There is a great way to monitor employee’s performance. This one weird trick will save you losing your best employees!
Are their tasks getting done on time and with quality work?
Congrats! You just learned how to treat your employees like adults.
Now kindly fuck off and let me continue to work in my underwear.
pssshhh underwear.
Thats the thing… boses are basically saying that they cant do that. They cant actually measure how productive people are so they fall back on watching them like a hawk
You’re overlooking that most managers don’t actually do anything, so they need desperately to justify their positions. I have a manager who has seven hours of meetings every day, five days a week. We make a fucking app. It barely changes month to month. What on earth are you spending 35 hours a week talking about?
The manager has so little to do they just micromanage everyone, and cause a massive backlog of work that doesn’t have to exist.
I always thought that Office Space was satire, but it really is like that in a lot of companies. I spent more time updating managers than doing actual work since I started this position.
Actually it’s simple. Work well done? Cool, the employee is working. This “monitoring” mentality needs to fucking die.
But then how do you justify keeping “middle management” hall monitors on a payroll after admitting they’re pointless?
Well, they could focus on distributing or coordinating things and assembling results, things they now leave to those who’s job it definitively not is.
It’s this thinking that allows the business bro to think that they contribute to the world while they are really no better than you average insurance company.
“In probably unrelated news, remote workers love how they can’t be micromanaged or watched over their shoulders and are frustrated and disoriented by return-to-office plans.”
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
FYI, this posted twelve times, in case you aren’t aware.
You don’t say!
deleted by creator
Employment, right?
deleted by creator
You said it!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Fascinating!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Fascinating!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Bosses, right?
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Really?
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Whoa, deja vu!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
A unique viewpoint!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Really?
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
This seems to be a popular opinion!
The kinds of bosses that don’t want me working from home are the exact ones I want to hide at home from. The ones who already aren’t a micromanager I’m actually quite happy to come into the office and work with and around.
Been on both sides and Oof. Luckily now with a boss that’s happy to have me wfh but I don’t take him up on it too much cause I just genuinely like being in the office!
Managers, right?
I’ve been working remotely for almost a decade now and have been a manager for 6 of those years and I do the following:
Is [EMPLOYEE]’s work getting done? If yes then do nothing aside from thanking them. If no then talk to employee and/or start the corrective action process.
I have neither the need nor the desire to hover over them. They’re grown ass adults.
A few issues with your method for the average manager.
What work exactly is the employee doing?
How do you know if it is being done correctly?
The average manager has no clue on either of these questions.
These managers rely on wandering around the office judging productiviy by who looks busy and holding constant meetings to hear themselves talk.
That sounds like the manager is the one not doing their job and is in need of monitoring.
As a manager, agreed
Fair. I’ve had a few bosses like that.
The average manager has no clue on either of these questions.
But being in person wouldn’t help.
I managed a support team of about 30 people at a fully remote company. I’d check their numbers of closed cases, review cases when customer feedback was bad, and take into account any other side projects they were working on.
Praise when people did good and have one on one talks with people that were falling behind to see what the cause was so we could work on it. It’s not that hard.
I have a pretty similar work flow. I stay on top of my crap, they stay on top of theirs and everyone’s happy. As long as they’re doing what they’re supposed to I don’t give a damn if they’re also taking some down time during their day.
So don’t. Give your employees tasks and then leave them the hell alone. If they don’t get things done, find a new employee.
This is what the problem is. If you trust your team, you don’t need middle management whose sole purpose is to hover around. They’re the ones complaining to uppers about wanting in-person time. If everyone’s at home checking off their milestones, what do you need all these managers around for?
what do you need all these managers around for?
I think a lot of careers are bullshit but we somehow tolerate them so the rich kids who went to college for them don’t have to work at burger king.
As a boss who thinks remote work is fucking amazing, these people are retarded.
I don’t understand the monitoring and observing thing. Is the employee doing their work effectively and within the allotted timeframe? If so great, if not have a chat with them. Where’s the problem?
Who knows?
If you aren’t setting objectively measurable goals, then simply holding people accountable to those goals, you’re a shit boss.
And no, I don’t care that it’s “hard” to measure certain types of work. Come up with a way. That’s literally the manager’s job. Make it happen.
the goals:
- O1KR1: complete all work (40%)
- O1KR2: do it faster (60%)
- O2KR1: don’t take lunch ever (100%)
Also shit boss goals, tho.
Y’all need to quit… I’ve literally never treated my people like this. Spent 20 years as an engineer myself, tho. As a Director, I still commit code like a principal.
Because they have nothing to fall back on and they are not in control of the situation but are responsible for the situation. Corporate eunchs, responsibility without power. The project is a disaster and everyone knows it, there will be a fallguy when it burns to the ground. So they melt down. Try to control the one thing they can.
I get it, because I have seen my project managers over the years in the same position. Of course they start screaming about coffee breaks, they are looking at unemployment. It’s a shitty situation.
Our entire group is remote, and my boss has a fantastic way of structuring things. We have a weekly team meeting where we discuss our ongoing projects, and at the end of each week, he wants a short summary email of the work we did this week and the work we have planned next week.
That email is a godsend on Mondays to get myself back into the swing of things and remember what I was doing.
Yep, that’s very close to what I do! Pretty basic scrum/agile methodology. Daily stand-ups, weekly planning, biweekly retrospective, etc.
It’s almost as if most middle management is completely unnecessary and a massive drain on resources if they feel that most of their time should be spent monitoring their employees.
Skill issue.
This is correct.
They can’t adapt or change. They don’t know how as they are too comfy and stuck in their ways…
But then they force us to read “who moved my cheese”…
It also likely reveals that for many of these managers, their role as micromanagers is completely unnecessary. So they have an identity crisis, unable to justify their position.
My department has transitioned to WFH and it’s been wonderful. Every single employee much prefers it and my boss notes that productivity has increased while “issues” have subsided. That’s what you want to see.
Now that I’m doing WFH, I will forever seek a job that enables me to do this at least 75% of the time.
“Bosses” can go fuck themselves, alongside the astroturfing scum that keeps pumping out articles trying to validate the idiotic decision of returning to offices.
They are too stupid to actually review your work. No, they need to SEE you doing your work.
They are living with the constant assumption you’re not doing much work because that’s what they are doing every day.
Ding ding ding
“I am unable to focus for long enough to work from home, therefore nobody can and everyone is lying. Also, the numbers saying it’s more efficient are lies.”
Definitely. I actually look at my teams’ overall performance as well as on an individual basis. Crazy concept right!? It would also stop an interoffice politics and drama that are massive time wasters.
My company just announced they aren’t interested in remote work even though our call center is all internet driven with heavy metrics and they know that office space costs thousands or tens of thousands a month. It’s baffling.
You can monitor the work being done. Is the work being done? That’s all you need to know.
It’s actually not that hard. If the assigned tasks are being fulfilled within set parameters there’s really nothing to observe and keep track of. What they’re worried about and what they can’t monitor and observe is what the employees are doing outside of those tasks.
My friend works from home he does all his work and in the down time he’ll run errands, work out, and play pool at his local bar. Whatever. His work is fully completed and submitted and his performance views are top notch.
And that’s pretty much the only thing employers need to be worried about. How well the work is being completed.
Fuck the office.
When the pandemic hit and I knew I was going to be working from home, I feared that my productivity would plummet and I’d miss the office. I reassured myself that it would only be a couple of weeks and then everything would go ban to normal. (Boy, was I naive!)
When I started working from home, though, I found that I loved it. I’m more productive without people chatting me up or managers looking over my shoulder.
I’m even eating healthier. When I went into the office, I’d pack all the food I’d think I needed for the day. I’d always overpack and then, with the food sitting right there, I’d snack throughout the day. Now, I can take the time to prepare healthy meals in my kitchen for lunch and snacks, while close, aren’t within arm’s reach.
I’m now permanently work from home and loving it. If I ever looked for another job, Work From Home would be a huge selling point. I’m not going to say I’d never go into another office, but if I had two job offers except one was work from home, I’d pick that one.
Dude it’s amazing. I had my reservations as well. I did a lot of preparation ahead of time, but now I’m never going back.
It’s actually not that hard. If the assigned tasks are being fulfilled within set parameters there’s really nothing to observe and keep track of.
Apologies for nitpicking, but they do need to track if the task is completed or not, especially when there’s a chain of tasks that need to be completed in a certain order for the overall goal to be completed.
Otherwise, yeah, I was coming here to post the same thing, you don’t need to watch your workers while they’re working, you just need to confirm that they finish the tasks you assign them. If they have blocks on their tasks they’ll let their manager/lead know.
Yeah tracking task completion and quality of the tasks done is all I’d care about too.
I’d even go as far as to set up a bounty board for one time tasks up for grabs. Each one comes with a payout according to how much additional work someone’s gotta do to get it done, with big emergency items paying out vastly more than small time stuff that can be done at any time.
Stuff related to achieving company stretch goals would be given the pay bonus but also some fun extras like extra PTO or a “gift card” for a grocery trip or some other necessity expense. Basically just cutting them a grain dole check since subsidizing major household expenses is a proven means of giving people the space for social advancement.
It’d be my way of saying “I know you don’t have to do this in your contract duties, so have a little incentive for the extra helping hand!”
I think the manager’s struggle is when things aren’t completed in the time expected. Is it because there were unexpected unknowns that added more time, or is it because the person is just fucking off and not working? When the employee is WFH, this is a much more difficult question to answer.
This is a valid point, but should be something that gets addressed on a case-by-case basis since it’s inevitably about that specific employee’s productivity.
Of course it’s case by case, however it’s an incredibly common dilemma for a manager, and one that becomes near impossible to gauge properly when the employee is remote.
FFS, if you cannot monitor your employee’s productivity via ERP software or meetings you are a shit boss and you should have been shitcanned a long time ago. Why the fuck is the mainstream media pumping out this shit day in and day out?
Because commercial real estate is suffering. Got to pump the usage rates and occupancy numbers so the REITs can be rated AAA for investors!!1
They pump it out because it’s what the people at the top of the societal pyramid want. And those are the top are really the ones with all that commercial real estate that’s wasting away.
They’re frustrated because it shows that they aren’t necessary. People can just get on and do their work without some micromanager breathing down their neck.
This is true. Your job as a “boss” should not be to command and control but rather to remove obstacles preventing your workers from doing their jobs effectively.
A good boss trusts their employees to do their work, but is comfortable working with them if there is an issue with their performance.
Exactly this. I like my manager, but they busy themselves with their own job and making sure I’m not going to quit. If they had time to look over my shoulder, I would question their utility to the company.
That’s a feature not a bug. Enjoy the increased productivity and the less having to be on top of things that don’t matter.
“We don’t know what you’re up to!”
You don’t know that in an office either. You trust us because you have your own tasks.
“We can’t get a hold of you”
That’s an individual’s responsibility. Don’t bunch me up with others.
The whole reason is jealousy and it sucks.
Lol I don’t need to be watched. I do my job and still end up finding office people screwing up badly. I’ve had to fix their mistakes.
