But the point I want to stress is that it isn’t just me! It isn’t just my department nor my division but the entire organization! I was told by an individual who attended a retirement benefits meeting. The meeting was standing room only! The HR rep said that it was the largest in the history of the Organization and that they had to hold a second meeting for others who couldn’t fit in the room. People are wanting to leave!

Some co-workers have approched me asking for me to hire them if I get another job. They stress that they want to work for me rather than our current employer.

Some of my fellow co-workers have hired lawyers in order to protect themselves for our employer. I know of a few who had to bring their lawyers in with them to “meetings” as procautions.

I know this post was about the job interview, so I’ll also say that if you’re spewing forth no solutions and complaining at a job interview, or if you’re only sharing a my job is great and nothing could be improved attitude, neither will get you onto my team. You need to optimistic that things CAN change, even if they totally suck right now.

I promise I’ll do a full post on this next week. Thanks for bringing it up!

I have often wondered where the balancing fine line between being realistic and being pessimistic or optimistic lies. The constant “EVERYTHING IS GREAT! WE HAVE NO PROBLEMS! WE HAVE GREAT CUSTOMERS! YOU ARE ALL EQUALLY WONDERFUL!” cheery attitude that I see in a lot of managers comes across as painfully insincere, and worse, obviously insincere. It is done in the service of not wanting to appear negative or biased or whatever, but the end result is often the opposite on employees.

I admit that I question a lot of the catch-phrasism I see here on Slacker Manager. You guys do a great job at looking at a lot of different ways to be good managers and on how to motivate employees you are supervising, but there are certainly times when I see something here that strikes me as a little less than genuine and a little more pie in the sky everything is wonderful optimism.

That brings up some very important questions about how you remain who you are and remain sincere to not only your employees but yourself. How do you remain realistic without being saccharine? How do you acknowledge the darker side of things while also keeping a positive but not delusional attitude?

Great post.

Terry

Attitude and communication skills – I can communicate quite well, just that we are not allowed to communicate with other departments.

Passion for something – My passion is to leave my current employer. I am actively seeking employment elsewhere. I have upgraded my skills and education and am seeking advancement whereas my current employer is unwilling to fulfill.