As cookies crumble, how can I restore staff confidence?
By Lucy Kellaway
Published: December 4 2008 02:00 | Last updated: December 4 2008 02:00
Following instructions to slash costs in my department, I recently put out a memo detailing cuts, which include axing free biscuits and coffee at weekly bonding sessions. This has prompted complaints that morale is being destroyed and that the tea and biscuits were a vital part of the culture. It makes me angry that staff are being so petty about biscuits when people may lose their jobs. Yet this seems to have hit a nerve. What can be done to rectify it?
Manager, male, 42
LUCY'S ANSWER
Oh dear. It sounds as if you got it the wrong way round. You axed the biscuits but kept the weekly bonding sessions, whereas what you should have done was keep the biscuits but axe the bonding. To insist that people bond at a particular time each week is a mad idea, especially as now your underlings are so aggrieved that any bonding will be an opportunity to make effigies of you and stick pins in them.
As for the biscuits and coffee, you have made the classic management mistake of assuming that trivial things are trivial and therefore don't matter.
The reason all hell always breaks out over biscuits is not in spite of their triviality, but because of it. Biscuits are an emotional issue. In one place I worked, there were free biscuits; and even having them caused some resentment, as one colleague always used to get to the plate first and snaffle the chocolate ones. But getting rid of them caused a revolt.
The thinking of your "petty" staff goes something like this: if management can't even fork out for a few grammes of fat and sugar per person per week, then it evidently doesn't care.
So you have screwed up badly on the symbolic front. Worse, you have screwed up strategically, too. Now every single benefit that you have yourself - every cab ride or lunch out, and God lord help you if you have a company car - will cause massive resentment.
You have a choice. Either cut absolutely everything and put the company on a survival footing. Or bring back the biscuits.
Some readers think that it looks weak to change your mind. This is ridiculous. It is much weaker to stick to a bad policy for the sake of it. And when you perform your U-turn, don't communicate by memo. Tell them the good news face to face over a weak brown brew and a Jammie Dodger.
YOUR ADVICE
Fire them all
You have brilliantly managed to identify all the petty-minded whingers who do nothing but moan all day.
Fire everyone who has complained, then reinstate the free coffee and biscuits as a reward for those who are bright enough to see the big picture.
Male, anon
False economy
When I was a partner in a big accounting firm, the new-broom chief executive officer issued an edict that, in order to save costs - £50,000 a year as I recall - biscuits would no longer be served at meetings.
All that happened was that we sent our secretaries out to buy expensive tins of "personal" biscuits and reclaimed the cost on expenses. Result: loss of productive secretarial time and an increase in the cost of biscuits.
Accountant, male, 70
Biscuit bond
Before your next "bonding session" buy some biscuits and coffee and say something like, "I realise this is a vital part of our corporate culture so I decided to buy some myself for all of us." You show you're on their side and generous - and it's cheap. You have to do it only once - no one would expect you to do it every week - and the effect will be long-lasting.
Analyst, female
Hard stuff
When I was a junior manager in similar economic times as now, the CEO decided the way to get the message over was to change all the (soft) loo paper to the hard, shiny kind. It cost more than the usual stuff but, as he said to me: "Count the value represented by the message, not the cost of the product." People soon got the message.
Male, anon
The next problem
The most dreaded event in my social year is the office Christmas party. I loathe the fake camaraderie, the excessive alcohol consumption and the hideous vulgarity of it all. Far from making me bond with my colleagues, it makes me dislike my boss and feel alienated by the drunken behaviour of my underlings. Last year I vowed: never again. But I wasn't bargaining for the recession, which has put all our jobs at risk (and has also cut the party budget, which will make the wine filthier than ever). My question is this: if one is interested in holding on to a job, does one have to turn up? Or what counts as a decent excuse?
Senior manager, male, 48
MORE ANSWERS ONLINE
See more answers from FT readers at www.ft.com/dearlucy. Please send answers and new problems to problems@ft.com
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Comments