Five suggestions...

Dear readers, I apologize for the delay you've had to suffer through waiting for this newest post. I had originally intended to post it last Tuesday when many of the events that will be laid out below were still fresh in my mind, but the Wife got sick so I had to care for her. Granted, she repaid me by passing on a nastier version of the bug she had, but that's a different story. Anyway, the point of this post is to offer five suggestions for effective management based on mistakes my boss made this past weekend. Got it? Okay, here we go:

1. Staff meetings. I think I can safely say that not a single person reading this has ever been to a staff meeting that covered a single worthwhile piece of information. Simply put, they're a waste of time. They're an even bigger waste of time when half of the staff is out sick or on vacation. What is the point of dragging half your staff in on a Thursday night when you know 50% is the best attendance rate you can hope for? The Mister says: Cancel the meeting.
2. Scheduling. Allowing your employees to take a vacation is a good move. It makes you a popular boss. Scheduling someone to cover for an employee who is on vacation without asking if they are willing to pick up extra night shifts does not make you a popular boss. This is particularly true when those extra shifts result in a stretch of five night shifts in a row. Now, I've worked 18 night shifts in a row before, defending a thesis in the middle of that stretch for an added degree of difficulty, but I volunteered to do that. If I want to be an idiot and work several nights in a row, that's my choice, not the boss's. The Mister says: Don't assume your employees will cover for one another, or they may be unwilling to do so in the future.
3. Responding to the concerns of an employee. Let us suppose that in the above situation the employee who was scheduled for extra shifts without being consulted was a little angry at the situation. We'll also assume that the employee wrote a letter to the boss stating that because this employee's spouse was in school still and they only had one car, the boss should not assume that the employee was free to come in on nights that he was not regularly scheduled for. Now, for most people, this might suggest that the employee was not entirely happy with the situation. How would you respond? With a one-word e-mail that simply said "Noted?" No? Then you're already on your way to managerial success. The Mister says: When addressing employee concerns/complaints, at least make a reasonable effort to look like you care.
4. Promptness. As a manager, you most likely demand that your employees arrive on time for their shifts. Your employees, for some odd reason, probably expect the same from you. So, as a boss, it is probably best to avoid calling the employee that has been at work for ten hours throughout the night to say that you're going to be late because your husband hasn't finished clearing the driveway. Two things: First, if you're capable of being a manager, you're capable of clearing your own driveway. It'd probably get clear a lot quicker if you were out there helping. Second, if it snowed overnight, it might be wise to assume that the employee you're talking to would like to get home to a warm bed but will be delayed because he's going to have to clear his own car out in the parking lot. He's not likely to be too sympathetic to the "I'm going to be late but it's my lazy husband's fault" excuse. The Mister says: If you want your employees to be prompt, be prompt yourself and don't offer excuses.
5. General human decency. As a manager, it is always important to remember that your employees are people too. Let us continue with the above situation: Overnight snowstorm drops a quarter inch of ice and a couple inches of snow. One employee has been at work all night and is dreading clearing all that off his car in temperatures in the single digits. He's already a bit miffed at the boss for scheduling him for five nights in a row without his consent, and then calling to say she'd be late. Okay, flashing forward 45 minutes, this employee is now out in the single digit temperatures in the parking lot clearing his car. As he finishes scraping one of the six windows that must be cleared to make driving safe, he notices a car waiting for his space. The lot, granted, is relatively full, but not completely - this employee just happens to be close to the door because of the time of night he came in. Who could it be in the nice warm car waiting for the parking spot close to the door? Why, it is his boss. Now, there is only one employee inside handling a very high volume of business (the snow made people call in sick, call to check on appointments, etc.) and the boss is already late. Surely she'll drive on and park a bit further away so as to avoid being even later; plus, she can't really be so inhuman as to watch one of her employees scrape at a car for 20 minutes, can she? Oh, but she can, gentle readers, and she did. The Mister says: DO NOT SIT IN YOUR WARM CAR WATCHING ONE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES SCRAPE ICE OFF THEIR CAR IN FREEZING WEATHER WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY LATE JUST SO YOU CAN GET A BETTER PARKING SPOT!!! Oh, she didn't even wave. Good morning to you too.

Well, dear readers, hopefully you've learned something about successful management. Basically, the point here is: If you hated something a manager did to you in the past, don't do it to someone else. Okay, I'll let you go. Hopefully I'll have post "six" up sometime soon.