Shire = Fear-based workplace

Discussion in 'Shire' started by Anonymous, Aug 10, 2010 at 10:02 PM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Ten signs you work in a fear-based workplace
    Tyrannical, brown-nosers rising again — and it could hurt your companyAdvertisement
    By Liz Ryan

    A friend of mine called me from a noisy airport. "I can't wait to get to my hotel and tell you the latest drama from my office," he said. "I would have called you earlier, but my boss was in the cab with me."

    "Before I hear the drama itself, I have a question for you," I said. "Do you ever talk to your boss about all the craziness in your company?"

    "Talk to my boss?" my friend exclaimed. "Are you nuts? I tell my boss exactly what he wants to hear. People who tell my boss what he doesn't want to hear are people who get laid off at the end of the quarter."

    The U.S. financial crisis has caused fear in the boardroom, and that unease trickles down to every worker. The principal signs of a fear-soaked senior leadership are a preoccupation with looking out for No. 1, a clampdown on consensus-building conversations, and the shunning or ousting of anyone so bold or naive as to tell the truth about what he or she believes. We've seen the fear epidemic hit dozens of major firms over the past few years, and it isn't pretty. When a leadership team's attention turns from "How can we do the right thing for our customers and employees?" to "How can we keep our stature, our jobs, and the status quo intact, at any cost?" then fear officially rules the roost.

    Here are 10 signs of a fear-based workplace. If you're the person in charge of a shop, pay attention:

    1. Appearances are everything. When employees are preoccupied with staying in the office later in the evening than the boss does, fear is king. When people worry less about the quality of their work than about how they're perceived by managers higher up the chain, you've got fear.

    2. Everyone is talking about who's rising and who's falling. When a daily focus of office conversation is the discussion of whose stock is rising and whose is falling in the company's internal stock index, you've got a fear infestation. A preoccupation with status and political capital is a sure sign that stakeholders' best interests have taken a back seat to me-first, fear-based behaviors.


    3. Distrust reigns. Would this be your knife in my back? When your employees have to stop and ask themselves, "Is it safe to tell Marybeth my idea?" you have a fear problem in your organization. Workplaces where people steal one another's intellectual capital are places where trust is subordinate to fear (if trust exists at all). If your business is one where backstabbers thrive, ditto. In a healthier shop, people would be comfortable rising up in protest against a backstabbing colleague, and the paradigm "I win when you lose" would be quickly nipped in the bud.

    4. Numbers rule. Sensible performance goals help people understand what's important. An obsession with metrics, daily, weekly, and hourly, and a world view that says an employee is the sum of his numeric goals, are signs of a fear-based culture. Why? A healthy organization builds performance goals into its leadership framework, but the metrics don't equal the framework. When management views people as complex, creative, multifaceted value producers and considers metrics as just one element of a well-rounded leadership program, you can beat the fear back to a tolerable level.

    5. And rules number in the thousands. Maybe the most stereotypical yet valid sign of a fear-based workplace is an overdependence on policies in place of smart hiring and common sense. These organizations fear their own employees' instinctive reactions to everyday circumstances (the need to book a business trip, order a stapler, or schedule a vacation day), so they install lengthy, tedious policies to keep employees from thinking independently. A need to tout the trust and openness in the organization constantly can be another red flag. As my friend Marla says, "The more an employer drones on and on in the handbook and other employee materials about trust, the less trusting they are."

    6. Management considers lateral communication suspect. My brother worked for a major electronics manufacturer. One day, stopping in the office just before taking off to visit a remote location, he ran into some guys who had just returned from the same facility. "Let's compare notes," said my brother, and five or six team members went into a conference room to confer. Within seconds, a manager burst into the room and demanded, "Who authorized this meeting? None of you guys is at a level to authorize a meeting." Evidently sharing ideas that could benefit the company is only a good thing in this organization if you carry a certain title and salary grade. How idiotic is that? Organizations that don't allow employees to brainstorm with one another are places where fear has made inroads.

    7. Information is hoarded. Closely related to the question "Can employees in my company chat freely?" is the question "How do people find out how things work around here?" If the sole answer is, "Ask your manager," you've got some creepy-crawly fear bugs on your hands. Cultures that allow people to hoard what they know to consolidate their power are cultures where fear has smashed trust under its heel. Likewise, if employees learn about a company layoff through the grapevine or in the newspaper vs. a frank sitdown with their managers and their teams, something is rotten in Denmark, and fear is a silent partner in your management roster.

    8. Brown-nosers rule. When the people who get rewarded and promoted are the least-knowledgeable but most-fawning ones in the org chart, fear has come to town. Fear-based senior leaders surround themselves with yes-men and yes-women because it's more pleasant to hear the "right" answer than the truth.

    9. 'The Office' evokes sad chuckles, rather than laughs. My friend Amelia writes, "As hard as the writers for 'The Office' try to make Steve Carell's character look like the world's most bumbling, officious egotist, my actual boss is worse." When cartoonish fiction looks more appealing than everyday existence to your employees, fear may play a major part. Fear shuts down our ability to think creatively, collaborate, and bring passion to the job. When getting through the day requires a focus on keeping one's head down, taking no risks, and sucking up to anyone in management, your organization's soul has left the picture.

    10. Management leads by fear. When senior leaders make virtually all decisions in secret, dole out information in unhelpful drips, and base hiring on sheeplike compliance rather than energy and talent, and the PA system all but blares "Be glad to have a job, stop whining, and get back to work," your company's fear problem is off the charts. I saw an example of this myself the other day when I stopped at a national retailer to look at earrings. A sales associate mentioned to his co-worker, "Crazy thing, I broke something in my car's engine, and my mechanic says it'll be $1,400 to get it fixed." In a flash, the supervisor of the department swooped into the conversation with the message, "Lucky you've got a job, aren't you then! A lot of people are unemployed, and we've got a list of people who'd love to have your job. That's your thought for the afternoon: Lucky Me!" and off she went. When leadership is based on keeping people in the dark and keeping them off-balance, no one benefits except the tier of managers near the top who justify their existence by devising ways to solidify their stature.

    Chief executives know in their hearts that smart people, set loose to solve big problems, are responsible for every success and innovation industry has ever seen. Fear-trampled employees don't do a thing for your business. Still, management by fear is a hard habit to break, because fear-whipped underlings don't squawk. Meanwhile, your competitors may be hiring your best talent away and stealing market share while you make it easy for them to do so. Those meek, submissive, broken-down employees might blossom in your rival's trust-based culture. Do you really want to find out?

    Copyright © 2010 Bloomberg L.P.All rights reserved.
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    #4 is a huge problem hear when it comes to evaluating the sales force. Not all territories are created equal and at the end of the day the computer spits out a ranking and the company decides if you're a good employee or not.
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Should have been "here" not "hear" should have proof read that before I hit submit.
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Great article! This one hit home on too many levels. Thanks for posting.
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    "I've got a stack of resumes on my desk this high of people who could take your jobs!"

    Nice motivational skills, how's that been working out for a certain Zone in Q3?
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Is that the SE Zone? There was a lot of traffic on here for a while about the ZD down there but nothing recently. Heard he was getting rid of people even though the formulary coverage in the territories was shit. Just curious any cases where replacing the rep made a difference?
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Wow. That's spot on. If anyone still thinks that you can grow as an individual in this company, take a good look back at the person you were before you took this job. My guess is that you're a shell of the person you were when you were hired. You probably have some admirable qualities which were invalidated and quashed by the culture at Shire. The money and benefits are nothing more than an illusion of happiness for most of you. Is this really the person you set out to be? Do you express yourself freely to your peers and your managers?

    There are so many good reps who have been beat into submission by this company. It's sad. There is more to life than a company car, good benefits, and subjecting yourself to emotional abuse.
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    What the managers don't seem to realize is that there is a stack just as big for their job. I say, if they try to drag you down take them down with you.
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    And what you don't understand is they will be allowed to get rid of you, long before they get rid of them. They will be allowed to clear entire teams three maybe four times before they realize that the problem might be the manager.
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    So True. This isn't just Shire but the egos of those that hire these managers just will not allow themselves to admit that they put the wrong person in the job. I'll give credit to who ever decided to jettison JJ but it remains to be seen if CES is any better. So far I give her a failing grade.
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Wow you ask some good questions. I know I'm a totally different person now than I was 5 years ago when I started at shire. I used to be very confident but I can thank Harry Painter and Victor Vaughn for pounding that out of me.
    Fortunately my new RD is great so my life doesn't revolve around "first call before 8:30, last call after 5". I still hear reps say that and I want to punch there stupid face! The new regime is much better than the old crew. Gary C is the last of old shire and he should be next if shire is serious about changing the culture.
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Same deal in the home office. The no-talent optics managers are on the rise, and the people who should be calling them out are too afraid, mainly because those that did so are gone. You can trace this back to Matt Emmons' departure. Those at the top of the company now don't have the people skills to see it happening, or the interest to do anything about it beyond building a Brave Bar on the third floor. It's only going to get worse, folks.
     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    This exact thing happened to me. I was part of the second team. The team before me all quit and then two managers quit and my group had 160% turn over in two years. I finally left for a f-ing temp job and I have never been happier. Shire is evil. They teach their Directors to be dicks and if the employees don't like it they will find some that do. The only problem is no one ever likes it and the ones that put up with it are evil too. So they have built a corresively evil environment for themselves. I tell everyone I know to stay away. Company first, life last. That is Shire in a nutshell. Their own company survey admits as much and they honestly don't care.
     
  14. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I interviewed for an in-house position and after meeting with some of the people on the team I knew that there was no way I wanted to work there. After reading these posts, I can see that I made the right decision.
     
  15. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I was a supplier or ironically called a "partner" to Shire. I felt like a real partner when they were in Kentucky. The marketing and sales guys at that time were professional, loyal, bright and established Shire as the ADHD Company.

    When the moved to Pa., they talked a big game about being a "partner", and after doing great work for them, they abandoned my company and the great staff I dedicated to their account. The rising stars of the marketing dept. can't even answer an email, or return a phone call, now.

    They took my idea though which became an annual event, and gave it to a competitor. They even told me how great the ROI was from this event when my company did it.

    As a 30 yr veteran of this once great business, my advice is to buy a Dunkin Donuts especially if you are driven and a hard worker. Putting your livelihood in the hands of guys like the Shire guys, and in this industry climate, leaves a lot to chance. Good Luck!
     
  16. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    /
     
  17. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Especially after this meeting and the shenanigans with the OBU SECRET meeting
     
  18. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    #10 resonates right now as the Shire Corporate office is quietly laying off employees and threatening more layoffs.


    10. Management leads by fear. When senior leaders make virtually all decisions in secret, dole out information in unhelpful drips, and base hiring on sheeplike compliance rather than energy and talent, and the PA system all but blares "Be glad to have a job, stop whining, and get back to work," your company's fear problem is off the charts. I saw an example of this myself the other day when I stopped at a national retailer to look at earrings. A sales associate mentioned to his co-worker, "Crazy thing, I broke something in my car's engine, and my mechanic says it'll be $1,400 to get it fixed." In a flash, the supervisor of the department swooped into the conversation with the message, "Lucky you've got a job, aren't you then! A lot of people are unemployed, and we've got a list of people who'd love to have your job. That's your thought for the afternoon: Lucky Me!" and off she went. When leadership is based on keeping people in the dark and keeping them off-balance, no one benefits except the tier of managers near the top who justify their existence by devising ways to solidify their stature.

    Quote
     
  19. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Fake News! Remember that a positive attitude begets a successful life!!
     
  20. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Stop with the "Fake News" bs. I bet you still say things like "bomb dot com" and "kudos."

    Do me a favor and take a long look at the reflection on your iPad and decide to be less annoying. Thanks!