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General IT ManagementDiscussion of challenges facing IT management including articles published throughout the Earthweb IT Management network at Datamation, eSecurityPlanet and CIO Update.
"This behavior does not just apply to work attendance. What would you do if an employee consistently delivers projects a couple of days late, but the work delivered is outstanding? Or what if the employee doesn’t return customer calls on time, but when he does, the answers are on the money and the customers aren’t complaining? My guess is you have experienced many more behaviors that push the envelope on accountability."
What's your take? Is he too much of a micromanager?
Now I wonder if Susan will come back to my team? Would you?
No, I probably would not. If there is a genuine problem then negotiation should be tried first. From the description given it does not seem to me that there was a real problem.
I think not. Rules are made for a reason. Human nature being what it is, it's mostly the old "give 'em a foot and they'll take a yard" principle at work here. Of course there will always be circumstances when people arrive late, etc., and these should be handled on a case-by-case basis, but to simply allow for blatant disregard of rules will only encourage a further "pushing of the envelope" by those who are prone to do so. It will also serve to demoralize those who consistently abide by the rules until they, too, begin feeling that it's okay to let things slide. After all, why bother?
In short order there will be folks straggling in at 10 AM, stretching lunch hours, calling off sick during nice weather, or whatever. Eventually this same behavior pattern will manifest itself in work performance, and then it's downhill the rest of the way. Managers exist for a purpose, and one of their chief responsibilities is to keep projects on track while boosting morale and motivating members of the team to do their best work. By upholding agreed upon standards and keeping things fair and on an even keel for everyone (i.e., not tolerating slackers), those doing the work may even find themselves enjoying some of it!
Good points on the need for business case analysis
Good point about being flexible, but only after doing an analysis. It's a good reply to the employee. If we want people to behave a certain way, we must have positive results when they do and negative consequences when they don't.
I was unclear, though, about the Coughlin rule. It sounds like they're fined even if they're on time, because he wants them there early? I think Vince Lombardi used to do that. Here's the problem, though: if coach says "be there at 9:30" and the player shows up at 9:25, is the player "showing up" the coach, in effect saying that the coach doesn't know what he's doing? What is the cutoff for being "early" lol?
Good article. I am one of those 9:08am guys in a similar situation. I am the only one here that does IT, and I think I get caught in the more strict world of the manufacturing sector. People on time clocks, getting paid by hour, having to be at their job for the company to be efficient at making our products. I have been here for 8 years, and I get along and have good communication with all my co-workers that are in other job sectors. Most of the people here did not know how to use a computer when we first started building our network. I had to understand other peoples jobs starting at the age of 18 and how they would interact with the software needed per job title. Most of the supervisors and managers and sales employees have been here for 10-30 years and are much older than me. Alot has changed, as I was pretty humble my first few years and slowly gained respect of the old school workers. Ive had to work on a permission based budget for all IT related purchases, and all of the priorities are handled by my boss. He is the closest person who can change a password or fix some file permissions on his own but he is now the President of the company. While I was learning new programming languages or syntax for the constantly updating software and hardware and all that, I was going to college full time at night, commuting 30 miles one way, raising a baby along with maintaining my relationship with my new ex-wife and a few things most people my age achieve a little later than I did. Lately since the new ownership, my boss became president and the other part owner seem to be micromanaging things to an extent to where I am really considering trying to find another job. I stayed up one night trying to fix a configuration file that had been overwritten, I slept until noon, and came in. I apologized for being that late, and told them the circumstances, but after hearing my reasoning, it shifted to not notifying them I might be late. I do come in that late occasionally, but no one has ever said anything because It didn't matter to them that I wasn't here on time those days. I had a raise of .15 cents 2 years ago, and nothing since. I don't have "reviews" or anything. My salary per year is around 32,000 in the midwest in a metro area of around 300,000 people. Looking up the salaries on these IT websites and comparing them and combining the titles, it makes me sick how much other people make. It's kind of a motivator to find another job, but there is so much to know at this job, I don't think that I could train another person to do this. And if there is someone else that does take my spot i'm guessing they will be asking for a salary most likely double of what I have now. So i'm stuck between being loyal, and having a high morale for my job, and trying to find a reason not to find another job, among other things. I feel under appreciated and underpaid, even coming in late. I stay late sometimes and second shift is here, but it goes unnoticed. I am VPN'd from my home 24/7, If any service or server goes down my cell phone (personal) will blow up, along with alarms on my laptop (personal) 2 feet from my bed. If something is important before my hours of 9 to 5, they will get a hold of me and most of the time the issue can be handled remotely. Most things can wait until I arrive, like setting up cookies for salesmen fantasy sports websites, etc. Ive been a *nix user years before I got here at the age of 18. Im not a guru, but I have a majority of our services running on mainly linux for free. I mainly use debian now, as I'm just accustomed to using ssh to do my thing. I'd guess 80% of the things I do go completely unnoticed. I dont usually go to IT websites, but i was looking something up and stumbled across this article and it made me want to rant. (I'm usually pretty quiet and hopefully this helps by getting these issues off my chest) Anyways If I wasn't so busy, I would have time to break this rant into perfect grammar and in paragraph and in MLA style writing. So, I'll wrap this up.
But to answer the question, I dont think I would come back with strict rules unless the bond with other employees still existed and salary was better, and also not having to constantly worry about things being so micromanaged. If things are going to be micromanaged I want you to look at my .bash_history, or see all the code that I wrote, look at my login times, my web history of learning new things with my free time that will help the company, etc.
I think other people in IT probably have the same problems as I have, or not. Maybe its a lack of maturity or respect of THE unwritten rules. I wear a collared shirt, I don't have tattoo's or piercings, I dont look like a caveman or a gamer who has been up all night. I've been pretty stressed lately dealing with a divorce, selling real estate, spending time with my kids on my free time. But I didn't miss much work through all of that. I am trying to learn as much as I can and do as much as I can, but the cordiality or punctuality thing is just sensitive to some companies like mine.
Barely late and working 30 minutes late,
-rodpodimus
If her coworkers were happy to cover for her in the morning because she helped them during the rest of the day, and her quality of work was indeed sterling, where on earth was the problem? All employees have quirks, the task of a manager is not to make sure that they all follow 'rules', but that the team as a whole does the job it's there to do.
Anything that lowers the team's capability to do the job well - such as losing a gifted member who was also getting along great with the rest of the team, just because 'there are rules to be followed' - is a mark of bad management.
I wish the lady all the best with her new, better manager.
The author should look up the 'slippery slope fallacy' on wikipedia sometime.
That is quite often false. I cannot count the number of times I've encountered rules or laws that were made with little or no thought as to the consequences. Newspapers thrive on reporting situations where laws are more of a travesty than the transgressions they were designed to prevent.
That said, it is easy to see both sides of this issue. Many of us have been known to arrive at work late, so it's a common transgression. However, few of us have the situation presented here, where there is literally a contract in place dictating that work coverage must begin at a certain hour. In this case, I think the employee was unreasonable to arrive late consistently. I've heard it said that frequent tardiness is a sign of latent aggression, and that seems to be the case here.
THAT SAID, I also can see her point that there was no problem resulting from her actions. No breach of contract had occurred (though I find it hard to believe that her coworkers were there 100% of the time and no call overflow had ever occurred.)
What I'd have done in each of their positions:
- As manager, I'd have backed off a little but told her that she would be suspended a week without pay if it ever occurred that her tardiness resulted in a breach of contract (ie. a call not being answered.) That gives her the control she's apparently seeking and lets her choose to get there earlier to reduce her risk. That would probably have gotten her there closer to (but still not before) 9AM.
- As the employee, I would not have returned to the dept. once the SLA time was moved to 9:30. An unyielding boss is rarely one you want to be paired with. Seek the boss who keeps hands off until there is a problem to be fixed.
I'm...trying to find a reason not to find another job
You don't have one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rodpod
if there is someone else that does take my spot i'm guessing they will be asking for a salary most likely double of what I have now.
Good for them. Maybe your company will even learn what a good deal they got from you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rodpod
My salary per year is around 32,000 in the midwest in a metro area of around 300,000 people. Looking up the salaries on these IT websites and comparing them and combining the titles, it makes me sick how much other people make. It's kind of a motivator to find another job, but there is so much to know at this job, I don't think that I could train another person to do this.
Don't bother. Find another job, turn in your notice, and leave. You will probably be happier and respect yourself more.
The X and Y (Why?) Generations have a different way of working that Type A personalities don't seem to understand.
I am one of those people who gets in somewhere between 8:00 am and 9:30 am. I need the flex time because of traffic and dropping my kids off at school.
At the same time, I'll work at home (unpaid) after the wife & kids go to bed. I rarely work just 40 hours.
The IT manager/writer in this case is not someone I would ever want to work for. If I am consistently working more than 40 hours, and doing amazing work, then you should give me some flexibility on the arrival time - expecially if it is less than 1/2 and hour.
His attitude toward those who came in early also confirm is suspicious nature. He doesn't trust his employees. Again, not someone I would want to work for. With people who have trust issues like that you are almost always guilty until proven innocent, and even then you are still guilty, you just got away with it. I work in a situation similar like that right now.
I live almost an hour from the office, and I have an office in my house (away from the rest of the house), but my manager does not allow/believe in telecommuting - unless it's her doing the telecommuting. The truth is, she doesn't trust anyone else - possibly because she doesn't actually work when she is "working from home."
Anyway, I digress.
The writer here is a control freak, and needs to relax. Maybe try one less espresso in the morning or doing Tai Chi. Seriously, if you want to have the best talent, you need to have some flexibility.
Eric, you are such a gigantic idiot, it's painful to read all of this crap.
Now, you are being an obsessive-compulsive bipolar idiot, trying to count the seconds until your employee arrives? Don't have anything better to do with your "productive" time, or is THIS what you are producing? Counting minutes. Bullying your empolyees. Do the poor girl a favor and fire her. She can do way better than working for an asshole like you.
I think the contributions of the person should always be a factor.
Rules are needed, but some rules are only enforced to form a "paper trail" by management when they are looking to build a case to get rid of an employee.
I've never seen a manager go to an employee and tell them to leave because they are working too much or too late.
"Hey, it's 5:45pm - I don't want to see you working late again! You know we have core hours from 9-5"
If a person is doing there job, moreover doing it better than average - leave them alone. Or, better yet, reward them.
Managers see that people follow the rules. Leaders see that people get things done. At the end of the day, getting things done is more important than following the rules. *
Of course, some rules are written as guidelines, others are rigid. If a manager can't figure out which ones are which, then they might be suffering from the Peter Principle.
I've worked for a rules manager - but only as long as it took me to find a new job. Which wasn't very long. Rules managers often are not focused on the right priorities and often spend their time watching when people enter the building rather than empowering people to accomplish a job.
Brad went to the heart of this issue. Being excessively pedantic about relatively meaningless rules (quite often) is not only counterproductive, it's just plain stupid. As a manager or executive, what is your objective? It makes absolutely no difference what field you're in, your objective is always to get the most out of the people who answer to you as possible.
Be concerned with one thing, and one thing only, when managing others. Do they do their job well, meet deadlines, produce quality work, work well with the other members of your team, and are they dependable. That's it. The only rules that matter should be ones that will sacrifice some of the above-mentioned characteristics, or place them in jeopardy.
For example, if you have a user who insists on logging in to a secure site from a public computer, well that's a problem.
The other side of the issue is, if you want to be that pedantic and inflexible about your rules, you better have a pay scale that is proportional to those demands, if you intend to keep quality people. If you're a public company, your stockholders would probably appreciate if your employees perquisites numbered a little higher, and their salary numbered a little lower.
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I had a simular position where I was available 24/7 and upper managment claimed I was suppose to be available 9:30 AM to 6 PM, break at 11: Lunch at 1 PM Break again at 3 PM. They wanted a film ran at 12 for staff, I said sorry I use to do that on flexible time, but now I'm on lunch. I sat and watched the film they paid someone else to run. Then the boss was interviewing a patient that I was to videotape at 2:30, at 3 I went on break, he was furious when he found that I left and just let the recording run on its own. Then he and I had a serious talk. I explained that before I was always ready when needed, when we went to Conventions I was not paid any extra for travel time, or hours in the Convention Centers, but by being flexible I served the needs of the Department top priority, and never asked for overtime, or was paid overtime.
He was so inflexible that when I told him I could no longer afford to work for that salary, he exploded. How dare I tell him what I should be paid. I went back 4 years later to report I was now making twice what he was paying me. Big apology as he explained after I left how many training programs I was involved in stopped cold. NO one else had the knowledge to do my job, and in 4 years he hadn't been able to hire an employee he could trust in the sensitive privacy involved in that jobs. But when I quit I had already started to work for another company while on Vacation from that job, so knew I was financially safe in this move. Sometime, you know what you are worth, and working for less is not fair, you may have to move a bit, but it's worth it morally to yourself esteem. Don't cheat yourself
Too much of a micromanager by far
Both sides
Seriously, if you want to have the best talent, you need to have some flexibility.
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