How to manage if very senior employees keep on demanding things and compensation for any extra efforts they put in?
Example scenario:
In a very rare occasion (like maybe 3 times in a year), the employee had to work one Sunday until midnight and also working on holiday for 1-2 hours. After that , she asked whether the company can compensate her with replacement leave since in total she had worked for 8 hours. And this is clearly not in the company policy.
After telling her that and communicate to her how I really appreciate her work, she still feel unsatisfied. She said if the company really appreciate her work, they should show it.
She is very well paid, quite above what her job scope and have been in the company for a very long time. We provided training to her each year and give her time to grow and learn new skills. But somehow, it seems like it takes a lot to keep her satisfy and it comes back to this little things.
We find 2-3 team members behaving like that.
We rarely ask them to work on extra hours or on weekends and provide them good balance between work and life. I could not believe that they are still unsatisfied and keep on asking for more.
I do not think feedback work in this case on their behavior. I have done that many times. It is more like their mindset and value system are not aligned with the company. They cannot see the bigger picture. They are sensitive if we do not fulfill their requests. They are also lacking in constant self-evaluation and drive to improve. While they are not improving, but they still think they deserve to get more. The greatest problem is also when they also tend to spread negativity when they are feeling negative.
Btw, they are High S.
Also, I have O3 with my employees. That's why they also share with me with their dissatisfaction. Overall, the employees are good performer. It just that I feel I have to start doing something differently , else we have people keep on demanding things but not trying to improve their productivity.
Would really like to hear feedback from you on how I should approach this.
Feedback might be the answer
Hi Susan, you may not want to hear it, but I think feedback might be the answer. If the employee(s) are high s then frame it in terms of how their extra efforts, while infrequent, benefits the team. Explain how others on the team feel when they put in an extra effort on "off hours". Also, does this employee(s) aspire to move up in the company? I would provide feedback on how going above and beyond is a prerequisite to moving up. I am sure you frequently put in extra effort. Employees cant wait until they are promoted to put in extra effort, they need to demonstrate that up front. The employer-employee relationship is a 2 way street. For example, if they are 15 minutes late to work, do you demand that they adhere to company policies? Probably not if it is a rare exception. It sounds like you may need to discuss the two way street. If an employee wants to "work to rule" you can do that also. Lastly, if all else fails, do you have employees that don't complain about a little extra effort. If so, put your focus on them as they are your future managers. Delegate to those who over perform and those who complain about extra effort may come along. If they don't, look for opportunities to upgrade your people.
Sorry one last thing. You can not tolerate negativity among your team. You need to provide feedback immediately on that. Negativity is damaging to the team and in some cases is grounds for termination.
Feedback and Firmness
Thank you, Jrlz. You are right on several things:
1. The needs to discuss the two way street.
2. Focus on the future managers.
3. Delegate to those who over perform.
While I did give feedback to the staffs over our one-on-ones, I take the opportunities to address the team on a more general issue - entitlement mindset and that the company has the right to ask staffs to work overtime when needed.
We already made a lot of provision to make the need to work on weekend happened only 1-2 times in a year, only at emergency situation. So, if any staffs still feel unhappy because we do not get to enjoy certain "perks", they can always choose to leave.
At the end of the day, let's look at the bigger picture and see what the company has been providing for the staffs and not just focus on the negative side.
Two key points I picked up from the OP
BLUF: Show them the big picture. Brief on expectations. Provide feedback if they don't meet expectations.
These are long term employees and their mindset and value system is not aligned to the company .
Possibly their mindset and value systems are aligned to how the company was until recently. If this is the case then perhaps it has not been communicated to them how the mindset and value system of the company has changed. Anywhere I've worked there has been regular communication (either cascaded through line managers or delivered at whole company meetings depending on the size of the company and the import of the news) on the overall goals of the company, the financial performance for the past quarter/half/year, the targets for the next quarter/half/year and what would be needed from us (the employees) to achieve those targets (and what rewards we could expect for achieving targets and the consequences of if we didn't). Whilst this tended to work best in the smaller companies (where it was easier to see the connection between what you did and the bottom line), it always meant that we knew where we stood, what was expected of us and when changes to either of those had occured.
You can hardly blame people for following the old rules if you haven't told them there's new rules.
If you believe this might be the case I would suggest brief them on the situation (make sure they can see the big picture, it's not uncommon in my experience for long term employees, especially if they haven't moved around the organisation much, to see things very much through the lens of their own role), express that you expect them to adapt and play by the rules then provide feedback if they don't.
Stephen
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Skype: stephenbooth_uk | DiSC: 6137
Experience is how you avoid failure, failure is what gives you experience.
Another perspective
If she is a non-exempt employee, then legally she should be compensated for every minute of work.
If she is an exempt employee, then I am sure there were times when she had to leave office early because of some personal stuff, company still paid, right?
Keep saying no and keep
Keep saying no and keep repeating your appreciation and restating your general approach and the company's ideas about this work.
I also like Stephens idea about making sure the company hasnt changed greatly. I don't think it's likely based on your note.
And I would be shocked if either (a) this person were non-exempt or (b) they haven't taken more family and/or personal time than you have asked them for extra work. Everybody always seems to leave that out of these stupid fairness discussions :-)
Cheers from an amusement park with my family,
Mark