Naked Management

Bare Essentials For Motivating The X-Generation At Work

Marc H. Muchnick

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000674484
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

With highly negative stereotypes circulating about "X'ers," all managers have a clear and justifiable prerogative for reading Naked Management if they want to successfully navigate through what has been dubbed the "X-Crisis." Learn how to overcome worker apathy and management resentment. Naked Management is the first book to provide honest, practical guidelines for managers who need to deal with motivating the "X-Generation" and creating a positive impact on morale and productivity while putting a halt to turnover. Learn the critical tools both managers and younger employees need to put to use in order to create and maintain a successful workplace environment. Through a wide variety of exercises, management and employees alike have opportunities to explore feelings, evaluate performance and management techniques, define personal identity, and complete checklists on such topics as responsibility and management values. Let actual case examples demonstrate how the NAKED model impacts the work life of managers and X'ers in such organizations as PepsiCo, Ritz-Carlton hotels, NationsBank, Kinko's, Tulane University, Jiffy Lube, and United Airlines.

1
THE X-CRISIS

TOP TEN COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE X-WORKFORCE

10. Lazy — real underachievers.

9. Look to “Melrose Place” for answers to social crises.

8. Try to buck the system — don’t want to pay their dues.

7. Big-time whiners.

6. Are all high on dope or something.

5. No concept of where they’re going.

4. More concerned about watching Beavis and Butthead than finishing the job.

3. Lack team-player skills —just out for themselves.

2. Would rather be bungee jumping.

1. Too hung up on that grunge music.

Anonymous David Letterman Groupie

CRISIS AT A GLANCE

“Those X-Generation kids. They put on quite a convincing show in the interview, and then poof! They’re gone within nine months, at best two years.”

Margaret, 44 — Associate director of regional sales for electronics superstores in Dallas, TX

“X’ers are actually naive enough to think they can start their new job one day and be in line for department head two months later.”

Tim, 38 — district manager for expanding convenience store chain in Minneapolis, MN

“I’ve got a bottom line to meet, see. If I spend my time baby-sitting and worrying about all the various problems that face this generation, we’ll never be profitable.

Those who can’t take the heat of a real job should go back to the french-fry pit.’’

Alex, 40 — managing director of casino operations in Las Vegas, NV

How do managers motivate members of the X-Generation? Thus far, there have been no definitive answers. In fact, many managers feel that the X- workforce — the new and culturally diverse labor pool predominantly made up of today’s teens and twenty-somethings — poses one of the greatest human resource challenges of the century. Naked Management addresses this quandary head-on.

First, the context in which Naked Management is most applicable must be defined. X’ers typically have been stereotyped as “lost,” “slackers,” and “lazy,” and are often characterized by employers as the most unprepared, uncooperative, and underachieving generation in history. Many managers who have spent years inching their way up company ladders are appalled by what they view as X- Generation nonconformity, non-sticktuitiveness, and sheer disinterest in playing by the rules when it comes to cultivating a strong work ethic. They stand firm in their “X’erism” — the negative generalizations, stereotypes, and attitudes they maintain about X’ers.

Managers who harbor a high level of X’erism, (some of them X’ers themselves), are not shy about expressing their views regarding the X-workforce:

“For X’ers it’s just a job, not a career. If it doesn’t get done today, no problem — it 11 get done tomorrow or maybe the day after that. Basically, their work ethic is out to lunch. There’s no dedication or commitment with these folks. Loyalty means that they’re just here until something better comes along. A job to them is just money to pay their bills and bar tab.’’

Joe, 47 — food and beverage manager at full-service hotel in Atlanta, GA

“The X-Generation expects a lot — I should know. But the X’ers who work for me expect too much. Their motto is ‘give me a lot more money and let me do a lot less work.’ Employment is like a social club for them. So how do you win as a young manager? These are my peers.’’

Alicia, 28 — retail clothing store assistant manager in major indoor shopping mall in Scottsdale, AZ

On the other side of this classic “we-they” conflict, X’ers resent being lumped into a category (see Figure 1). They become upset when they are labeled as one homogeneous group, especially if it carries a negative stigma. Ironically, the terms “X’er” and “X-Generation” are inherently nontainted and arbitrary. In modem algebraic thought, “x” represents all possibilities within a given domain. Naked Management helps to promote this latent objectivity by providing both managers and X’ers with a viable, nonjudgmental paradigm for working together.

Figure 1

THE ECONOMY FROM HELL

Question: What can be opened and closed, accessed only by a secret code, filled to no end, yet holds virtually nothing?

Answer: An X’ers bank account.

Times are not easy for young adults entering the workforce today. Popular terminology like “McJob” and “Slacker Work” have become commonplace for describing the employment opportunities readily available to the X-Generation, which often consist of fast-food counter jobs and shopping mall sales positions:

“A college degree doesn’t mean you’ve got it made, X’er. Real- world experience is what matters. The job you thought you’d have right out of school was just a fantasy created in a four-color marketing brochure.”

Dan, 51 — corporate headhunter in Stamford, CT

Unprecedented job cuts, a sluggish economy, falling real wages and abundant competition help constitute the perpetual Economy from Hell for X’ers. According to Nicholas Zill and John Robinson’s American Demographics article, “Between 1983 and 1992, the median weekly earnings of young men aged 16 to 24 who were full-time workers fell 9 percent, from $314 per week to $285 per week in constant 1992 dollars. Over the same period, inflation-adjusted earnings of young women in the same age group slipped 4 percent, from $277 to $267 per week.”

Plainly spoken, the majority of X’ers are finding it tough to get a decent job and survive on their own:

“Living paycheck to paycheck is fairly standard for most X’ers. Their credo is, ‘live frugally andpray to God the economy turns around.’ However, ‘buckle up — we’re about to make a crash landing’ wouldn’t be too far off the mark either, I’m afraid.”

Vicki, 41 — reservations center customer service manager in Memphis, TN

“The problem today is that there are too many young people like me: college-educated, hard-working, but can’t find a real job. Fifty thousand dollars ofstudent loan debt and look where it got me — mixing cocktails and calling cabs for drunks.”

Bob, 23 — bartender in upper West Side of New York, NY

“No wonder so many of us still live with our folks. I predict my generation will quicklyfind itself submerged in a dual economic misery: we will either join the petty bourgeois working class as robotic slaves to corporate America or platoon ourselves into the realm of riffraff scum after failed attempts to hawk our own wares.”

Tommy, 22 — temporarily unemployed, has held 11 part-time jobs in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Company downsizing (coined as “rightsizing” by many marketing opportunists) is a significant contributor to the Economy from Hell. The trend toward major corporate mergers, full-scale reengineering and massive layoffs not only impacts the X-workforce financially, but psychologically as well. The omnipresence of these issues results in a general mistrust of employers and the notion of job security itself. In many organizations, the sacrifice for achieving profitability has been telling loyal employees with decades of tenure to hit the road. To X’ers, the inferred moral is that they cannot trust anyone these days, especially their employers:

“People come and go around here. I don’t think top management really cares one way or another who does the work, as long as it gets done. Regardless of how long you’ve been here or how much effort you’ve given, when your time’s up, it’s up. I call it job insecurity. It’s why I spend at least one lunch hour per week networking and interviewing with other firms.”

Sarah, 29 — accountant at large consulting firm in Portland, OR

“What my generation faces is more than just the basic challenge of becoming mat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• A Word on Naked Management and Team Member Diversity
• Naked Terminology
• 1. The X-Crisis
• 2. Getting Naked
• 3. Necessary Freedom
• 4. Active Involvement
• 5. Key Recognition
• 6. Empathy
• 7. Direct Communication
• 8. Naked Proof
• Recommended Reading
• References
• Naked Management Seminars, Workshops, and Speaking Engagements