What Do Squirrels Have to Do With Business?

Last week was Squirrel Appreciation Day. Isn’t it fascinating the types of “days” that have been created? But I digress.

Squirrels are cute creatures that run around from here to there, never stopping in one place for very long. They stuff their mouths full of nuts and hoard and hide nuts to keep them going through the winter months. 

I remember as a child growing up in London, England where my parents had a large bird feeder. The squirrels loved it and we would watch their antics as they climbed the pole to get to the seeds. My father tried many different ways to thwart them but to no avail, they would find a way to get around the obstructions and get to the seeds. 

They remind me of a particular type of employee. One that keeps information to themselves, isn’t a team player and is always busy being busy. They are the employees who are hard to pin down to have a conversation with because they are always on the go and have something that is more important (to them) than having the conversation. They don’t allow people to become friends with them and generally whilst not disrupting the team necessarily, are outside of it and generally avoid involvement whenever possible. They are unlikely to be interested in sustainability and efficiencies, being self-absorbed in their own world.

In addition, they may create their own way of doing things, resisting being taught and complying with the way the company does business. By doing this, they make it hard, if not impossible, for others to be involved in their work or to take over their role when they are absent from work. In this way, they think they make themselves indispensable. But are they really?

Chances are your squirrel employee is good at their job which makes it difficult to reprimand them, or pinpoint issues. This makes it difficult to discuss in employment reviews and seek compliance with the systems in place in the business.

Recently, one of my clients had a squirrel employee. The client was hitting roadblocks with the employee whilst implementing changes to improve processes and efficiencies in the business. Matters came to a head and the employee resigned. Following the employees’ departure, a bucket of worms (not a can of worms) came to light. The company has a sustainability mandate particularly focusing on waste management (reusing, recycling, repurposing) wherever they can. This employees actions were exactly the opposite of what the company’s objectives were.

Not only had the employee not been following the systems and processes, he had not been quoting jobs and invoicing deposits up-front. He had not invoiced over $ 500k of jobs that had been completed. Information about the jobs was difficult to find and piece together. A few months after his departure they are still finding more errors, omissions and issues.

Is your squirrel employee costing you money in your business? Are they undermining your sustainability initiatives?

We are proud to advise that this article was written by the team and not produced by AI.

Contact us for a complimentary consultation to discuss your squirrel employee challenges.