Shock Therapy - Establishing Boundaries that Work at Work
A few years ago, my wife and I moved to a mountain community above Denver where no fences are
allowed. Our house sits on a large lot surrounded by neighbors on all sides. We have a golden
retriever named Tucker who loves to run and explore, but we don't want him to invade the privacy
of our neighbors. We can't stomach the thought of chaining him to a post, so we invested in an
invisible fence-a thin buried wire that encircles the property and carries a mild electrical
current.
The wire works in concert with a transmitting collar we put around Tucker's neck. When he gets within
10 feet of the wire, he hears a beeping noise. As he gets closer, the frequency of the beeping noise
accelerates. If he ignores the warning and crosses the barrier, he immediately receives a mild shock
that reminds him he's gone too far. The shock sends him back inside the 10-foot boundary and conditions
him to respect the beep. We've learned that this system works about 98 percent of the time.
However, if we fail to recharge Tucker's collar at least once a week, it loses its power.
Occasionally a deer, elk, fox, or even a skunk runs by our property. Naturally, Tucker wants to run
and play, and just takes off. We've learned that if the beep doesn't sound, he'll take off for hours.
When that happens, it takes a long, long time to retrain him to respect the boundaries.
In reality, your rules are only as good as your ability to enforce them. If you allow your kidployees
(my term for 16-to-24-year-old employees) to break through defined barriers without experiencing a
consequence, you condition them and their co-workers to continue that behavior-just as if Tucker
didn't have that electric fence to enforce his "rules." As difficult as it might be for you to dole
out a shock, it's critical that you be willing to do so.
Three Important Rules for Setting Important Rules
#1: Be Likeable - You don't have to be your kidployees best friend, but always be friendly. They feel
an allegiance toward a boss they respect and genuinely like. When asked why they don't pilfer, lie to
their boss, call in sick to get a day off, or fudge on the time sheet, kidployees often say something
like, "She's a really cool lady and I wouldn't want to do anything to hurt or disappoint her."
Ironically, if you're perceived as being fair and consistent in enforcing relevant rules, they will
like you and look up to you with a great deal more reverence than if you weren't fair or consistent.
They know you have a job to do; they simply want to think of you as a person with a heart, a soul,
and a conscience.
#2: Build in an Element of Fun - A spoonful of medicine helps the sugar go down, right? It's far easier
to enforce rules and discipline when your kidployees are allowed to have some fun-and perhaps some
organized chaos-in the workplace.
When I worked in a clothing store during high school, my co-workers and I loved it when the manager
left the premises. That's when we'd start throwing straight pins to pop the balloons on display. Or
we'd dress up in new clothes (price tags still on) and pose as mannequins in the mall windows, then
we'd wait until people walked up to the glass and startle them. Or we'd lie on an outdoor "Sidewalk
Sale" table covered with marked-down pants. When someone walked up to the table, we'd pop out from
underneath the pile, hold up a pair of pants, and say, "This one might fit!"
Yeah, working in that men's store, we sure got our kicks from freaking people out. We wanted to have
fun-and fun was a no-no back then. Bosses went out of their way to suppress any type of horseplay
that kidployees might have. It was supposed to be strictly business "by the book." Most appealing
for us was creating our own fun by throwing out the rulebook.
Your kidployees shouldn't have to break your rules to have fun. Be proactive about it. Instead of
only laying down the don'ts, lay down the do's as well. Let them know what kind of horseplay you'd
allow and when. Structure the chaos. When fun at work is no longer the forbidden fruit, you'll have a
much easier time getting buy in for your rulebook.
#3: Reverse-Discipline Your Rule Followers - Instead of instituting a consequence
for when your front liners break the rules, why not reward them for following the rules? Instead of
"three strikes and you're out," try "hit the safe zone and watch cool things happen!" Don't confuse
this strategy with having a recognition and reward program for outstanding performance; this is simply
a technique to get 16- to 24-year-old employees to play by your rules.
My daughter attended a high school that had a very strict dress code. Whitney, a fashion princess,
always wanted to push the dress code to the limit. Then she learned that students who made it through
an entire semester without a "code violation" could opt out of a final exam from any class of their
choosing. That's all it took; she never again pushed the dress code boundaries. Taking the final exam
wasn't a punishment, but not having to take it was certainly an incentive-not for achieving excellence,
but for obeying the rules. Whitney bought in to that.
WHOA! Stop and think of how this technique could work for you. Imagine, for example, that instead of
paying your front liners $6.75 an hour, you paid them $6.50 an hour with a stipulation that, every month,
if their personnel record was free of dress code infractions, they'd receive a 25-cents-an-hour bonus
retroactive to the first date of the month. You'd be rewarding them for adhering to the code (pleasant
and fun for both of you) rather than punishing them for not adhering to the code (unpleasant and not
fun for either of you).
You can find ways to make this idea work in a number of different scenarios, depending on your
industry and specific concern. Offer a premium for good attendance and punctuality instead of
threatening them when they're late or absent. Or offer an incentive for turning in a cash drawer
that balanced instead of taking money out of their paychecks when their drawers didn't balance.
You'll find you can eliminate three or four of your biggest challenges with your front liners just
by taking a reverse-discipline approach.