Bring one of the hourly employees along for the ride for the day and let them see how hard you work. They will find a new respect for what you do. Then take a turn following them around for a day, who knows you may learn something as well. Either way, you will gain a lot of respect for each other in making the effort.

It is a lot like arm chair quarterbacks. We yell at the guy who dropped the ball. From the comfort of our couch it looked like an easy catch. But get down there on the field with 350lb line backers charging at you, totally different story.

We all have a tendency to look at other people and assume how easy their jobs or lives must be. But once we experience it first hand we find out in a hurry that their job is much tougher than ours and we wouldn’t trade situations with them for anything.

On the other hand, some salaried employees would do well to consider that the hourly employees are very important to the success of the company, too. Salaried employees may not be able to SEE what the hourly employees are doing either.

Hourly employees look at the same four walls every day while the salaried ones who are out of the building have the benefit of a change of scenery. I understand that one company encouraged its traveling employees to return to the office with an attitude of appreciation for the change of scenery. Don’t gripe because you “had to go away.” You had a change of pace, even for a one-day seminar, and the rest of the group stayed behind to do the usual work.

If salaried employees would appreciate the hourly employees as part of the team, just imagine how well we could all get along!