Perception or Reality?
If a group of managers are going out to lunch, do you think that the employees in-house know what time that they leave?...and come back?
Don't you think that the employees keep tabs on management the same way that management keeps tabs on them?
The reality is that everyone is watching and everyone knows.
It is not just employee perception or managers perception. It is not even "us" vs. "them". It is about boundaries and consequences. And, also a little bit of game playing.
That's reality.
posted by Just another guy trying to rule the world... at 3:26 PM
3 Comments:
The reality is that employees watch management even closer than mangement watches the employees. When a group of Managers all go to lunch together, reality is everyone who works for them knows what time they left and what time they come back unless the managers are shrewed enough to know how to return to work unnoticed.
This very thing happened at my office, as a supervisor I did not go to the lunch because it was a mandatory furlough day for personnel. That afternoon after 3 p.m. I was fighting off the inquiries from staff about the luncheon especially the reason for its length, and on a day when personnel was cut 25%. At one point an employee documented the leave time of the bosses at 12:35 p.m. and arrival back time at 3 p.m. My only response was "Everyone gets a lunch even on Furlough days". Frankly anymore of an explanation in the defense of this abhorrent act would be supposition, and not fact based.
The surprising thing about such an luncheon is that if it were held perhaps on a different day other than one in which everyone's sensitivities elevated, than I think the general work force is less inclined to notice.
The old saying Nero plays while Rome burns comes to mind when a management team takes a lengthy lunch, on a day when staff is diminshed by 25%.
Isn't a true leader determined by his ability to lead by example, and perhaps not take a lunch when staff is cut by 25%? Or do we pick leaders that do what they want simply because they can?
I want to be the former, and believe me I know everyone is watching.
4:19 PM
What you describe, my friend, is a mere flaunting of power and position. It may not be intentional but that is the way it is perceived. Unfortunately, that is also the reality of any workplace, public or private.
It is unfortunate that your management staff were not aware of their time management and how their actions are perceived by the staff, especially in these troubled times of budget cuts, furloughs and layoffs and low employee morale and job satisfaction.
8:03 PM
Interesting blog you have here. Just had to comment and let you know that that happens everywhere. In corporate America that can be the norm. Mr Servant, as long as they "play the game", as you say, and not get caught then its all good. I expect that from the person in power who works for the government. They really are no different than us in the private industry.
Abuse is abuse or however it is perceived in the eye of the beholder. Youre right. Everyone watches and everyone knows.
11:51 PM
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