OK, so what if someone checks out? Here is what I mean. In an article in the Globe and Mail on 8 June of this year, author L.M. Sixel espouses “Keep employees engaged or they may ‘retire’ on the job.” This author presents or presented a case that has been discussed in some way or another for years and years…what if someone stays but leaves mentally (or in their relative efforts to do or be engaged by the job). Is it obvious? I say no. It is like an amoeba and it changes shape based on the tasks (or tasks) and to what degree you are holding your team accountable for their “efforts”.
I think, to coin a phrase, there are two types of “retirement” on the job. There is deliberate and there is occasional. Please let me explain. As manager we are tasked to get things done through others and they sometimes just do not want to do “it”. They will go through the motions and still not want to get “it” done. Not to anyone’s liking. Maybe the better word is apathy. “I just don’t care anymore”. So if that is the case, why?
This can be the harder part. It can be due to a lack of knowledge, support, training, coaching, feedback, growth opportunities, recognition or even trust. Read Leigh Branham and his book The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late and you will get a tremendous sense why someone might leave a job or perhaps why they might stay and retire. I believe he has got it spot on. Sixel, in his or her (not sure) article, uses a source, Debra Bogowitz of Accelerated HR Solutions and Debra explains that the typical bell curve still plays a part in the equation. This being that we as managers and leaders spend time with the top percentage (“thanks, you rock, please never leave my team”) and the bottom team (“thanks, you don’t rock, you suck my will to live, shape up or please leave my team”). It is the inevitable middle part, the bell part which needs some “stroking”. They need to feel appreciated for what they do, albeit not to the extent of the top tier. I would venture to say the biggest movement you can produce would be with what you do with the “bell”. Ms. or should I say Mrs. Bogowitz makes a critical point about asking this “bell” group why they stay. She refers to it as a “stay interview”. I feel it important to “toot” my own horn a bit. I do and suggest the same with my clients. Intention is the same, nomenclature different. It is a pretty cool process and managerial tool. You will not know the deliberateness of someone retiring on the job without, as I refer to it, tagging it. And then your managerial coaching (or progressive discipline) moment is more obvious and not guessing. If you do not ask, you do not know…for sure.
OK, so what if it is occasional? Once in a while, right? Here is what I mean by that. Sometimes, I am not in the moment. I am done by 2:30 p.m. and please do not ask me to do anything else. “I hit my target. It is a beautiful day and I would rather be somewhere else.” I believe it unwise and illogical to assume any employee or team member will be “on the job” 24/7. People are people and the personal can very easily overtake the professional. I do not wish to overstep what both author Sixel and Consultant Bogowitz was saying. Their context was different. It squarely looked at if someone checked out. I am merely and modestly suggesting there might be degrees of checking out. Sometimes deliberate; this must be tagged and dealt with for the good of the business. And perhaps occasional, and I am out of it for a bit boss. Call it the weather or mood or just cuz.
OK, managers pay attention;
Sometimes we need to check in before they check out. Ask questions and be sure people are in the place you need them to be. I have questions to ask. Sorry, not for free.
Always, always keep score. You and your team need to know if they are winning or losing.
Managers like to fix stuff. How about celebrating stuff? If this baffles you, really? Call it praise and recognition. Still baffling, really?
Think growth mentality. Always be growing your team.
Benefits are not always about money. How about a “Thanks” from time to time.
Listen, this is tough. It happens and we have to deal with the possibility someone is present, physically. And yet not really. Not culturally or emotionally or intellectually or even operationally. So make the call. Ask and “ye shall receive”. Tag it and manage it and lead it and coach it and deal with it. There is never absolute perfection or absolute failure, just degrees in between. In this case, you are protecting the integrity of having a team that is fully engaged and executing on all the efforts required and for you to support that same team though fair, reasonable and equitable means. Sorry, did I just that that way…umm, consider what if someone might not want to be part of the team and wrap your arms around that.
Oh, by the way, I was thinking that if I give 110 percent one day and the next day I give 90 percent, does that work or balance out? Just a thought…
Cheers