Acknowledgment; a Necessary and Good Thing

….but not when it’s just redundant, empty words.

I once worked for a company with several people who were true believers in Acknowledgment, and every time I turned around, I was told, “You are so valuable. We really appreciate you… blah, blah, blah.

I didn’t work for or with any of them, and I doubt they even knew what my job function was. They might as well have been robots. It was so freakin’ irritating and more than that, it was mindlessly insincere.

Hold on, I’m not saying that acknowledging good work and/or service isn’t a good or necessary venture. I’m just saying make it count. Know the person you are praising, know their work, and PULEASE don’t overdo it. One too many ‘you are a rock star’ comments, and you might as well tell them ‘you’re really very average’.

So what if someone really is just average; then what? Well, that depends. Are you the companies Social Director and it’s your job to compliment people mindlessly?

Oh, you’re not; okay then... skip the whole thing.

I’m talking about managers that run teams, divisions, etc., and you have some very qualified people that work very well with and for you. Simply tell them that you value them, without all the bullshit and flowers. Easy, huh?  You’d think, but some managers just don’t get it!

Okay, so this same person I mentioned earlier, almost every day, would seek me out and begin to tell me how wonderful, neat, cool and indispensable I was. You guessed it; I flipped out.

I just could not take one more empty compliment, so instead of simply saying, ‘thanks’, I said, “I’ll tell you exactly how valuable I am. I earn $___­­­­____ dollars per year, always make a bonus of $_______ quarterly. I am invited to all the private corporate parties and I always get to sit at the cool kids table in the cafeteria. Now fair is fair, tell me how valuable you are, m-kay?” 

After that day, life got a lot better at that place. I did good work, I knew it… and I was still sitting at the cool kids table. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Peace and Sincerity