A reader writes:
I’ve a query about working lunches. I handle a small staff, and I not too long ago held a brainstorming session for some skilled improvement concepts for subsequent yr that the entire staff can take part in. One of many choices I urged is (company-sponsored) lunch and learns, the place we watch a work-related webinar and debrief, invite an skilled to current on a related subject, or have a staff member current on a particular talent. These are fairly widespread at many companies, and I used to be pondering possibly quarterly at most. One in all my workers (who’s new to the trade and has been right here a couple of yr) mentioned, “I don’t need lunch and learns. I receives a commission to work eight hours a day, so why would I work 9?” I discovered this so very off-putting. However I want a sanity test.
I don’t notably need to work 9 hours a day both (or eight, or seven…). However we’re salaried, and I believe company-provided working lunches are fairly widespread in this sort of work. I’m not connected to the concept and can scrap it if nobody desires to do it; I simply need to know if I’m off-base by being so aggravated at that response. This worker has expressed aspirations of taking up extra duty and being promoted, however I didn’t get promoted by expressing opinions like that (and this isn’t a generational battle — we’re the identical age). Is that this one thing I want to handle, or is that this simply the prevalent mentality that I have to recover from as a supervisor?
It’s true that lunch-and-learns and different working lunches are quite common; you’re not arising with an odd or outrageous thought.
It’s additionally true that they encroach on time that might in any other case be workers’ personal, and other people aren’t incorrect to dislike them for that motive. In case your staff doesn’t presently have a tradition of doing working lunches, including them in is going to frustrate some folks (particularly individuals who use lunch to decompress and never be “on,” or to deal with errands or private calls, and so forth).
Furthermore, if watching work-related webinars or listening to specialists current serves a enterprise want that you really want folks to prioritize, why does it should occur over lunch somewhat than throughout common work time? Carve out actual work time for it if it’s vital. And if it’s not vital sufficient for that, possibly it’s not vital sufficient to count on folks to surrender a lunch break for.
And once more, I do know it’s the norm in some fields. However because it’s not presently the norm in your staff, why add it in whenever you don’t should?
All that mentioned, “I receives a commission to work eight hours a day, so why would I work 9?” isn’t the way in which being salaried works in plenty of fields, and if you happen to see different indicators that your worker is bringing that mentality to the job in methods that may trigger issues, that’s value addressing — if solely to make clear what they’ll count on in your subject.
However I might even be cautious of pondering “I didn’t get promoted by expressing opinions like that” — as a result of the tradition is altering round this type of factor, and that’s a very good factor and we must always welcome it. If you happen to can level to particular ways in which mindset can be an issue in your subject — like, for instance, that folks generally want to answer shopper wants exterior of enterprise hours — you must. However if you happen to’re simply bristling on the sentiment on precept, problem your self on that and ask if it’s genuinely incorrect or simply totally different than the way you’re used to pondering.
A word: I count on to see plenty of “lunch-and-learns are an inappropriate encroachment; by no means do them” within the remark part. However they’re a quite common factor in lots of fields, and it’s naive to faux they’re not. Nonetheless, although, it appears like they’re not presently the norm for your staff, and there’s no urgent want to alter that.