Managers - Part XXVII (Post Pandemic #2) - Maintaining Discipline and Morale

Many years ago I worked for a manager who virtually everyone viewed as a "good" manager. He had a winning personality, was pretty light on discipline and for the most part let everyone do their jobs as they saw fit. If you were getting your job done you'd certainly appreciate the absence of micromanaging and how insignificant deviations from policy were overlooked. And even two decades later, most people, would say he was a good manager, including the corporate hierarchy. The problem was that his happy-go-lucky attitude not only benefitted the employees who did their job well, but it also benefitted those who chose to flout the rules. Not only did he decline to micromanage the high performing employees, but the slackers benefited from his hands off management as well. 

In this particular business, everyone theoretically worked at least one weekend day. Hours would vary somewhat based on the customer flow on a given day, but 9-5, Monday-Friday schedules weren't supposed to happen. Except that they did. One particular department manager worked part-time hours, Monday-Friday, no weekends, no evenings, no holidays. She took smoke breaks at least every hour. We were required to take a 30 minute lunch break mid-shift if we were scheduled 7 hours or more per day; she was allowed to schedule herself for 6 hours and 59 minutes (and could be found in the break room fairly often regardless). Other managers noticed. 

The point is not that any of those things shouldn't have been allowed, but that for the rest of the managers, they weren't allowed and that it was noticed and that people grew resentful. 

So, post pandemic?

National unemployment is around 4%. Locally it's around 3%. As I laid out in Part XXVI - Post Pandemic #1 people are quitting jobs rather than put up with crap. The churn that has always existed has slowed down to where there's often a large time gap between a resignation and a replacement. So what does a manager do? What I've been hearing is that managers are ignoring what ordinarily would be unacceptable — coming in late, incomplete or inaccurate work, you name it. Managers are reasoning, that as tough as it is to find replacements, it's better to put up with a substandard worker than no worker at all. While I admit that in some situations this may be appropriate, but in most this would be dead wrong. Just like in my example about the "good" manager, employees notice when other employees are held to different standards but are earning the same pay rate. 

A few years ago I had a problem employee in the deli of the store that I managed. He was part of a three-person team that worked the evening shift. He was lazy, incompetent and kept wandering off to use his cell phone. after several warnings I informed him that he would be terminated if he used his phone while on the clock again. Before the shift was over he started texting right in front of me! We were shorthanded for the rest of the week. At the end of the week one of the two remaining evening shift workers remarked that they were getting more done faster than when they had three people on duty. The remaining crew appreciated that I had gotten rid of the weak link, even though that theoretically meant more work for them. By keeping people who are not doing the job, managers are risking alienating the high performing employees. 

The final point in this post is about managers who are simply afraid that they'll need to fill in, work extra hours, or are concerned that the skill needed to replace someone is a little rusty. I've been in this position a few times in my management career. Do I really have time to drive to Humboldt every morning and deliver those papers? Can I really get all my other responsibilities done if I have to run the Frozen Department? I encountered both of those in two different management positions. In both I put up with substandard work for a long time until I was forced to take over and found out it wasn't so bad! If you've read the rest of this series on management you'll know that my theory of management is that it isn't necessarily a manager's job to do things, to get in there with the troops and work side by side — it's a manager's job, by training, coaching and delegation, to get things done. But sometimes, you have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty until you can hire and train a replacement.

Start at the beginning: Part I

Go to: Part XXVIII