simplerich

I’ve done a lot of evaluations of employees over the years and I think there have been two areas where all the differences of opinion come in. We either disagree about expectations, or our perceptions.

Expectations:
ME: I think that all the widgets should be polished or the cleaning isn’t complete.
THEM: They think all the widgets in front should be polished or the cleaning isn’t complete.

ME: I think calling in as soon as you know you won’t be to work is best.
THEM: They think calling in at any point before their shift starts is fine.

ME: I think each customer should be greeted each time they enter the store.
THEM: They think they can greet a group or one customer once per day and be fine.

If I’m not clear on what I expect out of the employee they can be meeting their expectations and not meeting mind. That can cause friction when it comes time for that evaluation on which a raise may or may not be based. If the only time I let them know our expectations differ is right before I say in my Seinfeld-Soup-Nazi voice, “NO RAISE FOR YOU!” They’re not going to be terribly motivated to do it in a way that’s in line with my expectations. I think employees expect employers to let them know what the company’s expectations are and let them know right away if those expectations aren’t being met. I don’t care if the employee is told in person, with a note, fax, phone-call or carrier-pigeon. OK. I do care. I think that face to face is best. But if that’s not possible. Perhaps you observe the behavior on live surveillance  and aren’t right there. It’s incumbent on the employer to let the employee know right away that their behavior isn’t meeting expectations so that when the eval DOES come along everybody in the room is clear on what the expectations are on all sides.

Perceptions:
Perceptions is a harder one. It’s similar to expectations, but is more… subjective I think. I’m coming at this one as a District Manager who has seen it happen to others. I of course am unbiased at all times and have never made this mistake (I’m kidding, my point is it’s hard for us to see this one in ourselves.)

Manager: “Mongo is always late. He’s never on time, and he never does his cleaning.”
Me: “Really?”
Manager: “Yes. He’s a nightmare and I want to fire him.”
Me: “Really? Always?”
Manager: “Yes. It’s terrible.”
Me: “Last month you asked for a raise for Mongo because he was coming in extra shifts, doing other people’s cleaning for them when he noticed it wasn’t done, and had helped raise sales of niobium-widgets by 16% on his shift.”
Manager: “But since then he’s gone to hell in a hand-basket.”
Me: “Hunh.”

Now, it’s possible for a previously great employee to “go to hell in a hand-basket” in a month. But it’s not terribly  likely without some help. My guess in that situation is that at some point Manager asked Mongo to do something extra and Mongo wasn’t able to for whatever reason. From that point on Manager notices everything Mongo does NOT do while Mongo notices all the things that he IS doing. Manager takes it personally when it wasn’t meant personally. Perhaps that was Mongo’s weekend with his kids and he really couldn’t come in to work a double-turn-around shift with 4 minutes notice.

It’s also possible that a month ago Mongo was new and doing what he was supposed to be doing but another employee was doing things badly so Mongo seemed to shine by contrast and Manager noticed only what Mongo WAS doing. Now that Manager is used to it they’ve started noticing the things Mongo isn’t doing… Perhaps Mongo wasn’t doing them before either. But Manager never noticed and now, suddenly, those things are annoying Manager. (Uh oh… this is starting to sound like something I may have done in the past… time to change the paragraph before someone else catches on!)

Another perception thing is when Manager thinks they’ve told Mongo something before… a lot of times and Mongo just isn’t getting it. Obviously they’re not paying attention. But maybe Manager’s told OTHER people a lot of times, or maybe Manager has told the other 4 employees once each but never told Mongo so while it’s been said 4 times it really DOES need to be said one more time. Manager thinks Mongo’s not paying attention and Mongo thinks Manager’s flying off the handle for no reason.

Perception is harder and more varied… and should be, unsurprisingly, addressed as quickly as possible. Again, face to face is best. If that’s not an option for whatever reason do it some other way. Leave a note, use a bulletin board, fly it by on an airplane banner, SOMETHING… but get a conversation started. If you’re a District Manager seeing it happen between Manager and Mongo it needs to be fixed by the two of them, and you have to help fix it. You can’t just say “Fix it.” and walk off. By the time it gets to the point that Manager is saying “always” and “never” communication is going to be very difficult between the two of them alone.

So, next time you’re going to do an evaluation ask yourself well before the evaluation if the employee is going to be surprised by the stuff in the evaluation. If so… they shouldn’t be. If an employee is surprised by a bad evaluation that’s, to me, as one who has managed managers for a lot of years, that’s a sign of bad management.  It’s not fair to employees to blind-side them with your laziness or your lack of commitment to helping them get better.

I’ve been trying to address some of the ducks that were nibbling me to death in a previous post and have come up with a couple different ways of attacking the things that are making me want to scream.

I’ve been using the passdown log more assiduously primarily to remind myself to go over some of the things with the employees who are doing, or not doing the things that are making me crazy. That’s really working well.

I’ve got a notebook where we track ourselves on some of the areas we’re working on. I really do the tracking and counting, but they check it every time they work and I make sure to talk about each shift with each employee every shift change. What’s being done right and what could be done differently and see if they have any tips or pointers to pass on to the other employees on ways that can help get things going more smoothly. This part has been the most time-consuming as it’s in addition to any other stuff out there. But it’s paying off.

Overall there’s been great progress. Overall it’s hugely better. Overall. Which means that in specifics there’s at least one place where the ball’s being dropped, consistently. Whether on purpose or not I’m not sure. what I AM sure of is that they know they’re doing it. I know this because I’ve had people tell me this employee is afraid of me. The employee has said they’re afraid of how I’ll react to something they’ve done (whatever it is, it varies a lot.)

So here we are. I’ve got an employee who is afraid of me. An employee who knowingly engages in behavior that they believe will cause me to react in a way they should be afraid of… and they do it anyway. Fine. I need to know why. I don’t know why when I see it first thing in the morning because there’s never an explanation so I can sit and stew for hours… sometimes days, until I see the person to ask why. That’s not healthy. So, my solution?

I’m introducing a book. it’s a college composition notebook titled, “I’m making Rich crazy and here’s why.” Seriously. That’s written on the cover.

There will be times when employees will do something that I don’t want them to do. It’s going to happen. I do it to my boss sometimes. Things come up and there’s no way around it. I have to break a rule for some reason. This book is where they’re going to write what they did and why. They know when they do something wrong I think. I want to know why they ‘re doing it wrong. We can discuss their reasons and if I’m willing to accept them afterwards but this way they don’t need to fear my reaction because I’ve had 3 days to stew about it. I don’t need to write notes to remind myself of the thing they’ve done so when they come in I jump them about something three days old. (I don’t jump, honest… but I know they feel ambushed by it… the person who is always afraid of me all the time.)

My thinking is they’ll write what they did that they think is going to make me nuts. They’ll write down their rationale, and I’ll use it at the unemployment hearing to fire everybody until morale improves and I’ll use their admission in this book as evidence that they were willingly disobeying company polic… what? Oh, yeah. I’m kidding there. My thinking is they’ll write down what they did and why. We’ll talk about it, and it’ll take some of the ambush out of it. It’ll help clear up gray areas for everybody because we’ll all see what each other did and what worked (didn’t make me crazy) and what didn’t work (did make me crazy.)

Since they’ll be doing this early on we’ll be closer to the incident…. and maybe they’ll get to the point where they’re thinking about it BEFORE they do it because, honestly, some of the things don’t have to be done. There’s a feeling of, “No matter what I do it’s going to be wrong.”  (Unsurprisingly, very much a self-fulfilling policy at this point.) But for now… for now I want them to at least think about it on the same day/shift as they do it. Backing up their thinking about it one step at a time… and moving my reaction back too.

I’m curious to see how it goes.

So, sometimes work makes me crazy right?

It’s management and I’ve been at it for a while. Sometimes I feel like I’m saying the same things over and over to the same people and I just want to scream! Or it seems like the higher-ups are making insane decisions without even talking to any of us front-liners. Or it seems like politics are what are driving decisions instead of the good of the stores, company, whatever. It’s been like that in almost all the places I’ve worked and under everybody I’ve worked for. Some things are just perceived that way sometimes. (For all you co-workers out there reading this wondering if I’m violating our don’t talk about work under pain of termination brand new shiny social media Internet policy I’m not. I’ve had bouts where I felt like this in every job I’ve ever been a member of management in, so get over yourselves. This song isn’t about you!)

So, to all you white-collar whiners out there talking about how this is terrible and you don’t know how much longer you can do it blah blah blah. Find one of your blue-collar friends who actually WORKS for a living and go work with them for a day or two. Seriously. On your next vacation or day off see if you can go to work with someone who works with their hands and back for a while. I’ve made a point of doing this through the years. I’ve walked beans, worked construction, and most recently, worked installing hardwood floors and carpet. (Oh, and if you don’t have any blue-collar friends, you should go find some. Broaden your horizons a bit. Diversity isn’t just about race or ethnicity or any of that. Diversity is about diversity.

It was two days before I could make a fist or pick up my coffee cup without thinking I was going to drop it. Tack strip, the stuff that goes along the edges of a room so the carpet can be attached to it and stretched into place, is a demonic thing. It’s a strip of wood about an inch wide and quarter-inch thick that has nails going out both sides. It’s alive, hates me, and is out to get me, not kidding here. Some nails hold the strip to the floor and others hold the carpet to the strip. It’s nailed into the ground, sometimes concrete… BY HAND… right next to sheet rock. Care to guess what happens if the hammer slips and slams into the sheet rock of this person’s brand spanking new house? Yeah… nothing good.  What happens if you’ve cut yourself on the tack strip or one of the dozen knives used to cut the carpet, pad, whatever? Yeah… you’re bleeding all over brand new carpet in this person’s brand new house. You want stress? Forget getting your TPS reports done on time and CC’d to the right people. Install carpet for a day in new construction.

What’s that? It’s “just” manual labor? Until you’ve done it I don’t think you’re entitled to say “just” in that context. It’s like waiting tables or working behind a counter at a fast food restaurant. Until you’ve done it I don’t think it’s a good thing for you to look down your nose at those people. “But I went to school so I wouldn’t have to do those kinds of jobs.” Ah. I see… and yet, you need them. You need those people you’re better than. You need them because regardless of how much education you have… they have skills you don’t have, skills I don’t have and I’m a pretty smart guy! I’m also smart enough to know that while I play at carpet installer there’s no way I’ll ever get higher than assistant flunky. Perhaps one day I’ll be a full-fledged flunky… one day years from now. But those people holding jobs other people went to school so they wouldn’t have to do… I’m glad they’re there because I can’t do what they do and I’m really glad they’re there to help me when I need it.

The person I worked for is picky. He’s a perfectionist. If I were getting flooring done I’d want him to do it because I know it’d be done right. Working for someone like that is sort of like working for me. I’m picky at my work. I want things done right as well. It’s HIS name on the side of the van and it’s his reputation on the line with every nail I drive and every cut I made. I asked for him to check my work probably more than he wanted to, but his confidence in my ability was higher than mine. Funny thing that… I’ve had employees say the same thing to me. He, without knowing it, was doing to me what I do to my employees. He showed me how, he let me do it while he watched, and he trusted me to do things that he knew he could fix if I botched… and he got out-of-the-way to let me get the experience and confidence I would need to do other things.

You know what I’m most confident about? My hands are almost fully recovered. My back isn’t hurting too bad today, and my knees… you have any idea how much time you spend on your knees when working on floors? A LOT! They should put floors higher!!!… my knees will one day recover I’m sure. Would I do it again? Yep. It’s kind of fun in a way. Part of the fun is I know I don’t have to do it a lot. I’m choosing to do it and it really looks good to leave work at the end of the day and see what you’ve done in a very real, tangible way.

PS: I didn’t do any of those accidents yet. The worst I’ve done was an accident involving a saw, a board kicking back, the back metal plate breaking off, and the palm of hand being smashed to pulp and bursting so blood oozed out onto the floor and continued to seep out most of the day. No bones were broken so I’m happy. I feel bad for wrecking the saw though. No clue what happened, just glad I still have all my fingers since it happened so fast it was over before I knew anything was happening. It made the most spectacular bruise on front and back of my hand. In the story I told there was me defending a bus load of nuns and orphans from terrorist hijacker ninjas. Please don’t tell anybody the truth. The ninja thing sounded way cooler.

I’m a quiet manager. I don’t yell. I don’t scream. I don’t throw things. I’ve known managers like that. But that’s not me. Usually that works well for me. Well, it works for me. I hope it works for my employees. I’ve had employees say to me, “I wish you’d just yell at me. You make me feel like a jerk when you do that.” Mission accomplished then. If I yelled I’d feel like a jerk. That’s not true. I don’t want them to feel like a jerk. I just don’t want them to do it again… whatever “it” was.

The problem comes up when I run into an employee that wants to be yelled at and believes if I’m not yelling I’m not serious. Even if I say words like, “I’m serious” or “this is serious.” They think, since I’m not yelling I must not mean it yet. Just good old Rich giving me a hard time about something I’ve done. And off they go and do it again. I’ve said before I don’t believe someone should be surprised when they’re fired. I believe they should know why and should have been told about it several times before, not just what they did wrong, but what they should do in the future to avoid being in that position. Explain the bad behavior. Explain the expected behavior, and ask them if they understand. That’s the pattern. None of it requires a change in volume. Yes… even if I use words like “Failure to improve will result in termination,” not “could result” or “can result” but “WILL result in termination” there have been those who stared at me slack-jawed asking, “Seriously?” when it came time to finally fire them for something I’d talked to them about many times.

If I’d yelled they may have gotten it… but that’s not how I do things. It’s not how I’ve ever done things. It’s not a good way to do things I don’t think. But, when those people I’ve had to fire that I’ve warned over and over, with paperwork and everything… when they’re staring at me surprised… I wonder then if maybe my clinging to my management style is as effective as I’d like it to be. Somebody, my mom I think, said a good communicator wasn’t the one who could use the biggest words, but that could convey an idea to the broadest range of people effectively. I’m almost sure this was while I was learning all the vocabulary I could find studying for the SAT and was prone to using the longest word I could find for any situation. Maybe yelling is a valid way of doing things in management. It isn’t for me. Overall the number of people who have been surprised when I’ve had to let them go is pretty small. I guess I’ll stick with what I’ve been doing so far. I don’t like the yelling. I’m serial. I’m super serial!

Once upon a time I was a troubleshooter. I think that’s the nice name for it. If there was a store or area that needed help I’d get a call. I didn’t have any kids and it was easy for me to travel. I could go to the area and sometimes figure out who was worth saving and who wasn’t or I’d already be tasked with replacing everybody. If it was option two I was part of a team that would go in and take over, get a new crew, get them trained and leave again. Now, that wasn’t my job at the time. My actual job was I was an area supervisor with anywhere from 4 to 11 stores to supervise. But if something came up. I was often the one that got the call. I really liked the travel. I got to work in every state we had stores in and got to meet a lot of interesting people and see a huge variety of stores. It was a lot of fun.

I never saw myself as a hatchet man. I was more of a fixit guy. I got to take part in store take overs when we’d buy some stores and go in and turn them from a mom and pop store into one of our stores in a couple of weeks, switching out the inventory, point of sale system, and train the crew all without closing the store. It was definitely a hit the ground running kind of thing in both situations. Our primary concern was always to make the transition as smooth as possible for the customer and to try to retain (in most cases) as many of the people as would stay and do things the new way. Sometimes it was part of a fire everybody and start over thing. I didn’t like those as much. Sometimes it was a fire the manager and see who in the crew should stay. Those were harder. The only one of those I didn’t like was when it was a manager who had no idea they were in trouble. That one felt bad. He should have known it was a possibility. But, he didn’t and I didn’t know it until after it’d happened. He handled it better than I did. I felt like a shmuck.

I got to do that for years and without even thinking about it I wound up getting a reputation as a hatchet man. It was NEVER my idea to do this to stores. I was just the person that got called to do it after someone else made the decision it needed doing. I saw it as I was keeping as many as could be kept and making things better. From the outside it looked like I went in, took out the opposition, replaced them, and then went home to wash my hands and rest up to do it again, and never lost a moment’s sleep. Mostly that’s true. I didn’t lose sleep except when I was working the long days, in one store there were some 24s. That was a takeover and we didn’t get the computers when they were supposed to show up. I didn’t care. It was New Orleans and I was eating on an expense account. Any amount of hours is worth that!

Fast forward to last year when I stepped down and became manager of a store that opened up. Do you want to guess how the crew felt when I showed up to be manager? They were all scared to death of me. I couldn’t figure out why. I hadn’t done anything to the previous manager. I took his position when it opened up, but I didn’t open it up. Didn’t matter. My reputation had preceded me. Nothing I could say would change their mind. It didn’t help that customers knew of me from when I’d done it at other stores… turns out I was sort of KNOWN for going in and cleaning house and then wandering off whistling and drinking a cup of coffee with a smile on my face. The rumors were impossible to deal with. “Oh, he’s just being nice until he gets your replacement. He’s like that. Seriously. You have to watch him. He’s good at what he does, and what he does is clean out stores.” Wow.

So… It’s been six months now. I’m still here and haven’t wandered off with a cup of coffee and a smile. But today, this morning, the janitor asked me, “So, you going to X to clean out the store? I heard they needed it and that’s what you did. You’ve been here a while.” *sigh* What’s it take to convince them that I’m done with that part of my job? Not because I’m glad to be. I miss the travel. But because I want to be home more? I dunno. You’d think six months of me and they’d know I was settled down and happy here. Maybe I should fire them all and start over. *grin* KIDDING! But seriously… how long does it take for them to stop thinking I’m an ogre? I wasn’t then, and I’m not now. But I can see how they’d think so. In my defense, most of the time the stores where I went, they liked me and wanted me back after I left. THEY didn’t see me as an ogre. It’s just all how it looked from outside. (You want a hatchet man, that’s MY boss… he’s the one that made the decisions. I just implemented them as humanely and kindly as possible and saved as many of them as I could.)