Would You Employ Him?
Steven Smith asks in a recent posting a simple question that gets shocking answers. Albert is a very good and highly productive employee. He works three times as fast as the other employees and delivers with great quality. Albert has two rules though: he never works more than 20hrs a week (getting the 40hrs 100% compensation), and he doesn't want any one to bother him during work. Would you employ him?
For Steven this is a no brainer: of course! However, he asks around and finds out that most of his fellow managers think differently, and would not employ Albert. Head over to read the full story, because it really makes you think again about a seemingly simple question.
Food for thought I got from the article and the comments, listed in provocative on-liners:
- Managers cannot "lead" or "motivate" people when these employees are out of sight
- Managers are eager to allow an employee to work over time, but hesitate to let him leave earlier, even when the job has been done
- Managers are still not result oriented when dealing with employee performance. For them time isn't money (this is different from entrepreneurs)
- Companies are more focussed on appearances than on real results
- Employees don't mind being treated differently within a hierarchy, they hate peer-to-peer inequality however
- When employees should be available for reference, "available" mostly means being in sight.
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Bas de Baar, blogging as "The Project Shrink", is taking his message to the International Project Management community with a vengeance: "Projects Are About Humans. Now Deal With That!" ... 
I was actually in the shoes of Albert in my first job I've got (back in 1985). My boss then agreed to pay me almost as a full-timer although I was actually around the company for no more than 15 hours. Again, it took him a lot of courage, open-mindedness, and a very deep breath when he did it. He surprised even himself.
He finally agreed after I spent two months getting paid for 15 hours while 'generating' work that worth of 40+ hours.
The moral of both stories:
You've got to be a 'leader' to make such a move; a 'manager' simply would not do it!
Hi Bas,
I've already posted some comments on this article in my blog. It was very interesting and controversial topic and the comments fell on both extremes.
You can see my posts here, here, and here. The last link is in Bulgarian.
Best regards,
Mike
Hi all, thanks for the interesting links and comment. I am still not sure… I am sensitive for the argument of the social impacts on groups. Still thinking about it, i didn't make my final verdict yet.