Tag Archives: people

When we recognize the wrong things

Have you ever been thanked for working countless hours through the night, over the weekend and during your days off?  Have you ever gotten prizes, certificates or a bonus because you “did the right thing and worked tirelessly without counting the hours”?  If so, you are in good company, but maybe working for a bad one.  Rewarding people for working themselves to death is antithetical to the current push for a healthy work environment and it needs to stop.  Now.

Every day, I hear people pontificating about work life balance and how we all need to take time off to recharge.  We hear about how great it is to take time and just think.  We are given the spiel about emotional intelligence and focus being great productivity boosters.  Then, I see at least half the recognition coming to several teams saying how awesome people are because they went against those values.  There is something very wrong with this picture.

In my workplace, you will never hear an executive tell people they should be working more than the standard policy work week.  We know there will be peak periods where we will have to put in more hours, but that should be followed by commensurate time off, which is not only a legal requirement, but is the right thing to do for your staff’s physical and mental health.  But, what happens when it is all peaks and no valleys?  How many weekends and nights do we have to work before we have legitimate burn out cases?  What is “normal” workload?

In a discussion with a leader I know and respect, she accurately said that part of the problem is driven from the bottom up.  Individual workers feel and perpetuate a culture of having to work the extra hours to be successful.  Projects need to deliver on time and everything needs to run perfectly out of the gate.  If you work in software development, you know that nothing is ever perfect and the unknowns pop up pretty consistently.  We always talk about how the best laid plans go awry, but we never learn our lesson that the stuff we don’t know about is what will trip us up.  We adopt new ways of doing things, like Agile and Scrum, and then we ignore some of the fundamentals in favor of delivering every requirement without deviating from a schedule planned with inordinate amounts of uncertainty.  All of this contributing to a culture where failure is not tolerated and is feared instead of embraced.  We like to say “fail fast, fail often, fail forward”, but we ignore it all when the rubber hits the road.  Often, we are even our own worst enemies.

So, all this begs the question “what should I do about it”?

First, you should talk to your leader and their leader, and even their leader.  Repeat as necessary to get to the top if you have to.  If you are not comfortable doing this, I question how open your environment really is (This is not a judgement.  Mine has it’s issues too…).  It is worth it to talk about perception and reality.  We need to talk about expectations together and make them clear.  We need to ask the difficult questions about what to do when we think the product is not really ready.  We need to embrace the culture of failure as a good thing to learn and improve. We need to feel comfortable saying I don’t know, I don’t agree, I don’t think that is a good idea, I don’t have the time to do that and I don’t want to work that many hours.

As employees, we are trading our time and expertise for compensation.  If we work more hours than the agreed upon number without related compensation, we are diluting the economic value of our labor.  In a time where wage increases are harder and harder to come by and the lion’s share of the value WE are creating is being sucked up by runaway executive compensation and dividend increases, we, the workers, the creators of value, need to stand firm and demand what is rightfully ours.  We need to ask the questions and get the answers.  We need to help each other feel respected and valued.

Lastly, and most importantly, we need to get leaders to STOP RECOGNIZING OVERWORK.  They need to give the prizes to those work their regular hours and have a life outside of work.  Those who take the time be happy and balanced.  They need to give people the ability to get the job done in a reasonable time frame with the right support.  They need to give prizes to projects that deliver without working the team more than the standard work week.  They need to accept that there will be failures and support frameworks that reduce risk and manage time appropriately.  They need to encourage people to speak out against anyone or any project that goes against these principles.  And, we, as the teams doing the work, need to muster the courage to act as a team and support each other in leading balanced lives that make us happy.

People Network

GangCubaIn computer networks, connectivity is key.  If your computer is not connected to a network, you are pretty limited.  The amount you can do is generally proportional to the nodes you can talk to.  This is the beauty and power of the internet.  Our work and personal lives are the same. We need people around us, some close and some farther away, to do great things.

Sure, there have been solitary geniuses who have made great impacts on the world, but even they had parents, mentors, nemeses and people surrounding them who amplified their work to the point we know of it today.  These are exceptions though.  We need our social networks, virtual and, more importantly, in reality.  The people who surround us make us better.  The magical synergies you hear about?  They are real.  Of course, it is very important to be somewhat selective about who you let in to the circle of trust.  Simon Sinek talks about this at length in his books.  And, if Jim Rohn is right and you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with, it is worth taking a few minutes, at the very least, trying to figure out who that should be.

Personally, I have only a few close friends, but keep thinking about how to broaden my circle.  I work remotely a lot of the time and know that I need to take advantage of the myriad meet-ups, neighbourhood activities and conferences that pop up.  Also, being a good neighbour and having a drink with the people that live around me would be a good thing as well.  I won’t get in to the culture of ignoring those in the next house that seems to be pervasive in suburbia, but I am at a loss to explain why we live so closely if we don’t want anything to do with being part of the collective.  It is bizarre.  Overall, I think we have lots of opportunity and need to take the time to be part of the community.  There are more benefits to the social aspect than what we get from simply paying our municipal taxes.  The opportunities abound, but we need to make the leap in to them with a broad smile and open mind.

Next, social media is a great builder / maintainer of bridges.  Facebook brought me back in touch with my now fiancée and also with friends from childhood that bring a lot in to my life.  Sure, you can sit back and be a Facebook voyeur or chronic complainer, but those are the interactions to avoid.  More rare are the positive people who bring value to your life.  Those are the keepers.  They make you think differently and creatively.  They make your life better.  While most will use social media to stay informed and try to drink from the fire hose, which I am guilty of myself, they could do better to focus their attention and start to make a difference for themselves and others.  I admit, this is not an easy thing to do with the massive amount of content being delivered and our limited number of hours in a day.  That is why we should be selective and try to limit our choices.  I know, this is heresy.  Choice is good!  But it isn’t always good.  It distracts us from ever getting in to subjects at depth, where we can create value.  Our focus is a limited resource and the quicker we realize that and work with it, the more we will be able to do.

Bottom line, take a minute to think.  Take a minute to realize who is around you and what they bring to the table.  If they take more than they bring, maybe it is time to assess why you keep giving them your time and energy.  Then, you can look around and see if you can bring more to others’ table.  That is the relationship you want and will make life so much better for everyone and enable you to make your own dent in the universe.

Networking

Don’t kid yourself. Of course it’s who you know. What you know is important too, but who knows what you know is even more important.

Living near the seat of the federal government, I know many people who are civil servants. Generally, they got their jobs through a contact, be it a family member, friend or previous business contact. Some would say that this reflects the unfair nature of government employment and the rampant nepotism we hear so much about. I used to share this opinion and would vehemently oppose anyone who obtained employment this way, in the government or in private industry. With age, some sort of bizarre feeling came over me. I will call it wisdom. It made me realize a few things.

First, when hiring a new employee, it is much easier to go with a known quantity. So recommendations from peers and friends go a long way in establishing the baseline for the person. There are always general things we want to know: Does this person work hard? Will they help me if a deadline is fast approaching and we need all hands on deck? Do they have the right skill set to help me? How do they compliment the team? Etc. All these questions could be asked and answered in an interview, but you would only get the applicants side of the story, which is usually very positive and tends to be on the “what I want to hear” side. A different perspective from people we trust helps build the profile a little better.

Second, knowing the person you are hiring makes it easier to build the working relationship. You have common points of discussion and, possibly, interests. A huge part of the employer / employee relationship is communication. Whatever makes that easier is an asset for both parties. We often hear that people don’t leave jobs, they leaves bosses. If you can set that part straight right off the bat, then you have a much better chance of long term success.

Lastly, if you think about some of the old world ways, we have to protect our people. People can be very broad and does not have to include anything like racism, nepotism or any other form of discrimination that is explicitly illegal. Protecting your people is as simple as an executive that leaves one company and brings his/her contingent over to the new company. They have a team they trust and that has had success in the past. They feel comfortable working together and have a good dynamic. Why give that up? Unless there is something prohibiting them from hiring their team in the new position, it is actually in their best interest to have the team follow.

It is interesting how are views change with time and experience. I am surprised with my view now given my past. I would certainly not agree with myself between when I was twenty and today. The world has moved on and so have I. Does it mean I am smarter? Probably not. But it does mean that I am adapting and learning. So should you.

Stay interested and interesting!

John