Apple has to be one of the greatest success stories of all time. The beginnings of Apple started with Wozniak assembling a simple built computer machine. It was in the summer of 1971 Wozniak 21 and Jobs 16 were introduced to each other by a mutual friend Bill Fernandez. Wozniak had shown Jobs his simple built computer machine and this impressed Jobs to the point Jobs believed he could sell it for a profit. It was here they would form a strong friendship because they not only shared a passion for computers, but because they were both known as outcasts and for the first time they had a great understanding, admiration and respect for each others abilities, personality and intellect. They would begin the Apple project by selling some of their possessions: Wozniak’s HP scientific calculator and Jobs’ Volkswagen, they raised $1300 and assembled their first prototypes in Jobs bedroom. When the project became too big for the bedroom they moved the project into Jobs family’s garage, it was on a huge wooden work bench that served as their first manufacturing base. The computers were hand built by Wozniak and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer club. After selling a number of the machines Apple was established on April 1, 1976 and went public on December 12, 1980.
Managing a large group of employees can be a daunting task. With employees having many different functions, schedules and personalities, it can seem overwhelming. There are a few things you can do to make the job much more manageable and enjoyable.
Have clearly defined rules and make certain your employees know what they are. In smaller groups, allowances can be made for personality issues or unorthodox office procedures. This is impossible as your payroll increases. Employees need to respect standardized behavioral rules and expectations. Changes to work procedures or work schedules must be approved by the manager or an empowered subordinate. Rules must be posted, and each employee should receive a copy and sign a form that the rules have been reviewed and accepted. This seems elementary for larger groups, but many companies grow too quickly and a lack of formal rules creates untold problems as the workforce increases.
In addition, management must be aware of employees with special needs or expectations. Employers and management should be keenly aware of the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA. This labor statute allows for accommodation for employees with disabilities of any kind, including emotional or physical problems including addictions. Reasonable accommodations should be made and a company attorney should be consulted to ensure compliance.
Finally, management needs to understand the dynamic relationship between employees and managers. Being involved in the daily operation of the business and discussing employee issues daily will dramatically reduce management difficulties. In the absence of active management and oversight, groups of employees can form cliques and departments or teams can break into factions which can cause a general breakdown of morale and productivity. Illicit activity such as gambling or illegal drug purchase or distribution can take place as well. Active, involved managers aware of their position and responsibilities can reduce these difficulties to a minimum and increase productivity and cohesiveness among employees.
Thirty years ago, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could easily have been dismissed as a consultancy-led fad or a do-gooding side show, but it looks increasingly like the idea of companies meaning, at least seeming, to be good is here to stay. The lobby of Marks & Spencer’s head office in London is not untypical of the current climate with big corporates. A giant electronic ticker describes progress against what they call ‘Plan A’ – a set of 100 worthy targets that they are committed to achieve over the next five years – help give a better education to 15,000 children in Uganda, save 55,000 tonnes of carbon every year, recycle 48m clothes hangers, convert 20m garment to Fairtrade cotton, the list goes on and to help achieve it every store has a dedicated ‘Plan A’ champion.
M&S is only one of many businesses world-wide keen to promote their good behaviour through their websites, their annual reports, their product marketing and their staff recruitment activity. The pressure from legislators has also increased – the 2006 Companies Act, for example, requires public Companies to report on social and environmental maters and the Economist reports the number of global executives ranking the issue as rating a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ priority rising from 30% three years ago to just under 70% in three years from now. ‘Doing well by doing good’ has become the expected and normal way that large organisations are behaving and, as ever, what is common practice in larger businesses is increasingly being taken up by smaller ones.
We live in an age when “doing” is prized more than “being”. We live frantically busy lives where time is our most precious commodity. The thing most of us yearn for is work/life balance.
Yet when we become overwhelmed by all this “doing” stuff, when we become stressed and need to stop and just “be”, we find it the hardest thing to do. Being with ourselves, resting in ourselves, is very difficult for most of us.
Instead we turn on the TV, plug the iPod into our ears, listen to the radio and distract ourselves from what is happening inside us with a coffee, a beer, glass of wine, chocolate or even a cigarette.
Now, there is nothing wrong with any of that as a way to switch off from a difficult day at work – unless it becomes our habitual way of relaxing and unwinding.
What happens when we “relax” that way all the time, is we lose contact with what is actually happening within our bodies and, in fact, our minds, not to mention our spirit. We become tireder and tireder over time. We wake up each morning still not feeling rejuvenated.
You are now asking: but isn’t that what is supposed to happen? Isn’t that why we have holidays – to rejuvenate ourselves? What if I told you it did not have to be that way.