Thursday, February 21, 2008

Why do we make a Schedule anyway?????

So, the way I see it is that there are a select few people in town that need money and want to work. Everyone else simply wants money, and if they HAVE to work to get it, so be it, but it's on THEIR terms. Ed, the store manager, and I continually have conversations about how the staff are dictating the schedule. Not all the staff mind you but the majority work when they want, how much they want and really pay no mind to the schedule. Now, I know what you are thinking. That is the way it is up here. Ok, I can see that. Does that mean we have to stand up and bend over for it? I don't believe that we have to. There are other ways, there HAS to be. Where is Dr. Phil when you need him. I like to think, I know shocking isn't it! No seriously, I believe that there is a way to motivate everyone. The key is to find that one thing in everyone. I know you can't win with everyone but I know that when it is eventually my turn to run my own store I hope that I am blessed with understanding and driven workers or that I am able to motivate my staff to enjoy their job and come to work because they like their job, AND money. I know you have heard us talking before about the excuses we hear about not wanting to come in to work, I just keep hearing them, and they keep getting better. It's now to the point where I have my office supervisor complaining that her counterpart is consistently late coming in and only comes in when she wants to. Now, my office supervisor, shows up at least 30 mins late for her shift EVERYday and works less than the REQUIRED 35 hours a week as a FULL TIME MANAGEMENT associate. So when you have a member of management who is continually late or not coming in for one reason or another, the old "lead by Example" adage comes into play. It starts the snowball effect where what is good for the goose yadda..yaddda...yaddda.... I think out of about 15 people on staff, 2 are reliable enough to show up everyday and relatively on time. I am in a position right now that I can sit back and listen to what is going on and what is being said to and amongst the staff, which I will take with me to use as I see fit to understand and motivate where possible. Well, I am scheduled to work tomorrow at 8:00 am.. I should go to bed. 10:30 am comes awful early... ;)

2 comments:

Tawny said...

I think when you're in a work environment where there's a very clear shortage of staff, people get it in their heads that they indespensable. Are they really going to be fired for not showing up? Probably not, because who are you going to replace them with?

I have that situation at work where the staff behave miserable, mouthing off to the supervisor and walking away in the middle of conversations and they get away with it because they know we're short on staff. I've recently taken on managing this team and because I'm new, they're on their best behavior but I know their going to fall back into their bad habits soon enough and when they do, I won't think twice about suspending the whole lot of them without pay and working the entire program myself if I have too :).

Megan said...

"I want money and if I have to work to get it, OK, but it's on MY terms" is a very good description. It might be the most accurate one I've seen in my 8 years here.