Round Robin
Posted on October 23, 2005 - Filed Under Philosophy |
One hard lesson to learn: How to manage people.
The handymen are great. Absolute no complaints. What I’ve found frustrating is that they often times do not complete a project before beginning another. For instance, they start working on prepping the houses for painting and then they stop to install the new windows. Before completing the new windows, they are cleaning the trash from the yard. Before finishing with the trash, they are taking out the carpet. Then they start painting but stop because all the windows aren’t installed. So then they stop painting to install some more windows.
The cycle continues.
It’s hard to tell these people to stop doing free stuff when what they are doing is needed. And things are getting done. Just not as quickly or efficiently as I like.
In addition, I cancelled my trip to France. My desire to get into these houses has tripled.
So what’s left? Getting the floors done and the painting finished. But the painting can’t be done until the floors are finished. Now they want to strip the old paint off the walls before they do the floors. UGH!!
On several occasions, I noticed that the handymen would always come over and work on the houses when I show up. OK, I can learn. I now show up early in the morning and make noise so they can hear me. I’ve changed my schedule and I now check up on them several times day. In addition, I spend large amounts of time at the houses even though there’s nothing to do. It sounds petty but every now and then I walk around the yard in plain sight of the windows so they can see me.
Saturday, they had to go to Home Depot to get some additional supplies for the floors. Almost 90 minutes had passed before they came back. And Home Depot is less than 5 minutes from my house. What took so long? Well, they decided to make a few stops on the way back, grab some lunch, chat with a few friends.
As they started working again, I had a moment of inspiration. I walked up to them and said "I don’t have a lot to do. If you need something from Home Depot, let me know and I’ll go get it." They produced a list and I went after it. Fifteen minutes later, I was back at the house and their work continued uninterrupted.
Yesterday, being Sunday, I went over to do some more work. Only some. I wasn’t surprised when I noticed that the handymen weren’t working. I walked over to their house, just to say "Good Morning". When they saw me, the first words they uttered were "Cliff, we had to take a day off. We’ve been working for 6 days straight and we need a break!"
I told them that I didn’t have a problem with that. It was Sunday afterall and they deserve a break. They’re not slaves afterall.
When I left them, I had a little smile on my face. If they feel guilty for taking a day off then that means these people have a sense of responsibility. That’s good. I’m assured that their work will get done shortly.
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