Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week, Thorne recounts a couple of "worst boss ever" examples to show value of good employees.

Given that our employees are on the front line when dealing with our customers and how valuable (and rare) a good one is (much less a great one), it always bemuses me when I run across stories of managers and employers disrespecting their staff.  I got thinking about this again after running across the following in a recent News of the Weird column:

In March, William Ernst, 57, owner of the QC Mart chain of Iowa convenience stores, excitedly announced a company-wide employee contest with a prize of $10 for guessing the next worker that Ernst will fire for breaking rules. "Once we fire the person, we will open all the envelopes [containing the entries], award the prize, and start the contest again."  Ernst added, "And no fair picking Mike Miller from (the Rockingham Road store).  He was fired at around 11:30 a.m. today for wearing a hat and talking on his cell phone.  Good luck!!!!!!!!!!" (After firing a cashier who had complained about Ernst's attitude, he challenged the woman's unemployment-compensation claim, but in October, a judge ruled in her favor.)
[Des Moines Register, 10-3-2011]

Another story of stupid treatment of employees I often refer to in a course I teach on retail management involves a joke played on a Hooters' waitress back in 2001.  The waitress, a 26 year old waitress at a Florida Hooters, participated in what she thought was a contest to win a Toyota, with the car going to the waitress who sold the most beer during the month of March.  Jodee Berry, the waitress, beat out every other member of the wait staff and, on April 1, was led blindfolded to the parking lot to claim her prize.  The manager removed her blindfold and presented her with the prize: a Star Wars Yoda doll, a "toy Yoda."  Hooters claimed it had all been an elaborate April Fool's joke but Berry was not amused, suing the company for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation.  The company eventually settled out of court for enough money for Berry to buy a new Toyota with cash left over.

What sort of idiot comes up with ideas like this?  Even worse, what sort of idiot thinks these ideas will motivate or enthuse employees enough to actually implement them?  An April Fool's joke is a mock news story run in USA Today or on Morning Edition, not something you inflict upon your hard working employees, many of whom work for not much more than minimum wage.

For the sake of the company, I hope the geniuses at Hooters who came up with that idea no longer work there.  Unfortunately for his employees, Ernst owns his company, but any halfway decent competitor coming into the market could easily poach any halfway decent employees, leaving him with only those no-one else would want, merely by offering them minimum wage and a more respectful attitude.  These people wait on your customers and are the last chance you have to make a good impression on the people who shop with you.

Why would any store owner or manager with a lick of sense not want to treat them with the respect and courtesy you want them showing the people who enter the doors of your store and, in this retail environment, choose to shop with you?  Good employees are like the pearl of great price in the Gospel.  When you find one pearl of great price, you want to do everything you can to keep it.  Likewise with a great employee.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely ose of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.