1. If your employee threatens to go on strike whenever you wash her hair, you might negotiate the following deal:* The Manager will shampoo employee's hair with a minimal amount of product for a very brief period of time, just enough to initiate a bit of lather. Next, The Manager will back off. The employee will then be responsible for getting the shampoo out of her own hair by whatever means she chooses, whether it's dumping a cup of water onto her own head, or using a Bob the Builder washcloth to scrub it out. *Recommended only for employees who have been with the company at least two years.


2. Busywork in the form of two new packages of Pull-Ups can be assigned to both two-year employees and new hires. Put them on the floor and see what happens. Just make sure Housekeeping has vacuumed in say, the last week or so, and that there's no water around, in order to retain usability of these supplies. And obviously, Managerial intervention will be required should that empty plastic bag fall into tiny employee hands.


3. As a young employee and still now as a Manager, I'm drawn to staff photos, could stare at the ones on my desk all day. Small employees seem to enjoy them as well, and I recommend posting a bulletin board with current staff photos in your own office. Of course, the employee will need to be advised that the board and its pictures are Look, Don't Touch. Also, you may wish to run a comb through your employee's hair before snapping a picture of her looking at pictures, but then again, what Manager has time for that.

6 , , , , Read More
6 peanuts:
  1. Kurt says:

    "Look, Don't Touch!" would make a nice workplace sign.

  1. Andria says:

    Great managerial approach to have employees take partial responsibility for their own cleansing. It sounds especially suited for those highly independent 2 year hire folks. Make it an accomplishment on their part rather than something you are forcing on them - brilliant!

    You can't always enforce the grooming standards set forth in the Employee Manual - it would just take too many resources.

  1. erin j says:

    Elijah is no fan of the hair washing, but we have (finally) found sensitive skin bubbles (as to not have total breakout) and I bribe him endlessly with them! Of course, I still don't get all the soap out of his neverending hair (totally straight it is nearing the middle of the back!!!!)
    Also, We were sent a really cool photo album after Elijah was born and he LOVES to look through it. Also the fridge pics are a big hit!

  1. Ruby says:

    Who knew Pull Ups could be so fun?!

  1. ~sarah says:

    just thought you'd like to know that yesterday i had to go to a sound mix for work - a really gross horror flick. i CANNOT watch those. they disturb me to no end. so since i hadn't been to the lo co. for a few days, i brought up the blog on my laptop. whenever it looked like things were going to get out of hand, i distracted myself with your stories and photos of your lovely children. it worked very well! no nightmares or anything. : )

  1. penelope says:

    Aw... Thanks! :)