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I just stumbled upon a very old Fast Company article about a book written by Dave Haynes, who claims to be the “Chief Executive Peon.”  I have just ordered the book and so admit to not having read it yet.  However, from the article and the reviews on Amazon, Haynes points out that most managers have forgotten what it’s like to be peons and for those who have managed for a long time this may in fact be true.  I still do not believe it is the crux of the problem, though.   That kind of statement implies that there was a point in time when they knew how to treat their subordinates (presumably when they were first promoted to a managerial role).  As you know, this goes against my theory in from the previous post, where I say that most new managers still think like Peons.

I think the real issue here is that managers, new and not so new, have a warped perspective of what it means to “be good to the peon.”  I will plug Dale Carnegie’s brilliant common sense treatise How to Win Friends and Influence People when I say the following:  regardless of what the golden rule tells you, the point is not treat peons how you think they want to be treated.  The point is to want to treat your peons well, both because you should (we are a very valuable army to keep in your camp!) and because then the treating-us-well part will come naturally and will actually be believable.  Many managers don’t realize this but we are exceptionally good at cutting through your BS.

In either case, Haynes’ book looks interesting and does have some useful tips (like looking into “silent turnover”–when people give non-work-related issues as reasons for leaving the firm) so I look forward to reading it and posting a more educated review.