Once a month we had a staff meeting. All the staff who worked in the Children’s Home attended including the cook and the cleaner. At every meeting the cleaner would complain about the mess the kids made and why couldn’t the care staff do something about it. So the manager said, “ well give us an example” to which the cleaner responded,” well only yesterday I had no sooner empted all the waste bins when I caught a couple of kids putting rubbish in them”!
Large staff meetings can become moaning sessions which is why some managers keep them to a minimum but the moans don’t go away just because you’re not there to hear them.
Some moaning is understandable as budget cuts bite, fewer staff on duty, inadequate cover for colleagues on holiday or off sick, restrictions on the use of overtime and more evening and weekend shifts. The risk is staff move on to moan about each other and instead of helping each other out they make things harder saying it not my job I’ve got enough to do without doing their job for them. So the cleaning staff think the care staff are giving them more work to do by not making the kids be more tidy. The care staff think they’re fully occupied settling arguments and keeping the peace. The same issues arise in nursing homes the catering staff get irritated when people come down for breakfast late because they need to get cleared away and start preparations for lunch but they ‘re short staffed on the care side and a lot of residents need help to dress. The night staff think the day staff are taking advantage because when they come on duty there is a list of things to do that the late shift hasn’t got around to.
Groups of staff working under pressure due to staffing cuts whether on hospital wards, in schools, social work offices or home care teams face similar issues. The management task is the same, acknowledge the implications of increased workloads, recognise the tensions this creates and help people see how their behaviour affects others
Mangers have a tendency to ignore the implications of increased workloads and simply expect staff to cope. They do this in the belief that to acknowledge the pressures would be to agree more staff are needed, which there is no money for or be faced with questions about what should be left undone to which they don’t have answers to. Hence there is no point is wasting time discussing this in a staff meeting.
What if the staff meeting addresses the implications of increased workloads head on? People share examples of how it is affecting their work. People get a better understanding of other people’s jobs and they gain an insight in to how their behaviour affects others. The group then explores how they can help each other. The manager can’t be accused of ignoring the implications of increased workloads but neither are they expected to have all the answers, staff feel listened to and are more likely to feel valued. It won’t make the extra work go away but it will help moral and might convince some that we really are all in this together.
Blair McPherson is author of People management in a harsh financial climate and Equipping Managers for an Uncertain Future both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk
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