Paul was an ambitious Area manager in a hurry. He had noticed the atmosphere in the office and knew staff were unhappy but the way he looked at was let them moan as long as they get on with their work. Paul had worked out that his boss like most senior managers did not want to hear the moans and groans of staff and had a tendency to shoot the messenger. Senior managers knew staff were unhappy they expected them to be unhappy after all people don’t like change, they don’t like budget cuts and they don’t like restructurings. They didn’t need their managers reminding them of this they needed their managers to get on with implementing the changes and delivering the cuts.
Paul reckoned that even before budget cuts staff were always complaining about workloads. The last thing he wanted was to listen to a group of staff telling him in detail how staffing cuts to save money had increased their work load. What was he supposed to do if he acknowledged the implications either he would have to fund more staff which he couldn’t or he would have to say what could be left undone which he wouldn’t. So best just to let it be known he expected people to just get on with it.
When Paul made this clear to his managers they said well ok if that’s the attitude of senior management there is not much we can do about it but we are likely to get more complaints about the service. Paul said senior managers would expect people to be unhappy about budget cuts and staff shortages and would recognise that waiting list may get longer and were confident the politicians knew this to. Ok but what if staff shortages lead to mistakes, what if we have to ask people to take on work above their grade and experience or we haven’t got enough staff to provide previous level of supervision or staff simply take short cuts with disastrous consequences? Who will get the blame? And Paul said who do you think?
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