I rather like a bit of politics in my life and so I move between: being furious, to Mrs middle England, to Attila the Hun and on, to mildly amused by Mr.Darling and the like.I say "the like" because frankly they're all blending into one for me these days.We need an overhaul of how we do things on the UK I think.The system, the morals, the boundaries, its machinery in all its machinations isn't working anymore.
This gets me thinking about the organisations I do consultancy work in and what happens when the wheels drop off allbeit temporarily.In much of the Organisational Development work I do there's a people dimension and sometimes people behave in very strange ways. This can be in response to things going wrong,anticipation of them going wrong or in order to provoke them into starting to go wrong.People can sometimes behave like megalomaniacs, mice or lemmings. One might think that people and their shenanigans would shape up during recession- not necessarily so. For some, hard times mean retrenchment and we can see the emergence of jobsworth behaviour, autocratic management or outright rebellion. Equally, some become meek and indifferent afraid to be noticed in case someone realises they forgot to make them redundant.I've been developing a program on values and behaviours recently for a medium sized privately owned organisation who are experiencing some ripples of behaviour they find unacceptable.......
In preparing some materials, I've been reflecting on some of the things that people in organisations I've worked in this year so far, have said either in training, facilitation, mediation or investigation type intervention ( no names are used to protect those lacking in innocence):
Manager :"You see, what's wrong with A*** is that he needs to go.He's over promoted and he's been doing this job badly since he was appointed 18 months ago"
Me: So, what have you done to help him to recognise that and make the change?
Manager: Oh I couldn't do that.Sack someone and put them out of a job"
Me: So, how do you expect this to go forward then? If he isn't told he's not up to the job and hasn't been since he started?
Manager: HR should do it.Tell him to leave.
Me: So was this a HR appointment that was imposed on you?
Manager: No, I appointed him.But they're responsible for people.They're good with people.
(This manager earns in excess of £80k and works in an organisation of 4000 staff, 500 managers and 4 HR Advisers)
"I don't believe in working beyond the hours in my contract.The way I see it, I'm paid to do a job.I give my professional expertise in return for a salary and once my hours are done, my time is mine" ( A consultant working in an NHS hospital, earning £140k plus who left a junior surgeon working on a patient who then made a mistake due to inexperience and injured a patient- The consultant has been dismissed from his post.It will take around 18 months for his appeal case to be heard and his registration hearing.Technically, during this time he can still practice )
CEO: " You see Marie, if staff don't like the changes I'm making, they can always go elsewhere.It's my way or no way"
Me: I hear what you're saying and you obviously have strong views about how things ought to be done and what needs to change but aren't you concerned about losing good people? These changes need their engagement to make things happen
CEO: But how can they be good when they just can't do what I want?
Me: Well, I guess you need to buy your Senior staff in to the changes you want to make.You have been here less than 8 months.The average length of service of your 9 Directors is 6 years.They're all specialists in this industry and in their field.Maybe they think they have a point of view worth listening to?"
CEO: "Only if it's the same as my viewpoint.The sooner they understand that,the better."
" I know what the answer is to this problem and I could resolve it this week. Frankly, if I do I'll just be tossed another one so I will take the long route like everyone else and it will take me 6 weeks to resolve- that's' the expected resolution time for this type of problem.If I do it earlier, who knows whose job might go next" ( an IT specialist in a Company whose share price has moved from £10.57 in 2008 to £3.00 in 2009)
"My boss never even says good morning.I don't really exist at work. I come and go like a nightwatchman.No one notices what I do or how I do it. I could be playing chess or scrabble on my phone all day ( I do sometimes) .The only time they'd notice is if a plane crashed. " (Assistant air traffic controller),
" The way I see it.I was paid under market, in return, it was expected that people would do their personal work in work time in order to supplement their income.Everyone is at it so why not me? I'm a scapegoat for a whole raft of people" (ex customer service call centre worker in a high street bank on-line service representative who spent on average 3 hours a day in a 7 hour shift working on their own business over a 12 month period).
" Why on earth would anyone do this job for this money? It's so obvious that a number of people here would tap into people's accounts and sell on data for thousands of pounds.It's easy.Once you have access to people's information, you're not thinking about the person when you get £25 for every person's account details you pass on" ( Banking assistant in a clearing service earning £15k in her job and £30k in 3 months by passing personal banking details to a criminal gang.Now counting days in prison until she comes up for trial )
"Y'see it all started when we were told we had to cook. I didn't come here to cook.It gets so hot in this kitchen with all the ovens on and preparing food is exhausting.It's really hard work.So when we saw the opportunity to jam the fans in the ovens permanently, we did it to try and get back to the heat and serve meals that are easier to prepare. You just heat them up and serve them in the containers. No washing up either so we got to sit and chat again. I guess we just decided we'd rather have less staff and do the heat and serve service so we made it happen" One of 5 cooks/kitchen assistants disciplined for deliberately sabotaging the service at a privately run home for older people.Remarkably none were dismissed and the heat and serve service still operates despite complaints from users of the service and a 40% wastage rate.
So what?- well to some degree all of these people were/are playing politics.Organisational politics. They were/are engaging in "social relations to gain power".I've met all of them and they're just ordinary and at some level, they really do think their actions were justifiable.They're part of a system that doesn't work for them so they either abrogate responsibility, take a level of risk and push boundaries to an unacceptable level or work on the basis that they are in the land of right and everyone else is wrong.These are systemic issues not just issues about rebellion.Whilst most are simply unacceptable, they emerge because there is something wrong with the rules of engagement and/or the system that supports the activity of the organisation.
So, for all I know, Mr Darling is a darling and Boris Johnson is as sane as you or I.
Enjoy your work this week whatever you do.
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