Interview Chatter

Feeding The Hog

by Darlene McDaniel on November 16th, 2007

Yesterday I shared an article I found on Yahoo.com, “Four Questions to Ask a Potential Manager.” As I mentioned, I wanted you to read the article and I would share my thoughts today. Here is a portion of the article that made me think:

“Happiness on the job sometimes comes down to one person: Your manager. Your manager can matter more than money, title or benefits. People don’t always quit jobs, they sometimes quit bosses. Many workers leave a position because they’re unhappy with their bosses. On the other hand, if you genuinely like and respect your boss, your job can be rewarding, fulfilling and even fun. But how can you ensure that you and your potential boss will get along. While there are no guarantees, you can often recognize a boss who’s right for you — if you ask the right questions.”

Why do people leave jobs today? I betcha, many people do leave organizations because of their relationship with their boss. It is very important for you to take time during the interview to invest in asking questions to ensure that you and your new boss will be able to work together. What happens when you take a job and conflict comes? You will Feed the Hog! Read on! 

Feeding the Hog 

There’s a story making the rounds about a consultant who was called into a lumber company. Profits were slipping and management couldn’t figure out what was causing it. All of the other performance measures were stable or increasing. The consultant did what consultants do, talking with a large number of employees. He observed several things about this particular lumber company, including the fact that working conditions were somewhat austere and that the dominant leadership style was autocratic, almost to the point of being abusive.

In one of his many conversations, the consultant asked an employee how it was that, given the difficult working conditions and harsh leadership style, there wasn’t more absenteeism, poor production or any of the other typical symptoms of an organization that was “hard” on its workers.

The employee answered, “Oh that’s easy. When we get frustrated, or angry we just feed the hog.” Seeing the puzzled look on the consultant’s face the employee explained. The “hog” was the big mechanical wood chipper at the back of the plant. All unusable scrap was fed to the hog to make the wood chips that go into particle board, one of the least profitable products the company manufactured. “When we get upset,” he explained, “we take finished lumber and feed the hog.” (And the company never knows where the chips came from. After all, you can’t tell scrap wood from finished lumber once it is reduced to chips.)

The consultant was still puzzled. That explained the slipping profits but not the absence of the typical symptoms of an organization in distress. “I still don’t see why people don’t just call in sick to avoid coming to work.” The employee explained. “We don’t really want to miss work. We all have hog quotas. If we aren’t here to feed the hog we are fined $20. That money goes into the party kitty and pays for our quarterly family picnic and beer blast.”

Employees in nearly every organization feed the hog, finding their own unique way of punishing their employers for perceived wrongs. Feeding the hog is what employees do to get even and getting even is one of the two most powerful drivers that cause good people to do bad things. It is how people strike back when they believe the organization is being unfair. And it isn’t limited to blue collar workers on the factory floor. People in all fields and at all levels feed the hog.

When you get tired of Feeding the Hog, you will transfer, leave or you will get terminated.

More to come tomorrow!

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POSTED IN: Coach's Cornor, Ethical Dilemmas, For Managers