Consultants for the Needy Employee

 In addition to my love for headlines I'm also grateful for sound bites heard over the preparation of school lunches and quick, anything-that-can-go-in-a-toaster breakfasts. This morning, for example, I heard part of a National Public Radio report on companies that are hiring consultants to help "manage the 'over-praised' Me Generation." I tuned in just as some employees somewhere were being interviewed about their company's new policy of giving out awards every day. A twenty-something was heard saying how important it is to be valued, but another worker was puzzled and couldn't really relate.
    So how needy are these people and should companies in their efforts to raise morale, recognize and praise what should be the basic minimum for doing a job really be using this strategy? Of course the answer depends on whom you ask. We know that increasing morale can raise productivity, which of course can positively affect the bottom line. But what about the costs of bringing in those consultants? How much does that cost?
affirmations in our own direction. It's interesting to me that a company would go outside to find people who know nothing about the employees yet develop strategies so that workers will know how very much they are appreciated. I suppose this sounds a little bitter and maybe even cynical, but I wonder, I really wonder if the kind of praise you'd give a five-year-old is appropriate for someone old enough to be getting a regular paycheck. If your company does something like this and it's working, please tell me about it. I'm wondering, too, if the people who are asked to gather 'round the conference room to witness the "awards ceremonies" might not wish they could skip outside for a walk instead or order tickets online for that movie they're going to see Friday night. Maybe, just maybe they'd rather catch up on all that extra work that's been piling up.
    But in all fairness, I wonder, too, if perhaps because our lives are so crazy and multitasking-oriented those periodic, well, for some it might be daily doses, pats on the back really do make a difference. I heard one manager on the broadcast remark on the fact that managers (or did I read this somewhere? It's a fairly popular topic these days . . .) often become surrogate parents. Maybe they're even being called "helicopter" managers after the new moniker that's been given to overprotective and over-involved parents. Yet should managers be put in that position? Please let me know.