New listing - Park Outlook

Ideal location - walk to Eastwood or Epping Station.

Almost 750sqm of elevated level land.

3 bedrooms & sun room together with studio.

First open home is Saturday 2-2.40pm.
Auction is Nov 21st at 1pm.

5 Davis Av Epping is super cute & already has the phones ringing!

Call me to get involved JOHN PRIDDY @ LJ Hooker Epping 0411 331043

What's your corporate culture?

Until I started my own business in late 2000 I worked for a multinational corporate. The corporate culture there was pretty good - you worked hard, but nobody frowned if you left on time or within half an hour of 5pm. Knowing the facility I worked at was going to close and I'd be made redundant, I kept an ear out for jobs in the industry and was approached by one of our rivals.

The job would have been similar to what I'd enjoyed doing, but with less of the graphic and web design elements I'd thoroughly enjoyed, so that was a little offputting. I asked about the corporate culture and was told: Our hours are 8.30 to 5.00, but nobody leaves before 6.

Hmm, I thought. That told me there was a culture of 'sucking up to the boss'. In this case it was a family-owned company and sucking up to the boss was obviously a good thing. Yes, the pay was more than I'd earned previously, but the location was in North Sydney which then paid more than Ryde.

I'd be spending up to an hour each way each day in getting to and from work. I'd have to drive as the bus option from Hunters Hill involved three buses (and heightened, therefore, the chance of delays and being late for work), and the ferry option was pretty awful with connections not meeting within an appropriate timeframe.

But it was ultimately the corporate culture that made me turn down the opportunity and start my own business instead. I'm not afraid of hard work - in fact I spend longer than I used behind a desk these days, but then it's for myself, not the boss-to-be-sucked-up-to. But a nine and a half or ten hour day with an extra one or two hours of travel was not the work/life balance I was seeking.

I don't believe in staying back late to impress the boss. As someone who held a middle management position in a corporate, I was impressed by staff who could get the work done in the alloted time, and leave each evening with tasks completed and everything up to date - and particularly those who had initiatives to streamline processes and make tasks easier and quicker. To me that's an example of good time management and efficiency. That's what counts - that's more impressive than sucking up to the boss by being the last to leave. Sure, I stayed back when I had to, when something had to be completed, and did it with good grace and enthusiasm. But it wasn't a daily ritual.

I was interested by one of Claire Madden's comments at September's Gen Y breakfast workshop. She stated that the Gen Y attitude towards being given a task that had to be completed each day was, "Yes, well, I'll start and let's see how far we get by five pm." On the other hand, "the baby boomer attitude was to stay until the work was done." I guess I'm more baby boomer than Gen Y in attitude (and gosh, in age. gulp.), and I'm wondering, nine years after I rejected that job offer, what the corporate culture is in companies now that more Gen Y employees are in the marketplace.

Do people routinely stay back in your organisation to impress the boss? Do you think that's a good thing? If you're boss or employee, I'd be interested to hear your comments on corporate culture and work/life balance.

Shocking managers may hold key to why top workers leave

Employers wondering why some of their good employees are leaving should look at the behaviour of their managers, a Deakin University researcher believes.

Dr John McWilliams from Deakin’s Business School interviewed 62 technology workers who had voluntarily left their jobs with their employers.

“The problem was that these were high performing employees, an asset to the company and their employer didn’t want them to leave. Their departure was classified as regrettable, yet could have been avoided had the company taken the time to evaluate the relationship between the person and their manager and developed the interpersonal competencies of their senior staff,” Dr McWilliams explained.

Dr McWilliams said, although estimates vary depending on industry, departures generally cost business 1.5 to 2.5 times the person’s annual salary.

Unusually, his exploratory study looked at the events which precipitated the person’s decision to quit and the final shock or jarring event which challenged the way they thought about work and which finally led to their resignation. Such shocks are a very good predictor of turnover.

“The first and largest source of shocks was the behaviour of managers,” Dr McWilliams said.

“This ranged from controlling behaviour to a lack of social awareness.

“One person, for instance, had been doing two jobs clocking up 350 hours of overtime. His request for overtime payment was declined, then he was torn to shreds at a hostile performance review and offered an unacceptably low pay-rise.

“Another person decided to leave after she attempted a conversation about overwork and was told by her manager to ‘either go or stay’, so she went.

“One described being in a health emergency with her child and was later chided by her manager, for having her mobile phone switched off during this time.”

Dr McWilliams said another source of ‘shock’ were calls from head hunters.

“Many people reported regular ‘testing’ approaches from competitors and customers as a matter of course. For many the approach by the head hunter was the final resolution of an accumulation of dissatisfaction.”

Dr McWilliams said sometimes people decided to leave after they had had a break which allowed them time to think.

“One call centre manager, a single parent of a high needs child, described leaving the office late and getting stuck, at the gate, by traffic gridlock. Sitting in his car this individual decided enough was enough.

“Another found herself sitting in the car park of a hospital in a country town while her father-in-law- was dying. She was on a conference call between Singapore and the US which was going through budgets. She just stopped and asked herself what the hell is going on.”

Dr McWilliams said stories like these went unnoticed in exit surveys. “It is so difficult to collect the data. No-one tells the truth in exit surveys. Companies pay lip service to these anyway. They should not be carried out by HR, or the manager, but an independent third party who can give you the bad or good news.”

New listing - Majestic views!

I have been looking forward to having this gorgeous home online for some time now.

46 Terry Rd Denistone.

Boasts views all the way to the Blue Mountains.

Large land - almost 1100sqm

3 bedrooms & study,fabulous established gardens.

Auction Nov 14 - onsite at 10am.

First open this Saturday 12-12.40pm - see you then!

A Current Affair Films TPR Group - the nature of happiness

A Current Affair filmed TPR Group this week at our national service centre in Annangrove. The story will focus on the wealth of scientific evidence that supports the importance of bringing nature indoors at the workplace to improve productivity, increase employee wellbeing and managing workplace stress. Stay tuned for details when the story will go to air soon. TPR Group is a member of the Ryde Business Forum and very active providing indoor plants and more within the North Ryde business area. A national franchise organisation, TPR Group provides much more than indoor plant hire to some 2000 businesses Australia wide, including Brisbane, Sydney, Gold Coast,Canberra, Townsville and Melbourne.