During my time as a middle manager, I saw how much actual work is needed by management to make this happen. You can’t just passively say “take care of yourself :)” and leave it at that. There will always be people who push themselves stupidly like coming in sick or answering work phone calls at funerals. Either due to some imagined pressure to visibly perform, or caring too much about their work.
A manager who truly believes that people need to take care of themselves need to actively prevent people from doing stupid shit.
At one point one of my team members came in clearly half unconscious from cold. I had to urge him to go home and only half jokingly threaten to take his laptop away if I saw him in the office tomorrow.
For some people I had to straight out tell them that if I saw them stepping in to answer support questions while on vacation, there would be stern words. We handle support, and if it is urgent and we need you, we’ll reach out.
I think too many managers know this is a real problem, but just passively exploit it.
It’s because you’re fighting against a lifetime of conditioning. Older people have been conditioned since childhood to show up, regardless of the situation. It’s less of a problem with younger people. But people of all generations are used to the doublespeak you see in this comic, and you have to firmly establish that you’re not contributing to it.
It also sends mixed messages when your manager tells you to take time off for vacation and not check email, but then is often found on calls during their own PTO. Which is what my boss tends to do.
Yup… I straight up had to tell a report that if I caught wind of them doing anything even close to work related, I’d have IT shut off their access until their leave was over.
During my time as a middle manager, I saw how much actual work is needed by management to make this happen. You can’t just passively say “take care of yourself :)” and leave it at that. There will always be people who push themselves stupidly like coming in sick or answering work phone calls at funerals. Either due to some imagined pressure to visibly perform, or caring too much about their work.
A manager who truly believes that people need to take care of themselves need to actively prevent people from doing stupid shit.
At one point one of my team members came in clearly half unconscious from cold. I had to urge him to go home and only half jokingly threaten to take his laptop away if I saw him in the office tomorrow.
For some people I had to straight out tell them that if I saw them stepping in to answer support questions while on vacation, there would be stern words. We handle support, and if it is urgent and we need you, we’ll reach out.
I think too many managers know this is a real problem, but just passively exploit it.
It’s because you’re fighting against a lifetime of conditioning. Older people have been conditioned since childhood to show up, regardless of the situation. It’s less of a problem with younger people. But people of all generations are used to the doublespeak you see in this comic, and you have to firmly establish that you’re not contributing to it.
It also sends mixed messages when your manager tells you to take time off for vacation and not check email, but then is often found on calls during their own PTO. Which is what my boss tends to do.
Yup… I straight up had to tell a report that if I caught wind of them doing anything even close to work related, I’d have IT shut off their access until their leave was over.