A reader asks:
I’m a supervisor of two workers, each of whom are salaried, not hourly. One in all them — who’s youthful, much less skilled, extra keen — not often asks to regulate her work hours or do business from home, and is mostly glad to do something I ask her to do.
The opposite is just a little older, has much less of a teamwork perspective (“is that this technically certainly one of my job obligations?”) and steadily asks to do business from home or go away early to take her daughter to appointments, and so forth. In different phrases, she enjoys a whole lot of flexibility and independence whereas typically defending her personal job boundaries. She does appear to know she all the time must ask, and typically will even ask, “Am I asking an excessive amount of?”
I’m looking for a very good stability in relation to my managing fashion. I’ve no drawback with both of them taking time to stay their lives, so long as they get their work performed, I don’t need to always hold monitor of whether or not or not they’re up to the mark, they take initiative, and, most significantly, I really feel like they really present up and care.
However I can’t assist feeling like all the time saying sure is a nasty thought. I spent years underneath unreasonable managers and understand how irritating it may be to really feel chained to your desk or unable to prioritize sure issues outdoors of labor, and as a supervisor, I don’t need to say no simply to say no. That mentioned, I really feel like there are cheap boundaries I ought to set to allow them to each know that whereas I’m typically accommodating, they need to not make the most of me and there are limitations to what they will and may ask for, no matter whether or not or not their work has been performed for the day. What’s your recommendation?
I reply this query over at Inc. in the present day, the place I’m revisiting letters which have been buried within the archives right here from years in the past (and typically updating/increasing my solutions to them). You can learn it right here.