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The following is another chapter from John's upcoming book entitled "The Orange Juice test."
THE TIME CLOCK
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to separating symptoms from
underlying causes is fear of communicating face to face about a negative
situation. I find it in almost all workplaces. So many people view the
predicament as confrontational, and envision a session wrought with
defiance or hostility. Rather than sit down and calmly discuss the
facts, many people go to great lengths to solve what they perceive to be
the problem.
The time clock story epitomizes a classic case of avoiding what one
assumes will be an unpleasant confrontation by implementing a solution
that will get everyone in an uproar!
I arrived at a client's headquarters one Tuesday morning to find the
owner in his office busily perusing a catalog for time clocks. In my
years working with this client, the staff had always impressed me with
their work ethic. Therefore I was curious why he felt the need to
install a time clock.
Of the fifty-six people in the company, in sales, marketing and
operational support position, Sally, a manager, was consistently showing
up late for work! As we continued to discuss the situation, it became
apparent Sally was the only tardy employee. In fact, the rest of the
staff generally came in early and worked late. Nearly all of these
employees were on a salary and bonus structure we had set up. There was
no need for a time clock for payroll purposes.
I wondered how these employees felt about having their movements tracked
by a time clock. Not only had my client not told anyone of his plans, he
saw no reason why it would bother them. After all, they would all know
the time clock wasn't meant for them, he reasoned. He also proposed that
I should send the staff the memo about the new time clock procedure.
Though it is probably not wise to provoke one's client, I couldn't help
but ask if I should credit Sally for the need for a time clock.
"Don't you dare," he replied, "you know how I feel about confrontation.
If you put Sally's name in the memo, she's sure to confront me!" To him,
Sally's continual tardiness was a show of disrespect. Plus it put a
wrench in the morning workflow. He wanted it stopped! He added that if I
felt so strongly about it, he would wait to order the time clock till
the end of the week. In that time, I could feel free to address the
situation.
By now, it was around 8:15 a.m. Though office hours didn't technically
start until 9, several employees were already at work. The remainder,
except Sally, showed up in the next half-hour. At 9:22 a.m., Sally
rushed through the door, obviously harried. I said hello, and asked her
to block some time in her schedule to meet with me that afternoon.
Eight of the company's ten managers were female. Sally had been with the
company for several years, working her way up to management level from
an entry-level position. While not a star performer, she was certainly
adequate in her role. In fact, she had received two small performance
raises over the past 18 months. Mid afternoon we met in her office. We
discussed my latest assignment and her staff's role in it. In my
experience, the chances of "things" turning out badly are directly
related to the length of time that I wait to address the issue. So I
plunged in.
I told Sally I noticed she was running late this morning. She said if I
meant she wasn't in the office by nine, she certainly was late. However,
she then stated that the earliest she could possibly arrive at work was
about 9:20 a.m. She explained that she has to take her children to day
care. The only day care facility she could find that will keep children
later that 5 p.m. is twenty minutes from her house in the opposite
direction of the office. The earliest they allow children to be dropped
off is 8 a.m. After dropping the kids off at 8 a.m., her morning drive
to the office averages an hour and twenty minutes.
While I now understood her dilemma, I asked why she used such an
inconvenient day care facility. Sally explained her reasoning: most of
the staff meetings were held in the late afternoon. If she didn't take
her kids to a facility that allowed them to stay past 5, she would have
to leave work early, missing the meetings. She felt it was better to be
late in the mornings. I was still a little confused about the situation,
since I seemed to recall Sally lived just about ten minutes from the
office. When I asked her, Sally said that indeed, she had lived much
closer to the office until her husband, Tom left. At that time she had
to relocate to a more affordable area, further from the office.
Armed with this new information, in a discussion that was only
uncomfortable for the first question, I was able to report to the boss
that same evening.
The results:
I am pleased to report that this particular client now has a day care
facility at the company headquarters. The cribs, toys and bright paint
used to convert an unused storage room cost less than a time clock. And
rather than a staff feeling like they are under big brother's thumb,
with their every move tracked, many of the employees happily take
advantage of the day care benefit, including Sally. In fact by splitting
the cost of the day care staff's salaries, most pay less for day care
services than they had been. All these benefits came about because of a
conversation that focused on fact-finding rather than accusations.
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John Raymen Porter, Jr.