Give them a break
Roger Bloss expects a lot from his employees at Vantage Hospitality Group Inc. But he also expects them to take a break from their work once in awhile. And if you work for Bloss and you miss something like your kid’s soccer game, you won’t make him very happy.
“I just tell them, one, they are welcome to go,” says Bloss, the 80-employee company’s founder, president and CEO. “Two, I know how long they are going to be gone, and three, I’m interested in what’s happening in their world. It doesn’t become monotonous, and it doesn’t become routine. They know that, in my world, we work to live. We don’t live to work.”
Bloss expects his employees to get their job done, but he is OK when they need to get away, provided they let him know why.
“Imagine working and living in a company where you can call in and say, ‘I’m not going to be in on Friday; I’m taking my kids to Disneyland,’” Bloss says. “We don’t call you and we don’t bother you at Disneyland unless it’s an emergency. Then you don’t mind taking the call because you’re not hiding. But if you called in sick and you’re really at Disneyland, you’re not going to take that call. If I let you and I reward you for it, you’re going to take that call.”
