How to deal with my current job?

MomLive
Sun, 06 Feb 2011 10:28:07 +0000

This is an interesting thread. I’ve worked at a very large hospital system on and off for 20 years (in the corporate/administration/financial side). There are departments where the bosses are very inflexible about letting people take time off for doctors appts, school events, etc. Theses departments generally have very low employee satisfaction and the really good employees don’t usually stay very long, so that the departments are usually left with the ‘duds’ who * never * leave. These departments, because of their low work morale, aren’t well regarded in our system and they are generally considered hard to work with and to get quality work out of. Our hospital recently enacted both an employee and a peer satisfaction survey (meaning other department managers get to chime in). Managers in those areas where morale and the quality of the work is low are slowly getting the boot.

Over the last few years, the head honchos in our organization have made it clear that managers need to be flexible with their staff as much as possible. In my area, we have people working all sorts of schedules (some work 4 1/2 days a week, some work 7-4pm, some work 9-6pm, some work 4 ten hour days). This is because our CEO realizes that unhappy employees don’t do their best work…ever.

In other words, it does no one any good to micromanage every employee’s time down to the hour. Family should come first, things like doctors appointments, school events, taking an elderly parent to the doctor…those are just part of life and it’s not unreasonable for someone to take off time to attend to those things as long as they are able to get their work done. Really, who cares if someone comes in an hour earlier or stays an hour later to make up their time. This is obviously more difficult in certain types of work but those people know that going into those career fields.

In those areas where the managers are fine with being flexible, people tend to work harder because they appreciate the fact that they have some control over their time and have the ability to attend to family and personal needs as necessary. Professionals do not need someone to stand over them cracking the whip. They know what needs to be be done and do it (or they should). This is part of the reason that people who go to work for the government stop caring about their work. The bureaucratic way that employees are treated leads to very low morale and people start to feel entitled to not being very productive. And since they know it is more difficult to get fired, they figure they have nothing to lose.

People feel good about their work when they feel they have control over their time and their work environment and that they are being treated like adults.

AnonForThis - just get out asap. This is a toxic work environment that will never get better. Don’t waste any time trying to figure why they act they way they do. They are clearly threatened by you since you are willing to work hard. I don’t think 12 doctor’s appointments a year is unreasonable. Let’s add it up - you go to the dentist every 6 months (2), an annual physical (1), if you are a woman, a mammogram (1), some women choose to go to an ob-gyn in additional to their family doctor (1), an eye exam a year (1), you get sick a few times a year (2), kids get sick (2) - that’s 10 right there. So what, if once or twice a month you need to leave for a few hours. That really shouldn’t be a big deal but I would definitely ask a lot of questions about the corporate culture as you interview for your next job. Good luck.