Many managers believe that treating their team members as responsible adults will assure excellent results. The truth is that while this usually is effective, some people need much firmer limits than others to perform their jobs.Ellen,
manager of a rehabilitation hospital unit, was discussing her frustration in supervising one of her social workers. Ellen would much rather help Angelique be successful at her job than to fire her, but things have not been going well. “When I give her a direction, she says she understands, but then she acts as if she can do just as she pleases.”
Angelique has been on unit for a year and a half, but Ellen has only been supervising her directly for a few months. Ellen’s frustration began when she noticed social worker’s frequent absences.
“She is on a salary, and has some flexibility, but she is expected to be here forty hours a week. She has been coming and going whenever she pleases. Despite my warnings she still refuses to consistently even tell me when she will be gone. When I placed a written reprimand in her file, she cried, and promised to do better, but she hasn’t.
I have even told her that she is inviting me to micro-manage her, but I am reluctant to cause her embarrassment of having to punch time clock, when none of other workers at her level do that.”
As Ellen and I discussed situation, I learned that Ellen was already micro-managing Angelique. Whenever they had a supervision session, Ellen was taking extra pains to make certain that Angelique understood exactly what hours she was expected to be on unit. We both laughed at absurdity of helping someone with a Master’s degree to read a basic time schedule.
When we looked at how Angelique had invited Ellen’s micro-management, it was obvious that Angelique was acting like a child who had not learned to respect limits and boundaries. Ellen was being invited to act as her parent. Ellen kept reminding Angelique about work requirements and when Angelique did not use this information, Ellen was first surprised and then increasingly frustrated.
When Angelique’s response to discipline (being written up) was tears, Ellen felt an impulse to protect her and not cause her further embarrassment. Instead she tried to be understanding rather than critical. When that didn’t work either, Ellen asked for coaching.
It’s a Power Struggle
It’s not unusual for a manager and an employee to get into a power struggle like Ellen has with Angelique. It is especially common for people who are still in power struggles with their own parents to get into power struggles with authority figures. Managers and supervisors are readily available authority figures.
