Productive workforce starts with letting people do their jobs

My boss burst into my office, interrupting a meeting with a senior staff member. He was brandishing toilet paper. He meant business. A raging storm and southerly buster waits for no man, we were told.

The building, more specifically the 9th floor, was at risk of going under, and only I could save the day. Smoke was emanating from the wiring panels due to storm water trickling through the cheap windows on the south-facing side. I was tasked to go forth armed with bog roll to caulk the starboard port holes.

Illustration: Kerrie Leishman
Illustration: Kerrie LeishmanCredit:Kerrie Leishman

Being a chap who is not the sort to run last in a gallop to the inference, the glint in my leader’s eye suggested that calling a steward’s meeting to examine my job description was – on balance – less attractive than a clean break from the starting gate. I cannot say my work was pretty, resembling as it did the work of a drunken putty hand, but it did save the day. Twenty-five years later, the cheaply-constructed tower block is still there, and lining leaky windows with toilet paper is yet to make an appearance in any position description I have been offered.

This recollection came to mind after I heard this week of a principal at a northern hemisphere school sending a late-night email to their staff, instructing them to come to school the following day armed with their own shovels to clear away a snow storm. I gather the overwhelming response was to “bugger off”. Quite right too.

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Just what are people thinking when they make such requests? Sure, in a true emergency, it is all hands to the wheel, but a bit of snow falling in a country where it is commonplace is to be expected and should be in any competent plan of management. There are those who are skilled, and indeed insured, to use shovels. While I have the utmost respect for the teaching profession, I must confess that there are likely to be only a small sub-set that I would trust with a shovel.

Duty creep is a real problem, and is emblematic of poor or even bullying management. There is only so far one can push the flexibility philosophy before you enter the realms of people being asked or even required to do things for which they are not adequately trained, physically suited to, or even remunerated. I am not getting nostalgic about 1970s demarcation disputes, but if you want a fast-track to an expensive work-injury claim, or to create a demotivated and disengaged workforce, then demanding people to take on job irrelevant tasks is a proven winner.

The most obvious explanation for this behaviour is a concern to save money, by getting people to do the work of two or more others. However, sometimes it is not about money, but simply a failure to think beyond the immediate problem, and specifically an inability to see things from the perspective of other staff members.

If you want a job done well, employ the right people for the right jobs, and think twice about the nature of the job if it involves shovels and toilet paper.

Jim Bright, FAPS, is Professor of Career Education and Development at ACU and owns Bright and Associates, a career management consultancy. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @DrJimBright

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