Dear Employees: Please be advised that the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend has been cancelled.

Tradititionally, my office (a law firm) has shut the office down on Thursday and Friday, just like virtually every other professional office in the country. However, our new "Director of Administration" (who is fresh out of college with a stage design degree and got the job thanks to daddy) has issued an edict that the office will remain open with business as usual. It doesn't even provide the BS that we need the extra hours due to lost productivity from Sandy. I don't know whether the management committee approved or whether she is just trying to be that Grinch who Stole Thanksgiving.

Presumably, staff will either have to show or get docked pay. Beyond the fact that this is UnAmerican, doing this the week of when people have travel plans and such just really seems disgusting.

It is all just ridiculous..... now waiting for the mutiny.

What type of widgets do you sell? I take it that they are not subject to increased demand over the holiday season? Just curious as most of my clients had their inventory control audits/inspections well before now. Trying to do it during high shipping season has always turned into a disaster.

Of course that is why people use this time of year to defraud their secured lenders...

Interesting. Shipping has to be perfect at this time of the year for my clients. My clients cannot afford the loss of business and chargebacks that would be incurred as a result. Department Stores do not take too kindly to empty shelves and seem to increase the severity of their chargebacks at this time of year.

Most of my clients have adjusted their fiscal years to avoid the need to have a hard close at year end. Instead they typically do monthly closings and testing and a big reconciliation either quarterly or biannually depending on volumes. It is more work, but keeps the factor/lenders happier.



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As per the "director," a big portion of my problem with her is that the millenials do not get work. She does not understand why she cannot make the same amount as an attorney with 10 years experiance here. She doesn't carry a blackberry, answer emails outside of 9-5 and generally doesn't want to do any work. I have heard from her too many times that such and such is not her job.

One of her big gripes is that no one respects her or takes her seriously. Perhaps this is because she updates her facebook page that she is hungover or put off doing a paper for her part time grad program until the last min and calls in sick.

Or perhaps it is because she just told the staff that she will not be in on Friday and that if they fail to show they will be docked a days pay or vacation day. Not ever having a real job, she doesn't know how to interact with anyone in person, prefering to send emails for everything, and doesn't understand why the people that made travel arrangments are now pissed. These staff members are now stuck choosing between ruining the trip to grandma's house and keeping their job. It doesn't make them happy and I cannot blame them.

Yep today... I just got called out for my sarcasm on the subject. Someone made a big deal out of the fact that an individual was accidentally left off a internal email distribution list. I told them that I am backed up with deadlines and suggested that we schedule a meeting to discuss further on either Thursday or Friday....

They did not like the comment said i was being glib and then started lecturing me about how its a holiday and blah blah and blah. Haha.

This is something that I have a lot of trouble with as I move to a firm leadership position rather than just in my practice area. IMO there are two ways you can lead i) out of respect or ii) out of fear. When given the choice, everyone would choose to lead by respect. Leading by respect, however, requires that people want to succeed and excel at their job. My experiances indicate that people that are satisfied with mediocrity or the status quo do not respond well to this method because they never want to go that extra mile to get the job done right.

I have yet to have a millenial to work with me that has an inate desire excel at their career. They do not understand why they have to stay late, check their blackberries and respond to a client immediately. They do not understand that ho-hum work product is unacceptable. I tell them that I do not want to review any drafts that they are not confident in signing their name to and defending it to the court on the law and the client on the fees. In this line of work, all you have is your name and once it is sullied, opportunity goes with it. Despite this, I get sloppy work product and cannot get passed page three reading before I return it to them noting that the product is unacceptable.

Occasioninally it is a lack of understanding, too many times it is a lack of effort-- misspelled words, defined terms being misused, and poor argument structure. It all reflects that they have not put the work and care into it. Recently, an associate assured me that they had spent at least X amount of hours on this project. My response was that the work didn't show it. With them standing in my office, I pulled up the billing summary and found that they had put in 1/4 of the hours. No matter how hard i try, coaching, as the firm leadership committee pushes, never seems to get any results with these kids. Their name and a good work product (Not to mention keeping a job in this economy) are not enough of a motivator.

I am beginning to think that fear and swift consequneces are the only motivators that may be effective in dealing with the millenials. Perhaps being afraid of losing their job and having to tell Mom and Dad that not only are they going to have to up their allowance to pay for the PBR's. I think the Steve Jobs Model may be the only effective way to deal with these fragile little creatures.


Remainder of the story developing. If it breaks the way I think it will..... This will be great.