Leadership, supervisory or managment advice needed

[QuarterMillionMan]

Anyone here in a leadership, supervisory, or a management position. I'm a supervisor and I wanted to ask your advice in motivating my employees to be more productive. I tell myself that I should not have to lower my standards to meet their level of performance but often I find myself having to lower my standards because they cannot handle the work. One worker even asked me to only assign him a certain amount of work. He does good work but I told him that I cannot control the amount of work that comes in and if needed to not pay so much attention to detail when busy and wing it but when it is slow to put as much detail as he feels necessary. If he does feel overwhelmed he then claims overtime when I think the work could have been done with regular time. I am being to "Gestapo?"

[ua_guy]

It sounds like you're thinking about the situation in an emotionally intelligent way already, so that's good.

I think you need to find out why they're unable to handle the work. Do they not have the right skills to do the work? Is it purely volume of work, with not enough people to get it all done? What are they feeling? What do you see the problem is? Knowing the root cause is a good start.

From there, work with individual employees. For this one that's overwhelmed, level with them using compassion. Ask them to participate in setting daily productivity goals so they don't feel so overwhelmed. Maybe ask the team as a whole if the feeling is shared. I think an important piece is them knowing you're not an adversary. You can't slow down the work coming in to your team, but you can help facilitate how it gets assigned. You really can't impose your personal standards on this person-- yes, you yourself might be able to get the work done quicker. But the employee is doing the work. Try to work with them to challenge themselves to meet higher expectations, and see where it goes.

[Nutria]

Does the slow guy actually work all day? Or does he surreptitiously watch YT videos and play games?

That'll help you decide how to deal with him.

[clatoden99]

Motivation comes from within, not from you. You can, however, inspire your employees. It may seem like semantics, but there is a difference. A common vision, clear communication, and an understanding of what success looks like, combined with a leader who provides the example and who demonstrates genuine concern about each individual and their success, will provide that inspiration.

Consider these questions:
Have you shared a clear vision of where you are trying to go? Why you need their help? What success will look like?
Have you set clear goals? Do they have the tools to achieve them? Do they know what their reward will be?
Working "well" can mean many things. Do you mean working well with others? Are you hiring people who enjoy working in teams? Do they have the right skills for team-based work and success? Or, do you mean work quality? If so, do they understand what the expectation is? Are there clear consequences for poor work output?

Lastly, think about what you mean by working "a lot." Why is that important? If they are non-exempt employees, there are laws and regulations you must follow. If they are exempt employees, they have a job to do and they need to work as long as it takes to get that job done. Is what you are asking unreasonable? Why are you concerned about getting them to work "a lot?"

[Fishindude77]

Pretty good advice by clatoden99.

I am of the opinion that almost all employees are good honest people who would like to come in to work each day, get meaningful work completed, be productive and do quality work. In almost all cases when that doesn't happen, if you take a close look you can see that it is not those employees fault, it is the fault of management.

Employees need very clear direction regarding where we are at now, where we want to be at the end of the day, what quality work looks like, what are the various expectations during the course of the day, etc. Managers need to explain all of that clearly and help guide, coach and keep them on course throughout the day, plus give them progress updates. We also need to make sure they have good working conditions and all of the right tools and materials to be successful.

I think you can get great work out of pretty average people if you can do the above.

Occasionally you do get a negative talking / behaving trouble maker who will bring down an entire crew if left to their devices. Those folks need to be counseled and straightened out immediately, or removed.

[Nutria]

I am of the opinion that almost all employees are good honest people who would like to come in to work each day, get meaningful work completed, be productive and do quality work.

You live in Lake Wobegon.

[QuarterMillionMan]

My subordinate has submitted a request to transfer out. In regards to "employees are good honest people who want to come to work everyday," thanks for the good laugh (lol). In the public sector I find that some of the old timers have a sense of entitlement and lack of appreciation for having their jobs. One of my workers told me to F*#^ off when I told her she could not sleep on the job. She was snoring for about an hour. Needless to say she got a letter of reprimand from me and no longer works with me but she works in a different area but in the same public sector. One worker threatened me not to work against them or else things will happen. That worker is also in a different area but in the same public sector as well. Another worker after getting written up retaliated by going to the board of supervisors saying that both my supervisor and I were incompetent. That worker is also in a different area but in the same public sector. Do you see a pattern here? It's hard to fire someone in the public sector but fairly easy to just transfer them out to a different area making them someone else's problem.

[greenskeeper]

Does the slow guy actually work all day? Or does he surreptitiously watch YT videos and play games?

That'll help you decide how to deal with him.

[ua_guy]

My subordinate has submitted a request to transfer out. In regards to "employees are good honest people who want to come to work everyday," thanks for the good laugh (lol). In the public sector I find that some of the old timers have a sense of entitlement and lack of appreciation for having their jobs. One of my workers told me to F*#^ off when I told her she could not sleep on the job. She was snoring for about an hour. Needless to say she got a letter of reprimand from me and no longer works with me but she works in a different area but in the same public sector. One worker threatened me not to work against them or else things will happen. That worker is also in a different area but in the same public sector as well. Another worker after getting written up retaliated by going to the board of supervisors saying that both my supervisor and I were incompetent. That worker is also in a different area but in the same public sector. Do you see a pattern here? It's hard to fire someone in the public sector but fairly easy to just transfer them out to a different area making them someone else's problem.

If this employee is transferring out, it sounds like you might have an opportunity to hire from the outside.

I too have worked in the public sector, and what you described is the unfortunate nature of the beast. It's easier to shuffle bad employees around than to actually fire them--that's almost impossible. And when you do, the bad ones will try to whack the cash pinata on their way out with frivolous lawsuit or formal complaint of some type, or you'll inevitably be dragged into having to contest their unemployment payout, or battling a union to get rid of them, if they're a union member.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Yes ua_guy, the problem employees always gets the union involved. They file a grievance to petition the reprimand letter and try to block it from becoming part of their record. The process involves a formal hearing with an arbitrator, them against us. Them being the union representative, the bad apple, and possibly their attorney. Us being me, my administrators/directors, human resources managers, City counsel, etc. In all of the cases that I've mentioned above, they all lost and the grievance was denied and the arbitrator ruled in my favor. Those meetings can get intense but I always go well prepared with documentation. I keep well documented files on all of my employees. It is a necessary part of supervision. The amount of time though that goes wasted having to deal with these rotten apples is mind boggling. Time that could have been used more productively if they just did their jobs.