How NOT to motivate your staff Episode II: Attack of the Demotivators

[Speaker]

The other thread has gotten kind of long, so I thought we could move the party here.

A few that I've gone through.

- We purchased some office space in another city. "Frank", the senior guy on our staff said--once in my hearing and twice in emails--that he needed to go do a site survey to make sure we could connect that office to our HQ. "Joe", our boss, said he had already been out there and everything was fine.

When Frank and "Sam" went out there to hook everything up, they discovered that the office had Category 3 cabling throughout. (For you non-infrastructure geeks, Cat5 is needed. Cat3 wont work with a modern network.)

When Joe was asked why the office wasn't on the network the day everyone moved in, he said "my guys didn't check to make sure that the correct cabling was in the walls." Then Joe commiserated with me (I guess he thought I would be on his side since I wasn't involved in the fiasco) that they should have been able to tell quickly that it was Cat3 cabling. I said (trying to let HIM off the hook) that it was tough to tell just by looking in the little holes in the wall. He said, "But Cat3 is white, and Cat5 is blue!" (Again, for you non-infrastructure geeks, that's like saying Fords are red, and BMWs are white!

- At my first review I was offered $X raise. I told them that I didnt think it was enough for the job I was doing (I was told my job would be one thing when I hired in, but quickly learned it was much more involved). I was told that they would give me the $X raise, and meet again in a few weeks after HR had a chance to look into salaries for the position (you're saying you didn't do this ahead of time?)

After a few weeks, our COO pulled me into his office to tell me that they were still looking into it, but not to worry, because any extra raise that was agreed upon would be retroactive to the original review. When a couple months went by and I asked about it again, HR and my manager Joe said "I have no recollection of that conversation." Pretty strange, because that's a phrase that our HR Director might use, but not my Joe.

- When I took on a major new role in the company, I was paid my old rate because I was 'learning the new position'. My company hired a consulting company ($36K/yr) as a safety net in case I was not up to the challenges of the new job. (Not really true. They were hired to help a friend of a friend.) I was told that they planned on cutting the contract in half after the first year, and that I could expect to see some of the money that they saved. No, I didn't get it in writing; silly me, I trusted them.

After the first year (in which the consulting company was rarely called upon) they cut out the consulting contract completely. I got nothing.

They're now paying me $25K less than the last guy who did my job, and I oversee a more complicated infrastructure. Looks great for their bottom line, but not very good for motivation.

- When hiring said consulting company, they said, "our guys need help with 'the details'" and brought up the Cat3 cabling as an example.

- My coworker and I busted our butts doing a project at the last minute because management couldn't make up their minds what they wanted. When they finally decided, there was a rush to get it done by the deadline that was suddenly only a few days away.

I researched it, spoke with our consultants, and spoke with Cisco's people, and was told that only x% of their stated goal was even possible. We worked and got that x% done. The guy who worked for the other company we were doing business with told us we were geniuses just to accomplish that.

But we weren't satisfied. We finished Friday at 8:30pm for a Saturday am go-live, and we decided to try to get the other y% of the project done. We tried some things, and at about 10:00pm we had everything done--even the things that Cisco's people said wouldn't work with their technology.

I explained what we did in the simplest terms, so management could understand.

A few months later I was showing a guy around. He had interned with our department in the summer, and was back for a month. I showed him what had changed in the time he'd been gone. As I was finishing up, my boss walked in. The intern said, "Man, that stuff down there is..." My boss interrupted and said, "child's play." Because I had given him the simplest explanation I could, he thought it was a simple project.

Truly demotivating.

 

[KornGeek]

In one of my previous jobs (not IT related), I was given a position at a smallish company. At the time I was hired, I was told that I would be receiving a certain pay rate, plus the company would provide full benefits for me, my wife, and my son. The benefits wouldn't start until I had been there 3 months. Unfotunately, I also did not get this in writing.

After three months, the company provided benefits for me, and in a meeting with the owner and my manager, they told me that if I wanted to add my wife and son, I could, but due to the way the company's insurance plan is set up, they couldn't pay for it. I would get the company rate, but it would come out of my pocket. I told them that I understood that there were reasons they were unable to meet the original deal, but because I was going to have to pay more out of pocket, I would like to have my salary adjusted to cover it. This way I would still be getting the same deal I signed on for. The owner told me she couldn't do this because I was already earning more than others in the same position.

Over time I grew increasingly less satisfied with this job, and finally decided to switch to part time so that I could return to school. As expected, this required restructuring my pay scale. We agreed on a new pay rate, and I asked to have it put into writing. I had previously discussed this with the manager it would impact so that she wouldn't be affected by it. I then told the owner that I would be more than happy to return to work when I had my job offer in writing, but I would be unable to work without it. It was at that point that we decided to part ways.

About two weeks later, I had a part-time programming job, earning more money and enjoying my work again. About a year or two later, I found out that the company I used to work for had to shut down their office in this area. I was by far not the only one dissatisfied with employment there. From what I understand, they found it too difficult to retain employees.

 

[GlobalBrain]

To Speaker. One thing I would like to mention is technical jargon. After couple of years in IT management I’ve realised that when I use technical terms, instead of simple talk in my presentations/explanations to my bosses, they have very “understanding” faces, very few will stop you and ask “what does this means?”. They do like their technical staff to be technical (if you see what I mean). So, my advice: fire up your “techy” talk and if they ask simplify.

 

[Speaker]

GlobalBrain,

I think that's a good idea. My predecessor did the same thing to make what we do look like voodoo, but I never looked at it from the confidence angle.

I just remembered one more: There was a dispute between two people in our company, and my boss wanted to know if an email had been sent. He asked me if there was any way I could verify this. I didn't want to tell him how easily I can get into email accounts, so I said "I'll take care of it."

He thought about it for a minute, then came back to my office and said, "Oh, yeah, you can just use the administrator account and get into their email, can't you? I used that once to check your..." [at this point he realized what he was admitting to me, and shut up.]

 

[GlobalBrain]

Dear Speaker,

You are in a though position there. I must admit that even when you are enjoying your job as much as you and I do, there always something or somebody who spoils it. There nothing worth when your boss (and colleagues) doesn’t trust you, checking on you and not appreciating what you do in the company. Some people so aware of their importance they can’t see beyond their desks. It doesn’t cost much to appreciate somebody’s value in the company and what a difference that can make!