Insight #374:
Pay attention, for I am about to answer two questions about managers in general, and about your boss specifically. I know you didn’t ask, but I know you wonder about these two issues:
Why do (some) managers prize an office that over-looks the parking lot? Why do (some) managers still hate the COVID era for triggering the work from home movement?
The parking lot one explains the work from home one, so let’s begin there. Why do some managers want an office that over-looks the parking lot? True, some simply want to know when it’s time to go home. But there is another reason.
I once sat in a meeting of senior executives discussing the performance of a junior executive. One senior executive complained that although his own car was always one of the last three remaining at night, Junior’s car was always long gone.
Excuse me? Your car in the parking lot is a measure of performance?
Answer this and then decide if it applies to you and your organization. Do you feel obliged to create the impression that you work hard? For example, by arriving early and leaving late?
Now answer this one. Do your colleagues reward those who work hard, or appear to be doing so, while suspecting those who work smart of being lazy?
Oh when, oh when will organizations stop rewarding people for their physical presence and reward them instead for their contributions! Here’s when. When we finally shrug off the management practices that were developed during the Industrial Revolution… when you could only do your work by being physically at work… long before we needed somewhere to park.
Now for the second question. Why do so many managers dislike any hint of you working from home? Because they can’t see your car, that’s why.
(You don’t get to work by car? Well, assume you do. Then you won’t spoil a good story. And you’ll get my point. Actually, there are parking lot equivalents. Access cards, computer activity, desk light on, whatever. But note, none of these show actual work being done.)
Do you see the nonsense at work here? No one is willing to highlight the obvious issue, whether parking lot or working from home. A lack of trust. Actually, it is a lack of mutual trust:
The way my bosses treat me clearly shows that, apparently, I am not to be trusted. But I know I can be and want to be.
Which makes me realize I cannot trust my bosses. Because they make impactful decisions based on unsound assumptions.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
. . .
Quote of the Moment:
“Beware when the measuring of performance takes more work than the performance being measured.” The Chief Nonsense Officer.
. . .