My Management Brings all the Boys to the Yard
Posted Mar 14, 2009 Employee Relations, Rewarding Performance
∞ And the girls, too. Let’s not have any Title VII rumblings here, thank you.
I have enough humility that I’m still amazed by the kind of loyalty people show me in the workplace. The point was made today that I earn it, but still. I always feel awkward when someone passes up a good opportunity because they don’t want to move away from me. It’s flattering, sure, but I always feel a little guilty whenever I have to tell people I don’t want them sidetracking their careers because they’d rather continue working for me.
I had to have my management team scout for volunteers to work today. We had a minor explosion yesterday that required some extra attention before I let on to our clients that it happened. I figured I’d spend seven or eight hours working on it today with two or three volunteers who don’t much care that it’s a perfect day for the first time this year to get outdoors and stay there for a while.
I eventually had to turn people away before my overtime budget started looking like the national deficit.
I wondered out loud, half to myself, why everyone was at work on such a gorgeous day, and the answers made a great management point. Giving people what they need not only to do their jobs but to enjoy them as well has its rewards for management. Little things that one might classify as networking will pay off, and you shouldn’t be excused from networking with people just because you already work with them on a regular basis.
The answers I got?
I heard from one employee that she jumped at the chance to give me a hand, because I stood up for her when a client wrongly accused her of incompetence to my bosses. (Sadistic Manager Standard Rules of Engagement: You don’t screw around with my people. It won’t come back to bite you. I will, though, if I can do it in a way that’s safe for the business.)
I heard from another that because I’d given my personal time to critiquing a school assignment for him from the perspective of my position, he wanted to return the favor by helping me with something that was important to me.
Yet another was motivated to put in the overtime because I had remembered to ask about a family member who had been ill, when she didn’t even realize I’d been aware of it in the first place.
All of them commented on the fact that I didn’t accept their help with the problem and then sit there to supervise. I was working right alongside them the whole time. (Management who feel they shouldn’t have to do the work because of their position, or who are so out of touch that they can’t do the work, irritate the living hell out of me.) And that seven or eight hour workday? Done in three, and I’m going to see about dipping into the budget for the overtime I didn’t use to buy lunch for those who came in to help today.
And on it went, proving the point that you get out of your work exactly what you put into it. Which, I suppose, is why I don’t resort to violence, even when I’d probably be justified in doing so. ∞
