All the rest is icing.

The Berlin Wall was torn down 20 years ago. Why are cubicle walls still standing?

Mr. Hoardajob, tear down that wall.

The Berlin Wall of Business
Here on one side of the office wall we have the Western Managers. They have all the amenities. They have freedom. They have The Wall.

One the other side are the Eastern Workers. They work in grey cubicles designed to keep them from talking to each other. They want amenities, too. Most of all, though, they want freedom.

Tear Down That Wall
When people sit together they talk together. They exchange ideas. They work together, not just on the same floor.

You Hate the Idea
I’ll be bothered all the time. I won’t have privacy. I’ll waste half my day.

Yeah, we’ve heard them all. Red herrings every one.

Work is collaboration. You don’t need to schedule one-hour meetings when five minutes will do in the work space. Put on your headphones to signal you don’t want to be bothered. Go to a private room for private phone calls.

The graffitti is on the wall. You can tear it down. Imagine.

Are they happy?

Are they frustrated?

Are they talking about Hump Day?

Here’s something for HR to do today: Walk out of your cubicle farm and ask one employee — just one — what he or she was thinking about the very second he or she entered your building.

When you have that answer, ask yourself why. If it’s good, do more of that. If it’s bad, make a change.

Oh, go ahead and ask another employee tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that.

Want to know what employees are thinking? Ask them. Want to really communicate? Talk to them. And remember, that revolving door spills your great employees onto the street every evening.

Quick question: What were you thinking when you walked through the door at work today?

Since he was in town, we put him on the spot and asked him give you some tips on how you can all make the most of your career. Here’s what he said.

Let us know what you think!

KnowHR interviews Jason Seiden on his new book, Super Staying Power from iFractal on Vimeo.

I wake up 5 minutes before my alarm. Always. I put my left shoe on first. Always. I do the NYT crossword puzzle on my train ride into Philadelphia. Always.

As King Mongkut of Siam (Yul Brenner) said, “Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!”

Here’s another habit I have in HR communications: I chop out helping verbs wherever I can. Always. You know what? They don’t help. They make you sound weak and mealy-mouthed.

If you mean something, say it. Think action, don’t cry for help.

Fun Fact: Here’s Harry the Helping Verb’s list of 23 helping verbs.

If you’re over-engineering your performance review process, do the right thing and stop. Today.

Want to play in the big leagues? Make performance management make sense. Help your company make money.

That is all.

Sure, you want to get the best people in your organization. You screen for them. But, who’s doing the screening at your shop? As we’ve written before, the A Team hires the A Team. Do you have the brightest bulbs in your organization doing the screening and interviewing? If not, ever wonder why you’re not getting what you want?

You Can’t Always Get What You Want — The Rolling Stones

A 300-pound woman reached out and smacked a little 4-year-old girl across the face and kept walking.

“Hey, hey, wait,” said two men who were with the little girl’s family.

They tried to get in front of the woman who walloped the little girl. But the woman kept walking right into traffic on Broad Street. Cars honked. But stopped. She kept going.

I went back to where the little girl was slapped. The family, a group from New York City, was traumatized. The little girl still had the red mark on her face and was crying. Just then a Philadelphia Police car was rolling down Walnut Street, just east of Broad at 2:30pm on Saturday, November 14, 2009. We flagged it down.

Right away the family tried to tell the police what happened.

“Whoa, whoa. You people need to calm down. Now what happened?” they said. They seemed dismissive initially.

The family told the story quickly, meanwhile two men from their group took off running west on Walnut Street to catch up with the woman who slapped the little girl. The police took a few minutes, then crept west on Walnut Street. The Slapper was easy to identify — she was dressed all in black, had identifiable hair, and was carrying some particular bags.

I walked toward where the action was. They caught the woman on 16th Street, just north of Walnut. They put her in the police cruiser, and then interviewed the two guys from the group who were with the little girl.

You know where this is headed, right?

Another police cruiser came. Then a police van. For a second it seemed like they might haul the huge woman who slapped a little girl on a Philly street to jail. But time dragged on. Not a single police car went back to the family or to see the little girl. And after about 45 minutes, there started to be a ruckus.

They were letting The Slapper go. One of the guys from the little girl’s group was getting hot. Shockingly, one of the policemen on the scene was more incensed about that than the utter lack of justice. About that time, I told those guys that I would take a picture of The Slapper and post it on my blog. That brought me into the middle of the police action.

A Philadelphia policeman (yes, I know his name) came up to me very aggressively.

“What are you doing? Let me see that phone. Were you taking video?” he said.

Now I was being questioned about what pictures I had on my phone and told that I was “impeding a police investigation.” I told him I was doing no such thing and had no pictures. It was very strange to have the officer get so angry about me wanting to take The Slapper’s picture once they let her go when he didn’t seem mad at all about that cow slapping a little girl.

Finally, I was told that because the police didn’t see what happened, it was nothing more than simple assault. That even though there were 20 witnesses, it was police policy to let The Slapper go. That saying anything or taking the woman’s picture on a public street was “impeding an investigation.”

So…a 300-pound woman smacks an innocent 30-pound girl in the face. And gets away with it.

My lesson: If you want to smack little girls in the face and get away with it, do it in Philadelphia. Nothing will happen to you.

Yes, There’s an HR Lesson In All of This
Mean what you say. If you don’t, and if people can’t count on you, then all hell can break loose. There’s nothing wrong with doing what’s right. Call me crazy, but slapping little girls isn’t right.

It could just be a preemptive case of the winter blues. (And if that’s the case, I’d suggest buying a couple of these light therapy lamps for your workplace. We just bought a couple of them for our office, and they do wonders for your mood!) But if you think it’s something a little deeper than seasonal sadness, maybe you need to do something to recharge the energy at work.

We asked Philadelphia area workers about their favorite strategies for boosting workplace morale. Here’s what they said.

Build relationships with your coworkers
“I’d suggest a team outing to get people together,” said Greg, a data consultant. “Then it seems like we’re all working toward a common goal.”

Play to the strengths of your employees
Tom, an owner of a train station café, explained that he chooses jobs for his employees based on their strengths, letting the more extroverted employees work at the cash register while the more introverted ones work behind the scenes.

“You don’t want to put people in a position where they’re going to fail,” Tom said. “If you’re a smart supervisor, you find what people do best and you have them do that.”

Tell your employees what they’re doing right
“I like positive reinforcement, even if there’s something I can do better,” said Nick, a computer installer. “It’s better for my state of mind.”

Use money as an incentive…
“We get rewarded if you get a credit card application,” said Angela, who works as a customer service associate at a retail store. Angela said that top performers are rewarded with items from their store catalog, which includes things like coffee pots and blenders. “I really don’t like the job, but the rewards make it better.”

…but don’t be afraid to get a little creative
“We don’t have a big budget for monetary rewards, so we’ll use a non-monetary rewards system, like getting a day off or extra time for you lunch break, if you perform in the top 10 percent,” said Andy, an underwriting manager.

Work toward one collective goal
“We haven’t had any turnover [in five years], so we really don’t have to worry about morale,” said Shane, who works as an inspections leader for his organization. “I think that’s because everybody just firmly believes in the mission.”

What do you think of their ideas? Have any more to add? Join the conversation to let us know what works—and what doesn’t—to encourage workplace motivation.