SABOTAGE!
November 24th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
Interesting and terrifying piece over at WSJ.com about office saboteurs. It never ceases to amaze us - how the traditional work environment allows (and even encourages) this kind of behavior:
Managers who protect their jobs by undermining their employees
Coworkers who take credit for your good work
Coworkers who lay blame for their bad work
Gossips who accuse innocent people of spreading rumors and gossip
The WSJ article gives some good advice based on the rules and norms of the current system. But we feel the very existence of this kind of article is yet another argument for getting rid of our old beliefs about work. A Results-Only Work Environment isn’t perfect. But it’s much harder to play these kinds of games in a ROWE. Here’s why:
1. Increased accountability
In a traditional work environment, workers serve two masters: time/physical presence and results. So even if you’re doing a great job, if you’re not always on time, or sitting in your cube, or putting on a good show in meetings, then you’re vulnerable to backbiting and gossip. “You ever notice how Jolene is never here? She can’t possibly be putting in 40 hours.”
In a ROWE, you are only accountable to results. What’s more, the entire culture supports this focus on the bottom line. If you try to undermine someone based on perception, others in the office will stand up for what really matters: getting the job done.
2. Increased communication
The old command-and-control model of business is based on orders. You do as you are told and you don’t question why. But this method institutionalizes silence and ignorance, which creates natural opportunities for saboteurs to work their dark magic.
But what if leaders, managers and employees were talking all the time? What if there were a healthy dialogue about the outcomes people were trying to drive? In a ROWE, that’s what happens, and it makes it much harder for office snakes to work the shadows.
3. Increased transparency
Isn’t it weird how an office full of people can all be working toward the same goal, and yet no one knows what anyone else is doing? Managers withhold upper-level conversations from their employees for fear of giving them too much power. Employees hide mistakes from managers for fear of retribution. This lack of transparency is another source of cover for saboteurs.
In a ROWE, work is transparent. People at all levels work very hard to make sure everyone understands both the desired outcome and the reasons behind that desired outcome. When the work is transparent, it’s hard for saboteurs to play the perception game, because people aren’t managing perceptions - they are working the results.
We’d love to hear from you on this topic. Can you think of any instances in your career where you or someone you know was sabotaged by another employee? If so, how did the culture of your workplace contribute to the sabotage? And what did you do to make it right?
I was working on a project in the automotive industry. A good team with enthusiastic people. Then the team leader resigned, and management replaced him with a guy which was not even from the original team. He was the typical “I know all” guy, but we all knew (all but management), that it was only a facade, since he was completely clueless. He tried to impose a culture of command and control that made the team very unhappy. For example, he would call at 5:20 (we worked from 8:00 to 5:30) and ask for something that was “absolutely urgent” (it wasn’t). I didn’t stood for this behavior and politely told him that I would work on it the next morning. After a while, I was asked to leave the project since I was being “non cooperative”. I wonder how does an employee (me) that was complimented by his great work suddenly became a “non wanted”. I left the company soon afterwards.
Management was so clueless about how harmful this guy was. I guess they still are, since I know of at least another jerk that was promoted to a leadership position, and of many great engineers that left the company partly because of that.
This is a real tough one to work around. And the employee almost always loses, especially if it is a manager doing the sabotage.
A ROWE is a good thing. We need much more of it out there.
The reason I follow this blog is to maintain a sense of HOPE. This post is right on point to my (and countless others) current work situation.
Over the past 14 years of my employment with my current employer I have:
• Maintained a level of productivity that meets or exceeds work expectations (and also my fellow co-workers output.)
• I have been involved with numerous projects that related to improvements/efficiencies of our particular function.
• Have developed more modern (technology) ways of doing our job.
• Attained the highest level position within my job classification probably faster than anybody has ever attained it before at my employer.
• Etc., etc., etc…
What my current (and past) supervisors and fellow co-workers see (perceive):
1. He takes his leave in little blocks of time instead of taking full weeks of vacation.
2. He takes a lot of time to attend his children’s’ school functions.
3. He takes a lot of time to assist in the taking of his children to medical appointments.
4. He is often arrives late for work.
5. He is away from his desk frequently (i.e. he is not sitting at his desk for 8 hours per day like the rest of us.)
My responses to my supervisor/co-workers concerns:
1. With four children and very busy schedules (sports, etc.) it is nearly impossible to take full weeks of vacation.
2. I like to be a part of my children’s’ school activities.
3. It is my duty as a father to assist my wife in taking the children to their medical appointments.
4. Again it is my duty as a father and a husband to take turns getting up with the baby so she can actually get some sleep.
5. I frequently am away from my desk because:
A. My job requires me to interact with other co-workers in various other areas of my employer on a regular basis.
B. I do actually need to use the restroom just like everybody else.
C. My body needs me to get up and mover around on a regular basis unless I want to have another blood clot in my leg (which was caused by my sitting at my desk for too long of periods of time because my supervisor said I was away from my desk too much.)
My supervisor(s) have spent more time in the past several years scrutinizing my work (based upon their criteria of what constitutes being a “good employee” = “time/physical presence”.) Their efforts have been a complete waste of time. They are adults and should have better things to do with their time – like being better managers.
If they have this much time to spend on such frivolous activities maybe their job (as a middle-manager) is really not needed in the first place…
…End of rant…
You are describing a culture with which I am very familiar. This kind of behavior is accepted. You are right - this abuse affects people, and managers take sadistic pleasure in it. They play a game that degenerates into dirty politics. They undermine the morale of a worker until they have the pleasure of breaking that person. They use company resources and a culture that provides them with enough unwritten rules to protect them. They use politics which do not obey any rules.
Let me tell you about how they work in my company:
If a person is productive, focused on results and so on, he/she becomes a threat to the status quo, and you are targeted. No matter what you do, Management creates a perception of failure around you, which they work systematically. The things they like to work on are behaviors that include all the things you described. What they are doing is playing with you and manipulating you. Then the next step is to do something official, such as blame you for something that the manager thinks is very important, and make you sign a paper in which you admit to all of the “bad” things you did. After signing the paper, of course the system puts you on probation. After six months, they come up with, “We did everything we could to make sure you succeeded, but unfortunately, you did not cooperate. We have to let you go.” When you are exposed and see this game played over and over, you become aware and react to protect yourself. You become your own lawyer. I went through this several times and would like to share an experience with you.
My manager was having a hard time with his performance. At almost the end of the year, he came to me and strongly suggested that my performance was not good. He acted very concerned and told me that he had tried to help me succeed. With all this fatherly and caring attention, he tried to convince me that he was truly helping me. He opened his desk drawer and in a matter of seconds, handed me a long document and asked me to sign it. I read the document carefully. I said to him that in that paper, he was blaming me for his mistakes. I refused to sign and very respectfully left his office. That day he called me to his office five times. He threatened that he would go to the president of the company. He really had a mission to accomplish. That night,, I wrote a letter explaining why I did not sign that paper. The next day, he called me to his office and to my surprise, his boss was there. Again, he asked me to sign. Again, I refused and handed them my letter. Well, this was the end of that harassment. They did not pursue their game any longer.
This is very sad for workers and for business. In these situations, everybody loses. I agree that a new culture has to arrive. A culture that focuses on results only and respects and treats people like adults.