MetaChat - Boy, howdy could I use some managment advice.

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05 September 2007

Boy, howdy could I use some managment advice. →[More:]
I've been a supervisor, bottom tier manager, for a publishing company for about 8 months now. I've picked up most of it quickly, but I could really use some advice on how to get the people who work directly with me on my team to do one very simple thing. Work. At least whlie they're at work. But instead they each spend hours (and I'm not exaggerating) surfing the internets, watching YouTube videos, chatting on IM, etc. Now I fully admit to being more likely to take a stress break by checking my email, seeing if I got Flickr comments, reading a few blogs (seriously maybe 4 or 5 while I'm at work). But all told, I spend less than 30 minutes a day surfing the internet.

I tried the direct approach. "Your internet usage is out of hand and it seems to be affecting the quality of your work. I think you need to eliminate your distractions and focus more on what you're paid to do." I said it slightly more diplomatically than that. The 4 young men on my team (all between the ages of 25 and 28, all have worked at this company for 2-3 years, and this was their first job out of school) all apologized and promised that they would work harder and elminate their distractions. The next day, I see them watching YouTube every time I walk by their desk. I return work to them that has been done shoddily and I get a "when does have to be fixed?"

I'm at my wits end. I don't want to escalate this. My direct manager told me directly "Its not that big of a deal. These kids don't get paid very well, so its the least we can do to provide them with a comfortable working environment." Which is horse nuggets. They're making $40K out of school with great benefits. They honestly don't have much incentive to improve their work skills because they're all on contract and there isn't much change of them becoming staff anytime in the next year year. "Rumors of merger are on the horizon."

But short of going to the director for our over-arching department and ratting them out (which just makes me look bad) I'm not sure how to deal with this. And it is stressing me out. If they were working slowly but doing good work, I'd turn more of a blind eye to it. But since they're not. Since they're making more work for me and for several people in other departments, I've got to stop this.

Any advice would be grrreatly appreciated. Otherwise, if you hear about a woman in Evanston, IL that went postal and stabbed her staff with knitting needles, you can send this to The Enquirer, okay?

post by: Cinnamon at: 23:33 | 10 comments

"Your internet usage is out of hand and it seems to be affecting the quality of your work. I think you need to eliminate your distractions and focus more on what you're paid to do."

That sounds perfectly reasonable (and diplomatic) to me. The problem is that you need to be able to back it up. What kind of stick do you have available to you? I know you don't want to be a hard-ass, but it sounds like the situation requires it.

When you spoke with your manager, did you mention that you're having to pick up their slack? That might give you a little more ammunition.

posted by bmarkey 06 September | 00:28

"they're all on contract and there isn't much change of them becoming staff anytime in the next year year."

Get your boss to approve making one position permanent in November.

posted by mischief 06 September | 01:00

Mischief's idea is good. could you maybe add a:

127.0.0.1 youtube.com

to the hosts files on their PCs?

Might work, might not.

posted by pompomtom 06 September | 01:22

First of all, get rid of one of them, and hire me to telecommute. In fact, from the sounds of it, get rid of all of them, and hire me to telecommute.

Secondly, if you fail to take that excellent advice :) you must find a way to do what bmarkey says and get a stick. (I hate stick management, but it sounds like you're up against a wall.)

Talk to the head of your IT department if he/she is accessible and find out what the possible options are vis-a-vis limiting their connectivity, from that information determine what will constitute the most reasonable threat/action, write up your action proposal for your direct boss in a short and clear declarative style (like, "Problems: bullet item, bullet item, etc.; Action: bullet item, bullet item, blah, blah.) Make this so simple and compelling that he won't be able to shrug it off. The real hook here is that you will only take this action in lieu of improvement.

THEN, tell your staff that you don't care how it happens, but here's how it's going to work: Their work will be done on time, and up to quality. They can do it while keeping full access to internet browsing and AIM, or, if they fail to do it that way, those privileges will be removed/limited/whatever. You don't care if they work one hour a day and play for seven IF the work is finished on time and up to par, so the choice is up to them. They can choose to discipline themselves, or the distractions will be removed for them.

Failing this, since you can't fire anyone, and apparently there aren't job performance assessments or other consequences to keep them in line, I'm not sure what other option you have. Can you bring in an intern? A very bright go-get-em intern might very well shame/scare them into trying to prove themselves.

posted by taz 06 September | 02:31

taz, you are one of my heroes.

posted by chewatadistance 06 September | 07:28

Yeah, if taz gets any wiser she'll grow a beard.

posted by jrossi4r 06 September | 08:06

Taz: grizzled but kindly.

posted by taz 06 September | 08:34

Since they didn't need the internet much to do their actual work, I once set up a couple of public internet stations separate from the work stations. If you wanted to use the internet, everybody could see you were sitting over there. But I guess most people do need the internet to actually work nowadays.

posted by StickyCarpet 06 September | 12:28

Thanks, everyone. Unfortunately I don't have the authority to fire anyone, Human Resources won't give me permission to block the internet or streaming files on their computers or let me install any "observation" software on their computers because they're project instead of staff. Their philosophy (as of this morning) is fire them if they're not working up to snuff, even though you can't replace them. Due to the current financial environment, there is no way to bring them on as staff so there is also no carrot to dangle.

I essentially have to get more work out of bored employees who have no incentive to work harder, and while I have nothing to punish them with to make them.

That said, I like Taz's suggestion. I do have the option of telling them that if their work doesn't improve, I will suggest that their contracts not be renewed at the end of December, which is far enough away that it may or may not have an impact.

We are trying to get interns to take on other work, however because the one school that my boss will go through (because he's on their placement board--he's a whole can of worms hisself!) is downtown and we're in a near suburb, we're having a hard time convincing interns to come to us for $12 an hour.

And Taz, if you have Quark/InDesign print production experience, email me personally and I'll see what I can do to get you in our stable of freelance workers. I'll keep y'all posted. And I appreciate each comment.

posted by Cinnamon 06 September | 13:00

It's sounds like their work isn't up to snuff. Fire the worst of them; the rest will shape up.

posted by eamondaly 07 September | 16:00

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