I Got Your Respect...Right Here!

Here is a shocking story for you from this morning's Des Moines Register:

According to the 2007 Iowa Employment Values Study, conducted by a local Clive firm, workers want just a few things from their employer.  Chief among them is...

RESPECT.

That's it.  Workers want to be "appreciated in the workplace".  Next came something very similar.  They want to know their life has some sort of "achievement" level.  That all of this isn't for "nothing".  That they have made a mark in society and will be remembered as a good family person.

The survey tells us that 16% of all Iowa workers plan on quitting their jobs in the next year. However, if the worker makes more than $100,000 that number jumps to 25%.

I've not had the opportunity to read the entire study.  And while there are many things we can take away from this brief report.   I'd like to focus on just one thought...value.  Actually the value of yourself.  How YOU, not your boss or employer, look at yourself.

If you are waiting for your employer to step up to the plate and begin lauding you with affirmation and accolades...you'll be waiting for a long, long time.  Most simply don't care.  And, you shouldn't either.  It's up to you.  Nobody else.  You.

It doesn't matter if you make $20,000 a year or $200,000 a year if you don't have a positive opinion about yourself it's over. You'll be moving on soon and no amount of money, no plaque for the wall, no moving speech at a company picnic, no picture on the company website, no handwritten note from the boss will make it right...by you.

I've known individuals who have quit their professions, their jobs, and given up on their careers trying to milk some "respect" from society.  And, when it doesn't come...they move on.  Usually more battered and bruised then when they started.  It isn't "society" it's them.  They have lousy self respect and it clouds everything.

But, it's not politically correct to point this out.  Especially to folks who are "victims". 

One of my favorite Martin Luther King quotes touches on this thought of building yourself respect by doing your best.  He said:

"If a man is called to be a street-sweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street-sweeper who did his job well."

And if your boss doesn't notice...who cares.  You know better and that is what matters.

Oh, and if you are one of the 25% of the folks making over $100,000 a year and are "unhappy" because you just are not getting the "respect" you think you deserve.  Call me.  I know some positive minded, bright, creative and thoughtful people that will pick up that job in a heartbeat.  The employer will be happy, the new employee will be happy and you...well...you'll be moving on.

Michael P. Libbie - Insight Advertising, Marketing & Communications where you (and I) have to be asking ourselves, "Where in the heck did THAT come from?"  "Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me sock it to me...Respect, just a little bit, respect, just a little bit"  Got ya!  You'll be "singing" that all day.