I aim to be non-judgemental at all times - but you know how it is when you come across something that just leaves you no choice? Such a case is this example of how not to motivate people from the Bank of Scotland, reported in Scotland Today:
Row over bank 'humiliating' incidents
Union officials are meeting with managers from the Bank of Scotland to
discuss an escalating row over the use of vegetables as motivational
tools. Customers and relatives complained after members of staff at two
of the bank's branches had a cabbage and a cauliflower placed on their
desks. The Bank has apologised but the union has described the
incidents as ''unacceptable''.
The first incident occurred a week ago, when teenage teller Darren
Murray had a cabbage placed on his desk at a branch on Glasgow's Great
Western Road. HBOS apologised and said it was an isolated incident.
But it has emerged that another employee, Julie Ferguson, who works at
a branch in Paisley, was given a cauliflower for her desk and told that
she could only pass it on when she got someone to open an account.
The employees' families and their union, Amicus, have described the
treatment as ''humiliating'' but HBOS has issued an apology, saying:
"We encourage our managers to deliver strong customer service and sales
performance. We focus on positive measures such as good bonuses for
strong performance. But we very much regret we got it wrong on this
occasion and have apologised to the staff concerned.''
Amicus representatives, who are meeting with bank officials today, want
a company-wide investigation into allegations that the bullying and
intimidation of sales staff is rife.
16 August 2005 13:08
Thanks to Robert Zarywacz for letting me know about this originally by posting an item on the Ecademy front page. Image from The Cook's Thesaurus, a handy site for substituting ingredients.
Here in the UK that compulsively watchable show "The Apprentice" has returned to our TV screens - and making an equally welcome return is my good friend Gavin Ingham's commentary on it: The Sales Apprentice. While Gavin is drawing lessons from each show specifically from a sales angle, many of the points he makes about the first show are actually about the emotional intelligence of the candidates. I've added my off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts about emotional intelligence in 'The Apprentice' as a comment on Gavin's blog.
