Colleen Thomas
Ultrafemme
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2002
- Posts
- 21,545
BlackShanglan said:Hmmm. I don't know. While I agree with you that this sort of talk often does arise in situations where there are other stressors, I'm not convinced that money is always at the bottom of it. Often, when people are snarling "They ain't payin' me enough to put up with this crap," it's the crap and not the pay that they would really like to see change. If some of it is about how they feel they are treated, it's as well to start there as anywhere. I'll agree that any "too much work / too few people" situation is inherently going to leave people stressed, angry, and irritable, and that that should be remedied - but treating them like humans in the field of manners is perhaps seen as encouragment that one might ultimately treat them like humans in terms of asking them to do a normal human quantity of work?
So much for fond hopes.But then, I apparently have odd ideas of what constitutes pleasant manners. I was baffled to hear several colleagues describe our second-in-command as "charming" following a tense meeting in which he weaselled away from every direct question put to him and every direct answer requested. I can't quite comprehend how anyone could find such an untrustworthy and essentially dishonest person "charming." To me, being forthright (graced with tact) is part of having good manners.
Shanglan
I've sat in on a few to many "one minute manager" sessions. The newest fad psycological "reason" for bad morale and low productivity is always on the table.
Any suggestion along th elines that we could do a lot for morlae if we paid people more will get you at the least dirty looks. You're supposed to buy in to the new plan and be enthusiastic.
The best managers I ever had were blunt. They told me in no uncertain terms what was expected and by what criteria I would be judged. the worst were the weasly little bastard who tried to play psycological games with me. They usually got a rousing chorus of fuck you, I'm not that shallow or stupid.
When I managed a warehous briefly, I gave evryone a raise. And ya know what? I got high productivity and good morale. In my experience, people who say I don't get paid enough to deal with this crap will happily deal with it, if they feel their pay is comiserate with that crap they deal with. I had a very good loader, with a very bad attitude. Rather than fire him, I convinced my boss to give him a raise. When he foun dout he was being paid more than the other loaders, I got the good loader, mnus the attitude. He had a vailid gripe, he could load three trucks a day by himself. No other two man team could keep up with him. And he did it right.
He got all kinds of praise, little chaep plastic awards, the whole management gambit including special priveldges and being made "supervisor" of the dock. And his attitude got worse and worse. At base, he knew he did more in a day than ayone else on that dock. And when he was rewarded with a raise (I hasten to add it was only a .50 cent an hour raise) he was fine. Your average employee may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but they aren't stupid. Monetary reward is the best way to deal with them because it's the reason they are there. Very few people work because they love the job. They work to feed themselves, clothe themselves, and have money to have fun.
The biggest mistake corporationsm ake is ignroning that fundamental truth. All the management gimicks in the world have less positive effect than a raise. And in the end, the raise is usually more cost effective than the hours your highly paid managers spend in stupid metings and conferences talking about how to make them happy without giving them a raise.
I've been pper management, middlemanagement, lower management and craft. Sometimes all of the above with the same company over a span of time. There are hones principals of management that can make you get more out of people. In my expewrience they deal more with honesty, common courtesy and saying thank you and meaning it than they do with this kind of stuff.
I've always spoken my mind and I've always been up front. People respond to that.
I put this in the same category as all the other fad management techniques. Basic wastes of time and money that benmefit no one but the person who came up with it and managed to sell it to clueless CEO's.
