Kindergarten Charts - essay 4

Letter

29 September 2008

Dear Boss:

We both have good people in our employ, you and I. There are a few things our people would like us to know, and they’ve asked me to tell you. They are counting on us to take action on these items, they are also interested in discussion, but less so.

First of all, they would like us to check their work more often and more thoroughly. They do not have the kind of access to us that they need. They are not stupid, but they are occasionally ignorant, and they need our help if they are to become more knowledgable. They need to have a clear understanding of our expectations if they are to going to have a chance to meet them.

They know how we hate to be interrupted -- and they know how hard we work (they have a very accurate understanding of our work habits actually; they imitate them), but they need us to give them time, regularly, in chunks bigger than five minutes. They'd like us to move their needs closer to the top of our priority lists. If we do, they will do the same for us; and they will work more effectively and we will succeed. They want that to happen because they hope to share in our success. Remember the role we play in their hopes, remember the way you were treated when you were in there shoes.... if you were treated well, imitate that. If you weren't, compensate for it -- you know what the mistakes are.

Secondly, they want our support in their professional aspirations. If they are to improve they need opportunities to learn. They need to visit job sites more often. They need to attend real seminars, not lunch-and-learns, more often. They need to attend programming meetings and presentations, or they will never learn how to do it. We will benefit if we take them with us.

At home, their budgets are stretched to capacity and they have not learned to prioritize well, so they think they do not have the money to pay for the courses and tests for their professional advancement. Please do this: have your firm set aside some money every year for Employee Education. Find out how much your firm spends on paper every year, that might make a good figure to start with. Include printing that is sent out, at a factor of 1/3. Let your employees determine the method of allocating the money.

I had a policy in my office regarding IDP courses. The office pays half the cost of any seminar or study materials, and reimburses the other half (the employees contribution) when they pass the related division of the test. This allows them to roll their money over into the next one. Incentivize their professional progress, you will benefit from it as well. And it doesn’t add up to much money in the scheme of things.

Our drawing standards need to be refreshed, and they ought to be enforced. Our people have many suggestions about how we could be doing things more efficiently and more effectively. Why not find out what they think and let them give it a try?

Immediately, or when you next purchase hardware, get them very large, high-resolution flat-screen displays. They spend their entire day with their eyes on the screens. This is a productivity and quality-of-life issue, and money invested here will return to you many times over. Panning and Zooming are the two highest time-consuming commands in CAD; if they do less of this, they will do more of something else. If you get large displays for them, you will be able to more easily see what they are doing when you walk past their workstations. If you see six things that need correcting in a year, and make adjustments early, you will save more than these monitors cost you. Believe me it will happen. Get them 30” displays. They are not doing accounting, they are making drawings. How large was the drawing board you had at your first job? Do not give them multiple montors instead. Two monitors means one for work and one for play; you wish to avoid that. If that isn't enough of an incentive, try this: tell them you will do it if they leave their headphones at home and let them decide.

They will brag to their colleagues about the monitors you have provided, and when their friends are looking for work they will inquire with you first. You will have an advantage when interviewing candidates for new jobs at your office; your good employees will find it more difficult to leave. Your firm will appear more successful to your clients and you will be more highly esteemed. These benefits can be had in other ways, but none of them are less expensive. You may think the cost is high, but the value is higher still.

If reading this makes you angry, I hope you are smart enough to understand that your anger is not because of something I said, and it is also not because of something that they did wrong. You're angry because you agree with me about all of this. You should be angry, this is something worth getting angry about, actually. I know I'm pretty angry about it.

Our people appreciate their paychecks and interested in the work we give them. They want to be better at their jobs. They want opportunities to do things that they are not good at yet, they need those opportunities, just as badly as we did, just as much as we still do. They are looking for evidence that we agree with them. If we will put yourself in their place occasionally it will be easier for them to see things from our point of view as well. If we bring them with you to meetings and presentations, they will have a better grasp of the big picture and will be able to implement our agenda without being given specific instructions. If we send them to the job sites more often, we will see their work improve.

Matthew Arnold

September 2008

This discussion of this letter is interesting...

Special thanks to the folks at that board who contributed valuable comments about the tone of this letter.