The Truth About Unproductive Employees.

If you are a manager or a business owner you can not afford to have negative non performing employees on your payroll. Often times unproductive people search out smaller companies because of their lack of direct management. As an owner you should always be ready to recognize both positive and negative behaviors in an employees performance. Large companies like 3M discovered that when they laid off the bottom 10 percent (the weakest performers) of employees, their productivity increased by 18 percent. It didn’t take them long that learn that negative employees not only produce less but also cost quite a bit more.

Negative employees destroy moral and turn off customers with their negativity. They don’t have a lot of drive and don’t take allot of initiative. So how do employees with good positive attitudes behave? Here are four characteristics you should look for in yourself – and your team.

1. Positive Employees Understand That Work is Good For their Soul. Most people know that it is good for a company. They understand that it good for the customer and they may even know that it is good for the country. But only positive people know that it is good for the soul. Something corrosive happens to the souls of people who stop caring about the quality of their work… and begin to go through motions.

2. Positive Employees Decide to Enjoy Their Work No Matter What. No Job will ever be perfect, and there will always be room for improvement. In spite of that, a positive employee decides that they are going to like their work. It’s a decision they make, not a feeling they have when everything is going well. If employees think that their job stinks, they need to try unemployment for a while.

3. Positive Employees See The Good In Every Situation. Like everyone else they see the wrong in every situation, but positive employees don’t get stuck on that point. Positive people keep themselves going by seeing the good in every situation and focus on how to make it better. By contrast negative employees focus on minor annoyance and let it ruin everything.

4. Positive Employees Do More than Is Expected. Positive people are never satisfied with getting by doing the bare minimum. They wouldn’t feel good about themselves if they did. Positive employees find out what is expected and do what they can to exceed those expectations. Whether it is dazzling a customer with better service than they have ever experienced before or surprising a coworker by offering extra help, positive employees focus on how they can do more, not less.

Austin Texas SXSW 2007 New music Review

I decided this year in order to get the most out of the week I would do things a little different. Instead of viewing any legendary bands from the past like Willie Nelson, or Anthrax jamming with Public Enemy, I would search out new music. Primarily bands whose names I have never heard of. I have to admit my decision to go after rouge talent has to do in part with the fact that I have been spoiled recently while doing my time in Dallas. Both The Granada Theater, and soon to be no more, Gypsy tea Room have been fighting the good fight and bringing in great bands to the socially limited Dallas community. They have also been hooking up their friends and neighbors with free tickets to their great shows. On account of their generosity I feel as if I have been getting my share of legendary performers. With that in mind I felt that no other gathering in the world would I have a better chance to see bands that will be giving it everything they have, staring straight at the sun, in the back of a vintage store for free. Needless to say if you were one of the lucky few to ride into SXSW this year in your big comfy tour bus, bio diesel or not, I didn't bother. However if you were one of the thousand bands that rode in a stinky van with your equipment in a rental trailer in tow behind, playing one to three gigs a day in hopes that someone may notice you, well maybe I did.

First Off, Here is to New Music, Beats, Combos, Progression, and raw creative talent. The stage is no longer just a podium for 6 guys to ramble on in a impromptu ho-down, but a place where one to three artists can combine electric, digital, acoustic and analog, keys, notes and beats, mixed with poetic lyrics into a progressive experience. When we can leave the music of our fathers behind us, but take some of the meaning and freedom they left us, you get something like Three More Shallows. A harmonious melodic, three piece outfit out of Oakland, Ca. These guys are not about the pegged pants, and v-neck t-shirts side of being a rock star, but instead the creative chaos that comes out knowing how to make music.

Not far from the bay, but maybe on the other side of the bar Sugar and Gold borrow aggressive 70's & 80's dance beats combined with authentic rhythm sections making it difficult for even the most uptight yuppie frat boy to keep his penny loafers from tapping the floorboard of his mom's leased BMW. These guy's and gal are the real deal, as they seam ready to raise the bar at any club or party. Sugar and Gold have what it takes to get you off the couch and on the floor with original songs splashed with a Love Boat Cruise type feel. Check them out.

From The other side of this vast country, where the free masons drafted together a constitution, years later to be manipulated by ignorant Klan's Men, spawned The Teeth. Fortunately for us the only manipulating Philadelphia's The Teeth do, besides to their facial hair, is to their instruments. Thus generating a sound and experience they can honorably call their own. These four guys pack a punch with natural talent and a live performance that is really not worth missing under any circumstance.

There were so many great shows I saw but even so much more that I missed. I have to say thanks, to friends and family in Austin and thanks for putting up with us, Thanks to all the Great Raw Talent on their way to being rock stars, and a special thanks to Cream Vintage and their Day Parties. You can never get have to much of a good thing.