A reader asks:
I’m a supervisor of two workers each of whom are salaried, not hourly. One in all them — who’s youthful, much less skilled, extra keen — not often asks to regulate her work hours or earn a living from home, and is mostly comfortable to do something I ask her to do.
The opposite is just a little older, has much less of a teamwork perspective (“is that this technically certainly one of my job tasks?”) and often asks to earn a living from home or depart early to take her daughter to appointments, and so forth. In different phrases, she enjoys a variety of flexibility and independence whereas usually defending her personal job boundaries. She does appear to know she at all times must ask, and generally will even ask, “Am I asking an excessive amount of?”
I’m looking for steadiness relating to my managing fashion. I’ve no drawback with both of them taking time to dwell their lives, so long as they get their work accomplished, I don’t should continually hold monitor of whether or not or not they’re up to the mark, they take initiative, and, most significantly, I really feel like they really present up and care.
However I can’t assist feeling like at all times saying sure is a foul concept. I spent years beneath unreasonable managers and understand how irritating it may be to really feel chained to your desk or unable to prioritize sure issues exterior of labor, and as a supervisor, I don’t need to say no simply to say no. That mentioned, I really feel like there are cheap boundaries I ought to set to allow them to each know that whereas I’m usually accommodating, they need to not make the most of me and there are limitations to what they’ll and will ask for, no matter whether or not or not their work has been accomplished for the day. What’s your recommendation?
I reply this query over at Inc. right now, the place I’m revisiting letters which have been buried within the archives right here from years in the past (and generally updating/increasing my solutions to them). You can learn it right here.
