Supportive Communication

“We are getting less than 40 hours of work from a large number of our K.C.-based EMPLOYEES. The parking lot is sparsely used at 8:00 A.M.; likewise at 5 P.M. As managers – you either do not know what your EMPLOYEES are doing, or you do not CARE. You have created expectations on the work effort that allowed this to happen inside Cerner, creating a very unhealthy environment. In either case, you have a problem and you will fix it or I will replace you. NEVER in my career have I allowed a team that worked for me to think they had a 40-hour job. I have allowed YOU to create a culture that is permitting this. NO LONGER.”

Wow! If I received the message above from my CEO, I'm not sure that is a CEO I would be working for much longer.  Of course, while I'm job hunting I'd need to stay with this company to pay the bills, and therefore I'd still have to work through this problem.  My approach follows...

As manager, my very first response would be to pull the team together and honestly communicate the CEO's concerns.  I would describe my plan to address the concerns clearly.  That plan would be to pull in each of my team members individually and have a conversation in which we discuss whether or not they are part of the group.  If they are I would want to discuss why they did not, cannot, or will not remain on site during their scheduled hours.  Finally, I would work with the team member to determine how best to make a behavior change going forward.

It would be important for me to assume the best of intentions in each of my team members prior to meeting with them.  There are thousands of good reasons why an employee might arrive late and leave early from a job site.  And, once a few people do it, it's easy to understand how a culture may spread that leads everyone to believe that it is okay to do something.

In each of the individual meetings, I would:

1. Reassure the team member that there would not be repercussions for past actions (there is an assumption from the message above that this is true), that the intention was to make change from this point forward.  However, I would also make it clear that once we had an alignment on expectations by the end of the discussion, penalties would apply in the future for non-adherence.
2. Remind the employee that as far as company policy allowed, the conversation would be confidential.
3. Describe the issue at hand in a descriptive, congruent, problem-oriented fashion (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).  I would say something like, "it has been brought to my attention that several team members have been arriving after our standard 8am start time and leaving before our standard 5pm end time."
4. Ask the team member if they had arrived late or left early at any point.  During this time (and throughout the conversation) it would be important to watch for signs of defensiveness and disconfirmation (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).  Despite my best intentions, it is very likely that some team members will be offended at the very question.
5. Listen to the answer.
6. For employees that answer no, I take their word for it.  I coach that the expectations are for team members to be on site from 8am to 5pm, and that in the future there will be penalties for those that are not.
7. For employees that answer yes, I ask follow-up questions in a respectful way to try and determine why.  It would be important at this time to practice supportive listening and reflective responses (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).
8. After discussion, I would provide counseling on my expectations for future behavior, while monitoring again for signs of defensiveness and disconfirmation (Whetten & Cameron, 2016).

In the abstract, it is difficult to predict human behavior.  While it is likely that not all of these meetings will go smoothly, I will know that I have put my best foot forward for my team members.  At the end of the day, that is all that is within my control.

References
Whetton, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9^th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.