"this company doesn't . . ."

Steve Johnson has been a technical manager on and off for nearly two decades. At AT&T, he's best known for writing Yacc, Lint, and the Portable Compiler.

and Dusty White
<dustywhite@earthlink.net>

Dusty White works as a management consultant in Silicon Valley, where she acts as a trainer, coach, and trouble-shooter for technical companies.

An employee comes into your office and says something like, "This company doesn't appreciate me. I could get better offers elsewhere." As a manager, you have just been given a gift.

In the vast number of cases, when employees quit, the first thing they explicitly say to a manager about their job satisfaction is "I quit!" If the employee is still talking, there is great hope that the situation can be improved. In fact, one of the rationales for having periodic performance reviews is precisely to get unhappy employees to talk about their concerns before they get too frustrated and quit.

So why is such a conversation a gift? Realize that the employee is taking a risk by expressing his negative reaction to the company. By being willing to talk to you, he are showing a degree of trust in you. But it's necessary to proceed carefully to avoid making the situation worse.

When employees say, "This company doesn't . . . ," what do they mean? Companies don't do things, people do. Companies may have procedures and a thick rule book, but people often don't follow it. Someone unhappy about discrimination, for example, may be well aware that the company policy forbids it, but this doesn't keep some people from doing it anyway.

In an earlier column, we encouraged you to use the question "how?" to understand the process behind an undesirable outcome. And we will encourage "how questions" here as well, but with care.

First, we need to acknowledge the trust that the employee is showing by having this discussion at all, and deal with her emotional state, which may be fearful, angry, injured, resentful, guilty, anxious, etc. And you probably are seeing only a small piece of what she is feeling. If you don't acknowledge employees' feelings but instead plunge right into problem-solving, you will leave them dissatisfied, and may well appear defensive or insensitive to them.

So the first thing to do is to listen. Ask questions that chunk them up (see our column in the February 2000 issue) — don't let them get caught in a list of dozens of petty incidents, but ask them, "How has this affected your ability to do your job?" "how would you rather have been treated?" and other questions to give them more context. The facts really are less important at this stage than the employee's feeling that something has happened. So resist the urge to elicit chapter and verse about who did what when, and stay focused on the employee's impressions. Often, if you listen sympathetically and nonjudgmentally, and gently chunk up, the emotions will subside, and the employees will themselves suggest an excellent approach to solving the problem.

At this stage, you can take the lead, and start asking "how" questions that chunk down a bit. Gather those details you need to, and suggest different ways of dealing with specific situations. In some cases, you may need to go to your own manager to make the right things happen. In some cases, you may not feel empowered to fix the problem; this will be the theme of a future column.

Now wait! Don't just rush in and offer suggestions too quickly! One of the most common mistakes managers make is assuming that the "presenting problem" or issue is the only one. They then get out their "box of Band-Aids" and attempt to do a quick fix. Before making any suggestions about solutions, be sure to chunk down and get any other issues that may have not come up. For instance, Joe may be upset about the way a co-worker talks to him and orders him around. That may be only the straw that broke the camel's back, and there are really a number of little issues that prompted the blow-up.

You'll be doing your employee and yourself a favor if you take the time to find out all the issues. By keeping open, encouraging your employee to talk, using phrases such as "tell me more" and "what else?" you get the larger picture of the problem and possibly a pattern that needs to be addressed, rather than just one issue.

But above all, realize that having this discussion with your employee is a gift. It is far superior to "I quit!"