DO YOU HATE WORK?

Well, do you? Answer honestly. Do you feel engaged? Excited to go to work? Energized while you’re there? Energized when you come home? If you answered no to those questions, you’re not alone. Perhaps instead, you feel like Lily, pictured above. She’s the small chocolate mini-mule, who is flattening her ears angrily at George. His simple existence vexes her to no end. She likely feels he is standing too close, and shouldn’t be looking over the gate while she is looking over the gate. Do you feel like that about some of your colleagues? Or perhaps your boss?

In a great article published in the NY Times back in 2014, Tony Schwartz and Christine Porath wrote about Why You Hate Work. There is a ton of great information and study results explaining what they found. Their bottom line is that companies and individual managers need to stop the disconnect between WANTING their employees to be happier, more engaged, and focused, and start DOING things to make that reality come to life.

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HOW DO YOU CATCH PEOPLE?

We do it to our children. We do it to our spouses or partners. We do it to our co-workers, our team members, and the guy in the office who we can’t wait to take down a notch. Usually, there’s not malice behind it; it’s an honest attempt to correct a mistake to avoid bigger consequences. Sometimes, there’s a little bit of glee behind it, hopefully reserved for that guy in the office we want to see eat some humble pie. Regardless of the intentions behind it, we are experts at catching people doing things wrong.

Like everything else, it’s about perspective and intention. Stop and think about it. When you see someone doing something wrong, your instinct is likely to stop them. This is especially true if that “something” is dangerous or harmful. But often in an organization, it’s not dangerous or harmful to someone’s safety; but maybe to their job, advancement, or being able to get a job done in a timely fashion. The instinct to reach out to another human being to help them see something they can not is not what we’re talking about. That instinct is important and good.

It’s all in the how. How do we reach out and stop them?

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LANGUAGE MATTERS. BUT NOT AS MUCH AS TONE

Take the word “Oh”. Say it out loud in the following ways:

• Like you just found out that your best friend’s husband is having an affair
• Like you just found out your mother has been diagnosed with cancer
• Like you just found $100 in a forgotten jacket pocket
• Like you just finally understood a concept after misunderstanding it in previous explanations

Likely, those expressions of the word “Oh” were different from one another. Maybe there were distinct facial expressions or gestures that went with each one. Perhaps you sucked in your breath before saying one or two of them.

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JULY FARM UPDATE

A four-and-a-half-acre pasture? Ten new laying hens? Goat Yoga?!? Why not??!!

These are just three of the things which have been under way here at Wicked Walnut Farm, home of LeadQuine’s herd. We decided to turn our “hay” field into a massive pasture for our horses, and shuffle everyone else around. Building the pasture has been time consuming, hot, intensive labor, and we are making progress. It feels very slow because we are impatient to get the horses out onto the grass. But with the complete lack of rain for several weeks and intense heat, coupled with very busy schedules, we’ve accepted what progress we’ve been able to make. Dani’s attention to detail is paying off, and the fence is going in very nicely. Fingers crossed, we’ll be telling you it’s done this time next month!

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