8 Steps to Manage Poor Management

Eight Steps to Manage Poor Management

By Lindy Earl

??Warning: This is a long blog. First, I share the true story as it was told to me, then I offer specific steps to consider as a Manager.

A Problem Unravels . . .

?????????A single spark can destroy an entire forest. When we look back at situations that went badly, it’s good if we can trace the conflict to a single moment. This is a story of amazingly bad management.

???????????The setting is a retail store. A large, nationwide chain. I believe that life at the corporate level is good, but within the retail establishments it is another story. I’m sure this is true of multiple stores like this.

???????????First, let me introduce the three main characters in this episode: Donna is the Store Manager, Edna works in Customer Service, and Abbey works in the Mail Room.

???????????If you don’t know, it’s normal for retail employees to use walkie talkies. It’s a convenient way to let everyone know that you’ve arrived, request help, ask a question, and share information.

???????????The walkie talkies provide everyone the opportunity to say a simple good morning or ask where they are needed. Rather than leaving a register or traipsing about the store, a simple question of whether a product is in stock can be quickly answered without dragging guests through the store. When a fire alarm is accidentally pulled (which has happened) then employees can immediately be notified that it is a false alarm and notify guests. So while there are wonderful uses for walkie talkies, like every good tool, it needs to be used appropriately.

???????????The manager of the store, Donna, is respected and liked. Her theory is that all employees are equal, she just happens to hold the keys. You can understand why the employees like working with her.

???????????So the day of our story begins well. People are in their places, doing their work, and even helping one another, as good employees tend to do. All is well.

???????????Edna, the Supervisor of Customer Services, arrives a few hours into the day for a later shift. When a retail store is open from 9am – 10pm employees usually cover hours from about 7am to 11pm. When Edna arrives she mentions to Abbey that it’s Abbey’s job to help in Customer Service even though Abbey’s job that day is in the mail room.

Abbey isn’t even sure why Edna is telling her this, but that’s who Edna is.

???????????The day is going along and Donna walks through the mail room and calls Abbey into a short meeting, explaining that several packages had not gone out the day before so she needed to get those done as well. Abbey was in the weeds! About this time Edna announces, over the air, that Abbey (calling her out by name) has packages piling up in customer service.

???????????And there it is: the spark that will ignite a flame.

???????????Now, Abbey is in her meeting with Donna and can’t respond. In addition, she has so many packages in the mail room that she doesn’t have room for any from customer service.

When the meeting ends Abbey runs to Customer Service (which may have been a mistake on her part) and explained that she hadn’t been ignoring Edna but had been meeting with Donna about yesterday’s packages. No response. Oh my.

???????????Just after this, another colleague walks through the mail room and asks Abbey how she’s doing.?Abbey says she’s swamped and feels like she’s been yelled at by Edna. Abbey is assured that she’s fine and is told to ignore Edna. In fact, Abbey is told, whenever Edna tells you anything, go to Donna. This was not the first time Abbey had heard this advice. So noted.

???????????Abbey continues to work faster than she probably should have because it’s easy to make mistakes when you go too fast, but she’s working. It was at this time that the morning girl in Customer Service approached Abbey to ask if Abbey could take over for her as her shift was over.

???????????What to do? Abbey was way behind, had just been publicly rebuked for falling behind, had been given another task by Donna . . . so she explained that she was too busy. She was doing what she had been told to do. The work that Donna, the manager, had asked her to do, and was doing what another colleague had recommended she do: take direction from Donna.

???????????Meantime, by the way, Abbey was wondering why Donna didn’t have her back.?Shouldn’t Donna have explained to Edna, when Edna called Abbey out about the boxes in Customer Service, that Abbey was meeting with her? This may have been a missed management opportunity more than bad management.

???????????So Edna gets on the walkie talkies and calls out Abbey and insists she help at Customer Service. Abbey doesn’t know what to do. So she responds on the walkie talkies to Donna, asking where she should work – whether to stay in the mail room or go to Customer Service.

???????????Before Donna can respond, Edna returns with, “Abbey, don’t do this to me.” At that time Donna comes on and, in a calm voice, says that yes, the boxes can wait, and Abbey can work in Customer Service. Whew! Except it’s not over.

???????????Edna now returns to the airwaves to tell Donna that she needs to see her in the office immediately. She then calls another Supervisor to work with Abbey.

???????????Wait. It gets better.

???????????So when Edna returns to Customer Service, Abbey apologizes to her and assures her no disrespect was intended. Edna rudely acknowledges the apology. So it’s Abbey’s turn to head to the office.

???????????After a short conversation, Donna says that she’s sure that Edna didn’t mean anything by her initial comment about packages piling up. Wait. How can Donna know that? Let’s save that discussion for another day.

???????????Donna does admit that Edna was wrong to call out Abbey over the air and, at Abbey’s inquiry, says she will speak with Edna about it. Donna correctly identifies that comment, of calling out Abbey on the walkie talkies for packages piling up, as the genesis of the incident. She also wants Abbey to tell her what employee said to disregard Edna’s orders and check with a Manager. Abbey is not giving up any names.

???????????As Abbey is leaving Donna’s office, another employee approaches her and says she is sorry about what happened and that Edna was just wrong for calling her out as she did. In addition, she told Abbey to always check with Donna when Edna gives her direction. Oh my, Edna’s reputation is out there!

???????????So, in my book, Yes, He ACTUALLY Said That!, I ask two questions: where did the person go wrong and what will you do in a similar situation?

A Solution Reveals Itself . . .

1. Correct/admonish/rebuke in private. We have already identified Edna’s great mistake. She should have done her work at Customer Service and let the boxes pile up.?It wasn’t her circus or her monkeys. She should NEVER have called out ANYONE over the air.?We all know to compliment in public and reprimand in private. She failed. How would she like it if every time she had a line in Customer Service somebody got on the air and commented on it?
2. Focus on your own work. ?Abbey had her mistakes as well.?First, when somebody like Edna does what she did, maybe she could learn to laugh, or at least ignore it. If Abbey had kept doing her work she may have eventually caught up (she never did and left boxes untouched at the end of her shift, with Donna’s approval).
3. Look for the lighter side. If Abbey felt that she had to respond when Edna called her out publicly, she might have done so with humor. Maybe a line like, “If you think it’s bad out there, you should see the mail room!” to let Edna know that she was just that busy.
4. Review after the fact. The question of whether Abbey was right or wrong in saying no is yet to be determined.?She had just received an additional job of yesterday’s packages, from a higher up, so her denial of the request seems justified. Still, Customer Service is important and Edna had made a point that morning of saying it was Abbey’s job to help.
5. Do nothing? Another option, but one which I do not condone in this case, is to do nothing. Doing nothing is always an option and sometimes the best decision. In this case Abbey could have ignored all the comments and never responded. She could have claimed that she never heard the conversation. Again, not a good idea but I see it done too often.
6. Be careful what you say, and where you say it. If Edna had brought a box or two into the mail room to ask Abbey, privately, to remove the boxes from Customer Service, she would have seen for herself the state of the mail room. In addition, she would have been helping by getting some boxes gone. And the inappropriate rebuke would have been face to face and in private.
7. Take a minute to consider how to respond. While I hope this never happens to me, I also hope that I can respond rationally, not emotionally. I understand Abbey’s feeling that she had been yelled at. She really had been, even if a voice hadn’t been raised.?It’s not too much to say that there was some humiliation involved, so an emotional response isn’t surprising. When you take a few minutes, and some deep breaths, you can take time to decide how to respond versus just reacting.
8. Consider the other person’s situation. At that moment, if Abbey had taken a minute to realize that Edna was probably overly busy as well, and didn’t want to see the boxes stacked up, it would have helped. Maybe then she would have not felt the way she did and simply responded that she would get to them as soon as she could and let it end there.

Final Thoughts . . .

???????????The question remains, how wise was Edna to rebuke a fellow employee, then ask her for help? If this is the type of Supervisor that this store has, would you want to work there?

???????????The good news is that this can all be remedied with some simple communication. It’s time for the manager to have an all hands meeting and remind employees of the need for respect, kindness, and good communication. A simple review of how to use the walkie talkies appropriately would help. Then, a private meeting with Edna to explain what she did wrong and how to better handle future situations. Obviously the number of boxes is an on-going issue if two days in a row they weren’t completed. Management might want to consider adding hours to the payroll, because it sounds like both Customer Service and the Mailroom are understaffed.

???????????Sadly, stories like this happen every day. Let’s stop to figure out who you are within your own world: Donna, Edna, or Abbey.?From there, how can you perform your tasks to be the best of our abilities, and remain a good employee? Maybe there will be fewer stories such as this.

???????????Donna has a lot of responsibilities and did drop the ball by not realizing that Abbey was overwhelmed in her task. Considering the workload the day before she should have thought to look at it and double the employees assigned to the task. That’s okay. It happens. She did speak with both Edna and Abbey and listen to both sides. While Donna claimed to know Edna’s mind and that Edna had not meant anything, in truth she shouldn’t have gone there since she could not have known. She did follow up with Edna about using the airwaves appropriately and let Abbey know the next day that the situation had been addressed.

???????????Edna did return to Customer Service where she did not accept Abbey’s apology graciously but did continue to work. The next day all seemed to be forgotten and Edna was the first to speak when the two found themselves in the break room together.

???????????Abbey learned a lot. First, she should have asked for help before her situation was so bad that other employees noticed it. Second, she should have responded privately to Edna, just as she had responded privately to her colleague when she was asked to help. Then Donna, Edna, and Abbey could have, together, chosen the best path. Maybe there was another employee who could have taken over in the Mail Room or Customer Service??The store certainly has more than the employees mentioned.

???????????If a situation like this ever happens to you, where you are called out publicly, take time now to figure out what you will do. You may decide to keep your emotions in check, to offer a humorous response, and to see that it’s just one situation in one day of work.

In this world, disrespect and humiliation happen, even if not intended.?Choose ahead of time how to respond. You will be part of the solution, not adding to the problem, if you do.

Lindy is available as a speaker and management consultant to help your team be the best managers they can be.