summary of the article, please.

Realizing the answers he sought were not in the yard, Markwandered back to his office. Shutting the door, he turned off hisphone and sat back in his leather office chair so he could tryagain to straighten out his thinking like he had straightened upthe pile of lumber. Pulling out a blank notepad, Mark wrote downthe thoughts that were rolling around his head. He knew it wasprobably unreasonable to ask his employees to accept a wage freezefor the third year in a row. A subgroup of the employees alreadyseemed to dislike their jobs and it was scary to imagine how hardthey would be to deal with if their morale level sunk even lower.There were already issues with “lost” inventory—perhaps theemployee theft problem would skyrocket if there was no wageincrease. Employees who felt cheated might feel entitled to helpthemselves to a different sort of raise. The store was full ofitems that most people would want—it would be easy for adisgruntled employee to smuggle some of the smaller items out ofthe store in lieu of a raise. The ideas for cost savings given byAaron could probably be accomplished, but it would be a lot ofwork. Thinking about the time and effort that would be necessary tomake it happen, Mark wasn’t sure if he wanted it bad enough. Healready worked long hours, six days a week. If he was honest withhimself, he had to admit that he was not particularly motivated tofind a way to give raises to some of his employees. There werecertain employees who didn’t even seem to earn the money they werealready making. It was hard to justify giving them even more money.Mark realized that at least 15 per cent of his employees wouldprobably save the company money if they left. These were the peoplelike Dougie who were unreliable, dishonest, incompetent, or alwaysin the middle of the latest workplace drama. It was hard to getmotivated to work extra hours for months on end to reward thisbehaviour. Of course, there were twice as many really goodemployees like Kyle. These were the employees that cared abouttheir work and went that extra mile, even when no one was watching.They were the lifeblood of the business. They should be recognized.At the very top of this pile sat Aaron the controller, Simon thefloor manager, and Wesley the yard foreman. Mark jotted down a notethat it was imperative to show at least these three that they werereally appreciated. He also knew that giving a raise to only somepeople and not others could create new problems. Mark thought hardabout the options scrawled across the page. Should he give anincrease to everyone, to no one, or to the deserving minority?Should he do something else entirely? He knew there would be bigconsequences to any decision he made. Mark waited for a sense ofrelief to wash over him, but for some reason, he did not feel asexcited about this news as he had expected. This didn’t make sense.He had been so disappointed the moment before when he thought therewas no chance. Aaron had given him an opening to make this raisehappen. Knowing that Aaron had put a lot of work into this idea,Mark made an effort to show some enthusiasm and to thank Aaron forhis creative thinking. However, he ended the meeting shortlyafterwards with an assurance that he would think about everythingAaron had presented. Mark needed to let his thoughts settle downbefore he could sort them out. Walking back onto the floor, Markdecided that some fresh air might do him some good. He headedoutside to the side yard where the lumber, drywall, and other largematerials were transferred directly to customers or to the deliverytrucks. He scanned the yard for Wesley, the yard foreman. An eightyear employee, Wes had the responsibility to keep the yardorganized and safe. When things got sloppy in the yard, accidentsincreased, people were more likely to get hurt, and inventory wasmore likely to be lost or damaged. Like Simon the floor managerinside, Wes was always ready to step up and make sure things weredone correctly. Wesley was in the far end of the yard speaking to ayoung man on a forklift. As Mark walked closer, he could hear themdiscussing the best way to prep large customer orders. Instead ofinterrupting, Mark paused to straighten out a pile of lumber that acustomer had just finished picking through. At the sound of theforklift moving off, Mark looked up to see Wes watching him workwhile leaning against a skid of siding. With a smirk, Mark asked,“You enjoying yourself over there?” Wes nodded but stepped over topick up a few boards that had fallen to the ground. Placing themback with the others, Wes said, “Hey, it’s not every day that I getto see you actually working.” Looking at the neat pile withsatisfaction, Mark straightened out his back and replied, “Fromwhat I can see, that young kid is doing most of the work out here.”Wes laughed out loud and said, “Ouch! But good catch, Mark. Kyle isdoing a lot out here. I wish I had 10 more just like him. He justbrought me another great idea for doing things better. He has onlybeen here for two months, and he already seems to understand howeverything should flow together. There are guys who have been herefor five years who can’t do that.” As Wes talked, they watched Kyleexpertly maneuver the forklift as he picked an order of drywall fora contractor. Looking back at Mark, Wes said, “Hey, I don’t thinkyou came out here to pick up boards or talk about Kyle. Did youneed me to do something?” Mark shook his head and replied, “Nah.Just hanging out. Maybe I’m wondering if I could leave my problemsinside and get a job with you cleaning up the yard. Seems like itwould be a lot less stressful, and I could get lots of fresh air.What do you say?” Wes laughed again, and replied as he looked downat his cell phone, “Sorry, no openings. You don’t really want towork here anyway. Kyle would just make you look bad! Gotta go.” Westurned away to sort out a delivery problem that was holding up ajob on the other side of town, and Mark found himself on his ownagain. As usual, Aaron was behind his desk with a spreadsheet openon his computer and a cup of coffee half- forgotten amongst themany papers on his desk. With the company for over six years, Aaronadeptly handled many of the accounting and human resource issues,freeing up Mark to spend more time out on the floortroubleshooting. He smiled as Mark came in and said, “Hey, you’reright on time. Grab a seat. I’m just printing out a little reportfor our meeting.” The printer behind him started to whirr, andAaron rolled over in his chair to pull two sheets as they emerged.Rubbing his eyes as he handed one to Mark, he said, “You asked meif I could find any money for raises this year. Well, I’ve goneover the latest numbers and the quick answer, I’m afraid, is no.”Aaron waited a moment to let Mark scan the sheet before hecontinued. “As you know, sales have been down, we’ve written offsome old inventory this year, and there have been a few unexpectedexpenses that have really cut into profits. I’ve laid it out inbroad brush strokes in this table. I don’t think any of it will besurprising to you.” Mark exhaled loudly as he began to go througheach line with Aaron. He was surprised by how disappointed he wasfeeling. Listening to Aaron as he walked him through the numbers,Mark let a part of his brain consider why he felt such disquiet atthe idea of another year with no increases. What was he afraidwould happen? A mutiny? A mass exodus? Sabotage? The sound of theprinter running again made Mark realize that he had not been givingthe conversation enough attention. He said, “I’m sorry, Aaron. Ididn’t catch all of that. What was the last part?” As he handedMark another sheet, Aaron replied, “I was saying that the firstsheet is a fair accounting of the business. There aren’t more thana few thousand spare dollars to go towards raises. However, theremay be some ways we can ‘find’ some money in there.” Mark clearedhis throat and asked, “Legally?” Aaron rolled his eyes and said: Ofcourse. I wouldn’t recommend anything the auditors would pullapart. I’m just saying that if we change what we’re spending moneyon, we might be able to divert some towards a wage increase. Forexample, I’ve heard you say that we’re not getting much of a returnfrom our advertising spending. We could “save” some money there. Orthere may be room to reduce our inventory even further. Of course,you may decide that savings made by process improvements should goto things other than wages. The downturn isn’t over yet. If we dofind some money, there are many other places in this company whereyou could invest it. For example, we could use a better securitysystem. Or we could pay down some of our debt. Or we could do someoverdue building maintenance to ensure we look good for thecustomers. It’s a tough decision. You think about it. Mark lookedat the second sheet with interest. Aaron had listed a number ofdifferent areas where they could cut expenses or save some money.Some of them had been raised before, but they had never beenpresented in such a detailed fashion. Beside each he had given anestimate of the dollar amounts that could be saved. If they wereable to implement all of these ideas, there would be enough moneyto give all employees maybe a 2.5 to 3.0 per cent increase. Thiswas a little higher than the annual inflation rate. This type ofincrease would not make up for the two years of zero increases, butit would be a movement in the right direction. The owner of a largehardware, furniture and building faced a dilemma regarding how tomanage the upcoming wage review process. After two consecutiveyears of frozen wages, employees were impatient for financialprogress, but there was no spare money in the budget. It waspossible to pump savings from upcoming process improvementinitiatives into wage increases; however, the owner had limitedmotivation to channel hard-won funds to underperforming employees.On the other hand, he was eager to reward the people who addedvalue. A plan that rewarded only some employees could result in anangry backlash. He had to decide if he wanted to divert the savingsinto compensation and if so, he needed an effective distributionplan. As store owner Mark Coglin walked up to the service desk, heheard Simon, the floor manager, finishing a phone conversation.Mark paused at the counter as he listened to the tail end of theinterchange. Simon said, “Are you sure you can’t make it in? Thisis kind of leaving me in a bind, Dougie. Yeah, I get it. Okay.Hopefully we’ll see you tomorrow.” Replacing the receiver into thecradle, Simon glanced up, shrugged in response to Mark’s raisedeyebrow, and said, “That was Dougie Suzor calling in again. Hethinks he has the flu.” Mark rolled his eyes and the two menstarted walking towards the front of the large home hardware andbuilding Once they were out of earshot of any customers or otherstaff members, Mark commented under his breath, “It’s funny howthat flu bug always seems to hit Dougie the Monday following a longweekend.” Simon nodded, and said, “He’s not the only one. Fourother employees called in before him, and I have a feeling therewill be a couple more calls from people whose shifts start in theafternoon.” Mark sighed loudly in exasperation. “What is it aboutus that makes people think we are dumb, Simon?” He pointed to hisfreshly-pressed button-up shirt with the company logo embroideredon the left side, and said, “This says the name of the store is‘House, Hearth & Home,’ not ‘House of the-ones-who-will-believe-anything,’ right?” Simon chuckled, but didn’t comment orbreak stride. This wasn’t the first time he had heard this joke.Mark continued, “Do they think we’re not going to notice that theymiss every Monday after a long weekend? Especially when they comein on the Tuesday talking about the great road trip they had. Is itreally that likely that they will catch the flu for one day onlyevery time? Sheesh.” Simon laughed as he reached for the buzzingcell phone clipped to his belt. After a quick glance at the textdisplay, he paused and shoved several pieces of paper into Mark’shand. Changing direction, he asked over his shoulder, “Would youmind giving these to Donna at the front for me? They’re about tosend out that order for the Avondale project, and I want to check afew things with Wesley in the yard before it goes.” Not waiting foran answer, Simon took off towards the warehouse. Watching Simon’sretreating back, Mark was impressed once again by the dedication hehad to doing things right, even though it had unfortunatelyinterrupted his venting. As the floor manager, Simon never had ashortage of issues clamouring for his attention. Somehow he managedto juggle a lot of balls at the same time, very rarely dropping anyof them. As one of the owners of House, Hearth & Home, it wasvery reassuring for Mark to have Simon on the job. He was a keyemployee. Mark knew a business as big as his needed employees likeSimon. As he made his way to the front of the store, he was able toglimpse only part of the 39,000 square feet devoted to hardware,houseware, and building supplies. An additional 12,000 square feetwere filled with home furnishings, leaving 8,000 square feet aswarehouse space. No one person could manage the one hundred staffmembers, the truckloads of inventory, and the annual sales of morethan Cdn$20 million. Although every employee could make adifference in the success of the establishment, there were certainemployees who would be very hard to replace and Simon was one ofthem. After delivering the papers to Donna and chatting with herfor a few minutes, Mark walked towards the kitchen department tocheck out how the new displays looked. Customers really seemedenthusiastic about the kitchen displays, but they took up a lot ofvaluable floor space. Mark wanted to reassure himself that the newones were as nice as or even better than the old ones. As he camearound the end of an aisle, he noticed Marie and Anne, twoemployees from the flooring department, talking and laughing asthey stocked a shelf. He could hear they were talking about atelevision show that had been on the night before. Part way downthe aisle, a customer was looking perplexed as she scanned theupper shelves. Annoyed, but trying not to show it, Mark smiled ashe paused beside Marie and Anne, and said, “I think you have acustomer, ladies.” Looking around, they acted as though they hadn’tnoticed her before. Marie mumbled an apology and jumped up to askher if she needed assistance. Mark shook his head as he walkedaway. He thought, “We have trained our employees to make customerservice a priority, yet those two acted like that customer wasinvisible. Why will certain employees not do the right thing unlesssomeone is standing over them? And why do they think I would be sogullible as to believe they hadn’t seen her?” Before he could findan answer to this question, Mark was distracted by the sight of thenew kitchen displays. They looked very impressive and he stopped tocongratulate the kitchen designer for her good work. Glancing athis watch, Mark realized it was almost time for his meeting withAaron, the company controller. As he excused himself and startedheading towards Aaron’s back office, Mark thought about the reasonfor this meeting and felt a little nervousness in his stomach. Hehad asked Aaron to figure out if there was any money for wageincreases this year. Mark knew enough about the balance sheet tosuspect the news would not be good. Like many other businesses, theglobal downturn had negatively affected House, Hearth & Home.Sales had shrunk by almost Cdn$4 million a year. Profit margins hadtightened or disappeared in several areas. Employees had seemed tounderstand why there had been no raises in 2009 and in 2010.However, Mark felt it would be hard to sell a zero per centincrease for the third year in a row.