How to deal with nattering nabobs of negativity?
The seasoned employees have probably been through this talk with every new manager they’ve had in the past. It’s incredibly common. And little ever changes. Blame the negative nabobs and fire them? Well, that’ll make everyone just feel a lot better (sarcasm) about the corporation. Corporate culture is a huge thing to try to change. If you think you can change things for the better (from your employee’s point of view, not the board of director’s view), then more power to you. If you really feel you can change things, then make 1 good change. You already know what some of the problems are. Fix one if you can. Then you’ll get their respect. I’ve occasionally encountered a good new manager. They were good because they were genuinely caring about their people. But for the most part a new manager meant just a new droning voice at the weekly status meeting. And the work went on regardless.
Metrics! There is no amount of employee negativity that can’t solved by cold, hard numbers. In your situation, you’ll want to know How Long Does It Take To Do X? If it takes 30 minutes to process a TPS Report, then you can make it your department’s goal to reduce that time to 20 over the next year. Ask your employees what they think they need to achieve that goal. Explain to them that this is how you can get additional resources for them, by showing your bosses the benefit of said resources. Bosses like numbers too and would be more likely to free up some scratch if you can show the improvement in productivity and quality of service. Set milestones for productivity with rewards at the end. Is the average time per TPS Report down to 25 minutes? Great! Pizza on me! We hit 20 before the goal date? Champagne! It’s really hard for process-oriented workers to get a sense of accomplishment, so one of your roles as a manager is to fulfill that need. Your older employees will be suspicious of t
Oh gosh. You sound like my managers (three of them) at a previous job. Good on you for getting in there and trying but the negativity is there for a reason. Aramaic and Thorzdad are perfectly correct. Let me give you an example and see if this sounds familiar. I move into a new department and start from the ground up. We have a new manager and a lot of experienced staff. New manager gives us all bright shiny goals to work towards. As the newbie, I find this exciting and work my arse off towards said goals. Veterans, who have seen this all before, work towards goals, but with slightly less force due to overwhelming burden of cynicism. New manager is fired for unrelated issues. New new manager turns up with more bright, shiny goals – amazingly similar to original ones. I give my view on the current goals and work I’ve been doing. Receive pat on head and am promptly ignored. Work starts – FROM THE BEGINNING – on new new goals. Manager leaves. New new new manager turns up with some more of
