Page 215 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

186 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

Story from the Trenches

Nancy worked as my first graphic artist at ColorMe Company.
As you can imagine, this is a highly critical role in a company
whose entire product line is based on digitizing children’s art-
work. Although the rest of the office used computers loaded
with Microsoft Windows, she insisted on using her own Apple
laptop—which I completely understood and supported. My only
request was that on Friday afternoons she back up her work on our
computer server. (You know what’s coming.)
It was Christmas 2005, and we had decided to invest nearly all
of our time and resources into a single marketing campaign. This
was a big deal for a small company that counted on Christmas to
generate more than 50 percent of yearly sales. Two days before
the artwork was due to the printer, Nancy’s hard drive crashed.
She had not backed up her work in three months. I did not ask her
why; doing so would have been like asking a four-year-old why she
hit her three-year-old brother—there is simply no good answer.
To say that I was angry and upset at her was an understate-
ment. Despite my extreme irritation and disappointment, I realized
that firing her at this moment would do more harm than good. It
would be impossible to hire another graphic artist and get him or
her up to speed before the end of the Christmas season, and there
was still work that needed to be done. So I gritted my teeth and
began to do what I could to salvage the season.
A few days after this catastrophe while I was working alone at
night in the office, I found myself checking Nancy’s computer to
see what she had accomplished in the last few days. I went home
that night with a sick feeling in my stomach; I had to admit to
myself that I simply no longer trusted her or her work ethic. The