or understand what you say. He is 72. Some things you just can't plan for.

 

[NickM]

My Dad fully intended to do this being on a final salary pension scheme. Just before he retired he went a bit funny (told one of his bosses he was a c%^t - and he never swears). By 64 he was in a home with a form of dementia. Now he can't speak or walk or understand what you say. He is 72. Some things you just can't plan for.

This is terribly sad, and I feel very sorry for you and your Dad. I hope he is being well looked after and is as content as it is possible for him to be. And at least he got in one good parting shot...

I don't know to what extent genes affect susceptibility to dementia in later life, but my aged forebears all kept their marbles well into old age, so I have my fingers crossed.

Mind you, I already have ever greater difficulty in remembering words like "susceptibility" which have been part of my vocabulary for years - they just disappear out of my head completely for minutes at a time

 

[domtyler]

True; I heartily wish I had found some outlet for my skills which lent itself to self-employment years ago. However...

It wouldn't make sense at this relatively late stage of my working life to abandon the one good thing about the job - the index-linked final salary pension scheme.

Which I intend to keep collecting well into my nineties. Unless of course they screw me on that front too - in which case I'll probably be the oldest murderer in the UK prison system shortly after I find the individual responsible.

Sounds like you have done well then, an awful lot of people would happily take that pension off your hands. How long have you got left if you don't mind me asking?

 

[NickM]

Eleven years, two months and 15 days. Unless they screw me on retirement age, which I fully expect them to try. They'll be sorry if they do...

 

[domtyler]

Whoah, that's still a long way to go. Can't you take early retirement or something?

 

[NickM]

Believe me, I have given this extensive consideration... if it were feasible I wouldn't be here. My circumstances/responsibilities do not at present permit a substantial reduction in my income. If they ever do I'll be out of here like a shot.

 

[ChrisKH]

This is terribly sad, and I feel very sorry for you and your Dad. I hope he is being well looked after and is as content as it is possible for him to be. And at least he got in one good parting shot...

I don't know to what extent genes affect susceptibility to dementia in later life, but my aged forebears all kept their marbles well into old age, so I have my fingers crossed.

Mind you, I already have ever greater difficulty in remembering words like "susceptibility" which have been part of my vocabulary for years - they just disappear out of my head completely for minutes at a time

Sorry Nick, didn't mean to put a downer on your pension plans! I hope my Dad would be impressed with our (my brothers and sisters) plans to spend his pension for him. (where do you think my bike comes from ). In his position I would want to live to 104 so my children/grandchildren could spend it too.

 

[Twenty Inch]

True; I heartily wish I had found some outlet for my skills which lent itself to self-employment years ago. However...

It wouldn't make sense at this relatively late stage of my working life to abandon the one good thing about the job - the index-linked final salary pension scheme.

Which I intend to keep collecting well into my nineties. Unless of course they screw me on that front too - in which case I'll probably be the oldest murderer in the UK prison system shortly after I find the individual responsible.

Life's too short. You're spoiling today for the sake of a possible tomorrow. The sooner you find some more fulfilling work, the happier you'll be.

I once had to choose between doing my job with a certain amount of status and a good income, and chucking it to do an MSc with no guarantees of what would come afterwards. I'd jsut bought my first house and this was my first job with real prospects.

I did the MSc because I knew that my job wasn't going to hold my interest and was boring me to tears, as well as forcing me to mix with some nasty people. It was tough but I've never regretted it.

 

[NickM]

I've done that already. I went to university at 37, but the world of work was still waiting for me when I finished.

There is no employment that I would consider fulfilling. I have lots of better and more interesting things to do.

It's a political issue, as much as anything. Once you understand the real nature of most work (it's almost entirely a mechanism for social control), it is impossible to kid yourself that there is anything to enjoy in it - unless you are fortunate enough to have amenable and intelligent fellow inmates, and they are thin on the ground in my workplace. Which is why I come to this forum such a lot!

 

[domtyler]

Fair enough Nick, but another eleven years of being a full-time Cycle Chatter? As said above, we only get one life. Eleven months would not be a problem, but years?

 

[GaryA]

[quote name='NickM;131114 Once you understand the real nature of most work (it's almost entirely a mechanism for social control)' date=' QUOTE']

Yip so is the television, newspapers, computer games, internet forums, 'have your say' opportunites to respond, supermarkets, shopping, politics, discussion forums, etc etc......i could go on all day....
End result a lazy, sated, polarised, disenfranchised, cud-chewing, novelty obsessed, vacous, paranoid population who only grasps its impotence in times of crisis
oops slipping into soapbox magaphone mode

 

[NickM]

Dom, there doesn't seem to be much alternative. I've got to the point of being interviewed for replacement jobs, and found the experience so depressing (all the bullshit inherent in the process, and the people who think they are entitled to be offhand or downright aggressive towards you just because you (in theory) want the job they are offering) that I very nearly ran away screaming.

This, for the time being, is the best available deal. I'm hugely better off than lots of people - imagine working in a call centre, FFS. But most people don't appreciate how truly repressive the world of employment is, and I do.

 

[domtyler]

What's your skill set? I am thinking of becoming a millionaire employer in the near future so may be able to make use of you. I would give you your own desk in the corner so that no-one could see you were on Cycle Chat again with a nice view over the river and a coffee machine within ten feet. There would also be secure parking, power showers and somewhere for you to dry your minging cycling clothes.

 

[NickM]

...oops slipping into soapbox magaphone mode

I wouldn't worry, Gary - a thread with this one's title ought to have been in Soapbox from the start