How to deal with work schedule and local employees

[creighton0123]

I'm a year-long manager of a technical department that is based on the East Coast and in China. Since stepping into the management role, I did something that my predecessor never did: provide one on one time to my employees in both time zones. I work 11-6 in my time z one, then 9 or 10 to 1AM with my remote employees. My director also enjoys this, since he is on the west coast and it offers him better access to me.

 

My folks in China love this - particularly because I am communicate with them in Chinese. Their performance has skyrocketed.

 

My local employees, however, took my morning absence to heart and rated me negatively on my performance review (employees can rate managers). Their performance plummeted, despite only being absent my presence for two hours in the morning.

 

As a relatively new manager (one year in this job and one year in a call center environment years ago), I'm not quite sure how to handle this situation.

 

I explained this to them at the start, do not micro manage, and answer any and all escalations they have at all times (an escalated issue sends me a text message). I am left feeling as though the're trying to stiff me and take advantage of my absence by not working as hard in the morning.

 

Any advice?

[CarrieT]

I am left feeling as though the're trying to stiff me and take advantage of my absence by not working as hard in the morning.

Sounds like it...

 

My local employees, however, took my morning absence to heart and rated me negatively on my performance review (employees can rate managers). Their performance plummeted, despite only being absent my presence for two hours in the morning.

 

Any advice?

Does YOUR direct boss know this is your schedule and plan? Does he realize that your absence is affecting the local employees?

 

I would have a frank talk with the local employees and call them on their plummeting performance (nicely, of course). Pit them against their Chinese counterparts, if necessary, and perhaps start a competition. "Gee, your counterparts are out-performing you guys even though they only get two or so hours of interaction with me. Why is that when you guys get me for five or six hours and you know I can't work eight hours total with both shifts?"

 

Something like that...

[JustAddIce]

I concur with Carrie's response. You should get your immediate manager's buy in to your schedule.

 

It's great that you communicated your management style up front. Did you also communicate your expectations to each of your employee? Some people do want (and need) to be micromanaged.

 

I'm looking at this situation in two aspects:

 

1. "The work" – is it task based/routined? Does it require judgement? Can you set general expectations on what need to be accomplished each day? If it is task based and you can measure your employees productivity for each day (or week) then communicate your expectations to them and check in with them as often as you think you should. Then hold them accountable if they failed to deliver. If the work requires some judgement then you may have to be more hands on until both you and your employees are comfortable with making certain judgments/decisions. Also, communicate your expectations up front and hold people accountable if they failed to deliver.

 

2. "The people" – is your team consisted of professionals or people who are just there for a paycheck? (No, having a college degree does not automatically make one a professional). How long have they been in the work force? How motivated are they? Get to know your employees and then adjust your management style.

[loveweary11]

Metrics, metrics, metrics!

 

Make sure to get daily and weekly summaries of employee performance across the globe.

 

Hold a weekly meeting with employees, including Chinese and West Coast.

 

Share performance metrics of the group in public meetings. Reward the high achieving group and individual high achievers. Focus on getting more buy in from local employees.

Designate someone as the go to person in your absence for call escalation or other in person issues you miss at that time.

 

Get your employees focused on the goals so they can function happily without you there.

 

Did they rate you poorly on not being there, or do they not like you personally or your overall management style?

 

I used to work in and manage people in Mass in the tech sector. They're very demanding of perfection there because they are pretty much the smartest part of the country. (MIT, Harvard, the medical schools, etc...) They expect you to be on your"A" game and be beyond proficient in their job as well as your own.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a year-long manager of a technical department that is based on the East Coast and in China. Since stepping into the management role, I did something that my predecessor never did: provide one on one time to my employees in both time zones. I work 11-6 in my time z one, then 9 or 10 to 1AM with my remote employees. My director also enjoys this, since he is on the west coast and it offers him better access to me.

 

My folks in China love this - particularly because I am communicate with them in Chinese. Their performance has skyrocketed.

 

My local employees, however, took my morning absence to heart and rated me negatively on my performance review (employees can rate managers). Their performance plummeted, despite only being absent my presence for two hours in the morning.

 

As a relatively new manager (one year in this job and one year in a call center environment years ago), I'm not quite sure how to handle this situation.

 

I explained this to them at the start, do not micro manage, and answer any and all escalations they have at all times (an escalated issue sends me a text message). I am left feeling as though the're trying to stiff me and take advantage of my absence by not working as hard in the morning.

 

Any advice?

[anika99]

What specifically did your employees give you low scores on? If they were performing well before you took over and now they performance is suffering and they are giving you low scores then I don't think it's entirely fair of you to assume that they are out to get you. For one thing, where I work (we also rate our managers) the more easy going managers usually get high scores because the employees enjoy being trusted to do their jobs without being under a microscope. I think the fact that your employees plummeting performance is combined with them giving you low scores indicates that you are dropping the ball somewhere.

 

 

Do the local employees have a go to person when you are not available? I often work different shifts than my manager so I'm used to handling problems on my own but when something comes up that I need help with and my manager is not there, there is always other managers around who I can rely on. Perhaps it's not reasonable for your employer to expect you to efficiently manage employees in different countries and different time zones. The hours you are working sounds crazy. Before the local employees were thriving but the overseas employees were mediocre, but now that you are devoting more time to the overseas department the local department is floundering. That tells me that each location actually needs their own manager.

[creighton0123]

Anika,

 

Thanks for the feedback. There was some substantial employee turnover right before I took over as manager, organizational changes, and shifting of new products onto my team. It's a comparison of apples to oranges in terms of before vs after.

 

Despite my working with them constantly, answering their escalations, documenting solutions, offering training, etc.... I just can't seem to get them to bite the bullet in terms of researching complex problems (a core function of the job).

 

With any problem we face, there are a number of things you can check and multiple avenues for self-research. They tend to give up and simply escalate to me at all times - requiring me to do the research to solve the problem.

 

My three remote employees praised me. My predecessor never worked with them, never set goals for them, and never provided feedback.

 

Of my local employees, two are fairly new and one is not. The one who is not tended to struggle even when he was my colleague.

 

"Before the local employees were striving" is due, in part, to the people in question. Myself and one other "powerhouse" (who has moved on) and this third guy who has not jumped the gap between tier 1 and tier 3. It was, however, easy for this third guy to skate along when myself and one other were closing 50% of the incoming projects/requests for the team.

 

I don't really know how to approach this.

 

When we have a new product released and my team takes it on, I take the time to examine the incoming issues, learn the product, and transition the knowledge. In their minds, it means I automatically "own" the product - which is an unacceptable assumption.

 

Who knows. I might be overreacting. Their performance isn't terrible. It just isn't "rock star". I wish they were rock stars. And my manager and those I support love working with me. I just need to keep working with my locals and instill in them an independent mindset. Learn the products. Learn how to research problems. Think of multiple possible causes of problems.

 

I just get sad when I see them struggling with issues that the team has historically been able to resolve - all with ample documentation on how to resolve said problems (when I was just doing the job, I was a documentation fiend).

 

Anyhow. I digress. After posting this, I thought back on when I was a member of the team and not the manager of the team. This older guy was in and out of our manager's office all day asking questions instead of acting as an engineer and critically attacking the problem.

[creighton0123]

Lovewearly,

 

Thank you. I have metrics that I track for them. Week by week ticket closure rates by priority, time to resolve, number of passive and active escalations per day.

 

They rated me well in all categories accept for the one having to do with attendance/schedule.

 

I need to just sit down and talk with them and explain my logic about my schedule - and how I do it to keep the team functioning well.

[Emilia]

How well educated are your US employees? You need to start reviewing their performance and introduce measures that will allow you to warn those that aren't pulling their weight and eventually fire at least one of them. That will put the cat amongst the pigeons.

 

You will find that there is at least one person with a very negative attitude that doesn't want to do any work, probably has been there for a while or has a strong personality and that affects the others. Find ways of firing him or her and the others will fall back in line.

 

Also, provide a training course if possible on self-research. You are not there for the time bandits, they must understand that they have to become independent or seek employment somewhere else.

 

edit: it's ridiculous that they can rate your performance, schedule etc. How is that any of their concern as long as you are available enough for your core responsibilities? You are not their b***ch, they must learn to accept that. The difference between management and employee is that the manager takes on far more responsibility, for this reason employees don't get to tell them what to do since they aren't burdened with the same.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Emilia