It's plain sad when a person does not have the ethics to work for their pay. I had a co-worker, several years ago who would show up on time, sit in her cubicle, nap, break for lunch, sleep, and leave at 5:00. She did not work for her paycheck.
I don't know how she did it. To me, it would take more work to scheme and get out of work than it would take to do the actual work in the first place.
I don't know how she did it. For me, my conscience would smack me in the face.
Yet, there are these people who do little or nothing to keep the bus moving. In Move Your Bus, Ron Clark calls them Riders. They are perfectly OK with allowing others - the Runners, the Joggers, and the Walkers - to do all the pushing.
Ron Clark:
I don't know how she did it. To me, it would take more work to scheme and get out of work than it would take to do the actual work in the first place.
I don't know how she did it. For me, my conscience would smack me in the face.
Yet, there are these people who do little or nothing to keep the bus moving. In Move Your Bus, Ron Clark calls them Riders. They are perfectly OK with allowing others - the Runners, the Joggers, and the Walkers - to do all the pushing.
Ron Clark:
Riders do not care about the overall success of the organization. In fact, they don't even care about their own personal success. They aren't trying to win awards or get recognition. They just exist. They can be a black hole of negative energy in an organization, a spot void of any positive growth or hope...and they sometimes receive the most attention from leaders who are desperately trying to motivate them to fix the situation
We all know co-workers (all from past jobs, right?) who do the very minimum possible to hang on to their positions.
But part of the problem lies less with the worker and more with the amount of energy the boss expends on him. I've watched bosses spend many hours a day on a single non-worker, giving up massive amounts of time and effort and making very little progress.
But part of the problem lies less with the worker and more with the amount of energy the boss expends on him. I've watched bosses spend many hours a day on a single non-worker, giving up massive amounts of time and effort and making very little progress.
At the Ron Clark Academy, I'm the Driver of our bus. I have developed my own philosophy for steering the organization, and it goes something like this: I support the Runners first and then, while they are off and running, I turn my attention to the Joggers, Walkers, and Riders either to help them improve or to kick them off the bus.
I have three thoughts:
Let's understand that when we talk about the Riders, we're talking about Work Ethic - that is, a moral code of values that encourages a person to do right. These betray more than their own ethics, but they ride on the backs of the people around them.
That's more than plain sad; it's plain ugly.
- I like this approach. It lends itself to the idea that I have long heard - that removing responsibilities from a person is the quickest way to make them quit their job.
- This is not a waste of time and money to invest in the Runners and Walkers. It is a waste to invest so much in Riders.
- This is a positive approach that can also apply to students in a classroom.
Let's understand that when we talk about the Riders, we're talking about Work Ethic - that is, a moral code of values that encourages a person to do right. These betray more than their own ethics, but they ride on the backs of the people around them.
That's more than plain sad; it's plain ugly.
