If one is to judge from your rhetoric, nothing is ever done correctly around here. It is based upon this that I assume that very rarely, if ever, does anyone here do anything even hardly adequate, much less commendable, in the simple, unchallenging position of working at the front desk.
Even if you were managing the most inept, unproductive, and blundering group of staff imaginable, the simple task of commending them on job well done will do wonders for your own job.
Now I understand the importance of being pro-active about constant and consistent improvement of your staff’s skills and this place’s performance. However, in the entire time I have worked here, not only am I and everyone else still feeling the repercussions of terrible training, but rarely do I know how well I am doing my job, both from my colleagues and my superiors. I do know however, that this place’s performance and rating from clients has skyrocketed in the past few months since you hired the group of us.
Furthermore, in the instances of management continually making suggestions and offering criticism of how we should do our job, I can’t help but often notice that they know little to nothing of what we do at the front desk, and what the job truly entails. Indeed, when I have to witness a manager attempting to do my job, it usually causes embarrassment and more problems for them, the clients, and myself. Yet they insist that they know how to solve the problem, and even more so, insist that I do it their way – even though in my experience and that of my colleagues, it is often the most inefficient, unproductive, and clumsy way.
What I am trying to bring to your attention, sirs and madams, is that a little bit of acknowledgment goes a long way. If we never receive acknowledgment for what we do right, why should we choose to continue putting all that extra effort? Furthermore, why should we continue to value the importance of self-improvement when we never know when we are doing something right, only when we’re doing something wrong?
I commend you for your efforts to improve the quality of the workplace and our skills, but one of the best management rules is also the simplest: treat your staff well and they will treat you even better.
Good luck managing this place with all your best staff leaving you!
—Self-Righteous Soon to be Former-Employee
This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2009.
Hahaha, yes! This is so true of many upper management types. They haven’t worked their way from the bottom to the top like people apparently sometimes used to do, but they still want to act like they know how to do everything. And usually you just have to bite your tongue and pretend they know what’s right 🙁
im not sure if i hadnt noticed before or it is actually becoming more common for this to happen.
my workplace is full of straight-out-of-school management types that have no clue on how things work or how we get things done.
they come in, usually with a superior, haughty air surrounding them. determined, yet misguided, it becomes a mission to mark their territory and put their own stamp on things.
i think to myself…”in three to five months youll be off in some other corner of this place out of my sight.” then i giggle, going about my job as i did years before they arrived.
This really does depend on the employer… I’ve worked for companies that called out great achievements on a daily basis, then I’ve worked for employers that say that your recognition for good work is your pay. John is right, this usually happens when the company hires outside management (vs. hiring someone from within) and the people just don’t respond well to that sort of hiring, mostly because they don’t respect them, or that the new manager is working off what he learned during his MBA/Psych classes, which basically forgoes any workplace nuances. That doesn’t mean that the employees are are off the hook either, because they need to be forgiving on new management or at the very least, if the manager is being a dick, forget about it and move on with your day.