Larry discusses the 'how to' when ask about the old boss/job to the new employer with Greg Giangrande of GoToGreg.com

Greg Giangrande is a transformative Human Resources and Communications leader with an exceptional record and reputation as a trusted partner and counselor to CEOs, Executive Leadership teams and Company Boards across iconic, multi-platform companies with global scale.  Recognized as a leading authority on careers and the workplace, Greg is the "GoToGreg" career advice columnist for the NY Post; was a weekly on-air contributor for IHeart Radio WOR 710 prior morning show; and frequent television on-air contributor for Good Day NY, Fox5 News.  He is currently the Global Chief People and Communications Officer for Ellucian - a private equity-owned global market leader in Ed Tech powering the future of Higher Education. Greg has a BA in Journalism and a MA in Communications from New York University, where he taught public speaking and communications courses as an adjunct faculty member for 20 years.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a podcast from wo R.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Here again is Larry Minty with the wo R Saturday
Morning Show.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back to Saturday Morning. Well, there's no better incentive
to look for a new job than if you hate
the job you have and you can't stand your boss.
But what happens if you're asked about either or both
in an interview for a new job? So, Greg, what's
the answer?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Like, where does this come from? Everybody loves their job
and they love their boss, Like, why are we even
addressing this? Isn't that everybody's norm?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Come on? Hr, Come on?

Speaker 4 (00:41):
So the reality is more than two thirds of employees
are not happy in their jobs, and the number one
reason is because of their boss.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
So it's it's a great question, and it's it's an
important one to know how to answer. Now. May be
tempting to Johnny paycheck it and say take this job
and shove it when you leave. Might feel gratifying if
you didn't like your boss or your job, but it's
never good to leave on a bad note, and it
is never good to carry that negativity over into a

(01:17):
job interview. You have to remember you've got thirty minutes
to present your best self. So you always want to
be positive. It never pays to talk smack about your
prior boss, or your current boss, or your your job,
because it not only puts you in a negative light

(01:37):
talking negativity negativity, it also may lead an interviewer or wonder, well,
how much of it maybe was you? Like, No one
wants to hire a snowflake who sees everything as a
microaggression and they're going to be a complainer. So so no,
you're you're not honest and you don't dwell on the negativity.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Let's go back to the two thirds for a second,
because that was that's kind of stunning. I will legitimately
say I never hated a job and I never hated
a boss, But you're saying two thirds feel that way.
I've I've guess I've seen people that don't like their
bosses or don't like where they work where I've been at.

(02:22):
But they're not They're far from being in the majority.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Every survey of employees conducted by every reputable firm, not
these like fly by Night I'm trying to make you
know a name for myself, but every legitimate, credible surveying
company for the past decades, the employee satisfaction. The employee

(02:47):
engagement employees who are really happy in their work never
rises above more than like thirty percent thirty two percent,
with the vast majority in the middle, like, you know,
they it's a job, they're not miserable, but they could
take it or leave it. And about fifteen percent who
are actively hating their job and wanting to be subversive

(03:11):
to the company. So yeah, there's not more than a
third of employees who will raise their hand and say
I love my job, I love my boss, I'm happy.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's an enormous indictment on workplaces in America, right it is.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
It is, And the number one reason why employees feel
however they feel at work, the number one reason is
how they feel about their boss. So if they love
their job, they typically love their boss. If they're like
met about their job, that's how they feel about their boss.
And if they hate their job, it's usually because they

(03:45):
hate their boss.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Wow, that's incredible. I want to go back to not
hating your job or hating your boss. Say you like
your job and you like your boss, but there's something
that you're not happy with at that moment. How do
you go Because you're saying as you know, always be positive.
Sometimes you want to tell them, but I would think
that one would be afraid to tell your boss you're

(04:07):
unhappy with something.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
How do you do that well? So there's a difference
between trying to improve your current situation and how you
present in a job interview. So in a job interview,
you always want to be talking about the positive contributions
you make and what you learned, even from difficult, challenging situations.
And you're not Pollyanna, right. Everybody knows that the best

(04:31):
workplaces have challenging people sometimes in difficult situations, and you
can talk about that and how you respond and how
you show up, but you want to pivot to how
you turned it into a learning opportunity and how you've
grown and what you've developed in your current job. If
you like your boss and you like your job and

(04:51):
there's something that's quite not working well, then you owe
it to yourself to use the good relationship with your
boss to have an honest conversation about what's working and
what's not working for you and what can be done
to possibly improve that situation, including what you can do
differently or how you might see things differently from the

(05:12):
current point of view that you have open, honest communication
when you're in a healthy situation is always the best
way to handle any situation like that.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
I'm still blown away by the fact that it's been
two thirds of people for decades, not just recently, for
decades you said that are not happy in their jobs.
That's quite an indictment, as I said a moment ago
on the Workplace on America, that we haven't done more

(05:45):
to make employees happy in their workplace. I mean, because
then they'd be better employees.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Absolutely, it's bizarre to me.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's well, it's a combination of factors. It's how people
feel about employment, the people who get promoted into leadership positions,
and it's employers not doing a good enough job of
helping employees feel valued as opposed to just a revolving
door of you know, people who come and go and

(06:15):
they don't care. But I mean, Pew Gartner Gallop, look
up any of them over decades. It rarely swings more
than thirty percent or low thirty percent of employees who
identify as being highly engaged, happy, and motivated. The rest

(06:35):
are you know, collecting paycheck doing a job. They may
not be raising their hands saying I hate my job,
but they're not saying they love it and they're fully
engaged either.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Wow. That that is just my mind is blown that
I would never, never, in a million years thought that
that was the case.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
It's better here than it is elsewhere. When you look
at global numbers, that thirty three percent goes down to
about twenty percent who feel happy and engaged.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Wow. Greg G and Grande career experts. Check them out
at go to Greg dot com where you can ask
your questions yourself right on go to Greg dot com.
This has been a podcast from wor