Sabotaging the Work

Management has only one responsibility, only one task: To make sure that the workers have what they need to do their job. It's no rocket science, except to those who actually hold the management positions. Then think of all the assistance that your typical manager has! There are reams of books, reviews of those books and, for every possible decision, there are country-wide surveys to show effectiveness. For example, there have been dozens of studies of 'flex-time' in it's various incarnations and every single one mentions increases in productivity and a decline in absenteeism. That would mean that every since company would want to jump on it? Wrong! The most prevalent response is "Well it won't work for this company (or business)". However, if management can frustrate the workforce, they jump on it immediately.

I worked at a major military manufacturer for roughly one year back in the '70's. It was a co-op job. The strangest thing I noticed there on the first day was that, although the company had provided vending machines all over all the buildings, each had the coin slot drilled out to fit a padlock. Unless you removed the padlock, you couldn't put coins in the slot! Once a day, during the lunch half-hour, a supervisor would come by and unlock the coin slot. By that time, there would usually be a line 4 or 5 deep in front of the machine.

Why did this happen? Nobody seemed to know. But where there is a will, there is a way and people will get their coffee. Catering trucks would pull up in front of each building and the people would stream out. Even the management would send their secretaries out to get coffee.

This would not last. A memo from someone on high (if I told you the name, you'd know the company) setting forth a new policy that nobody was allowed to go out of the building to get anything from the caterers. I was a young kid that knew very little at that time, so this struck me as absurd. So I responded to the 'someone' with my own memo. However I wasn't so stupid, I added a line that caused 5 levels of management to quiver with fear. I added a line to the effect that maybe they should be looking at those managers that have so little to do that they are watching people out the windows. Even then, I heard nothing for a long time. Since this was a co-op job, they waited until the last day before I went back to college. Then I found out that the guy I had memo'ed was 5 levels of management above me. I was interviewed by each manager on the way up, including Mr. Upper Management. The main question they all wanted to know was "Who was the manager with nothing do?". I would like to note that every manager I talked to, had a cup of coffee in their office.

But when I finally got to the top of the management ladder, I found out why they locked the slots on the vending machines. It seemed that the military branch they built stuff for, had done a survey on productivity at that location. They had seen a number of people drinking coffee. As soon as management saw that in the report, they acted with alacrity! Maintenance was out there drilling immediately.

If you've ever been in an engineering environment, a cup of coffee doesn't slow down productivity, but rather enhances it. But as you can see, as soon as they have even a whiff of a reason, they're overly willing to make things worse for the workforce.

The Art of Self-Deception

When I mentioned the Voluntary Separation Plan, we've already encountered the almost desperate need of managers to deceive themselves. In that instance, since the world was cosy and rosy for them, then everyone must be happy. I believe this need for self-deception results from the infusion of something that should not be in management--the ego. Sorry to get religious on you, but the Bible states that "Whoever would be great in the kingdom of God, would be a servant to all." Despite the origin, if you look at management with that in mind, you begin to understand where 'THINGS WENT WRONG". To put it plainly, it is the responsibility of any manager in your organization to make sure that you can do your job. Think about it, that would include everything: Equipment, workspace, safety, etc. However, once ego enters into the equation, things fall apart. Ego is reason that managers self-deceive. "If I'm promoted to this position, how can I do anything wrong?" Then the fantasies begin.

At one company, the structure was very simple, they had production & engineering. Production had it's top tech as supervisor in Final Test and a manufacturing engineer. When all else failed, then engineering was involved. It didn't take an act of Congress, all they had to do was come over and get us.

Then we got a new production manager. A woman from a major aerospace manufacturer. The key here is not the woman part, but the 'major' part. The larger the organization, the more it relies on the managerial 'buddy-buddy' system. That is another subject. However, back to the situation....the problem arose when the production supervisor (one step below the lady) and his group leader decided that they were tired of getting beat on for late shipments. The solution was easy, blame Engineering! When a unit got tied up in final test, it was immediately marked as moved to Engineering for debugging, even if Engineering never heard of it or got it for a week later. Now our manager was getting beat up. However the lady had a great idea! To solve the problem, all she had to do was get a few of those lazy engineers transferred to production, problem solved!

Here's where the self-deception occurred: One of the techs that was going to be transferred was going to be put in the position of customer support (answering the phone). This particular guy was at the company for a few years. First he was a final test tech, then he really, really wanted to get into engineering. He was going to school at night, etc. There was an opening for an Engineering Tech, but someone talked him into taking on the customer support job. After a year, we had fought to get him into engineering and now, 3 months later, this lady wanted to move him right back into that position AGAIN. He even told her he did not want that job, to which the lady replied that if he didn't take it, she didn't know if there would be a position for him.

As you notice, this lady, despite being told the situation, refused to believe it because it conflicted with her idea. Roughly 6 months after the transfer, this guy left. When the lady was told that it was because of the transfer, she responded that he was going to leave anyways! As you notice, there was no compulsion to actually believe that she had done something wrong.

The big key here is: If you can't admit your mistakes, you can't learn anything!