| STRATEGIC ANALYSIS |
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Passion versus workaholism.
Where do you draw the line? (part II) |
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As I stated in the first part of my article, one of the challenges managers face is that of reducing workaholism among employees while at the same time maintaining their motivation, commitment and productivity.
And sometimes these two start to mean the same thing because some managers consider that working for long hours is equivalent to passion and commitment and as a result they encourage their employees towards this type of schedule. Based on a study by the Ken Blanchard Companies, conducted over several years, we looked at factors that influence employee passion when it comes to their workplace and how we can, through a few simple questions, get a general idea as to their level of motivation and loyalty.
Next, we will look at what causes workaholism and how it can be approached from a management point of view. Because we have talked a lot about this perspective I would like to address the following question to the managers that are reading this article: what do you think is the main cause behind employee loyalty and motivation or behind their decision to leave the company in search for another job?
This is an answer I was very curious about, putting aside the various national and international studies that fell into my lap and which basically said the same thing: no matter how much money you get (with the exception of a salary that barely allows you to survive), the professional relation you have with your direct manager is the key factor. For a certain period of time I believed, as some of my colleagues did, that in Romania we are different (it was more of an easy way out) and that salary is the key factor in assuring retention, in our country anyway.
Investigating this aspect with some of our clients and without any claim of rigor, I discovered a truth that is more in touch with reality, something which is common sense and transcends the world of numbers: when your manager is someone who doesn’t trust you, who constantly checks up on you or even guides you without seeing that you already know what you have to do, a big salary is not enough to keep you going.
In the leadership training sessions I hold, I always ask my participants the following question: how many of those present changed their job in the past because of a bad professional relation with their manager. Until now almost 70% percent answered that they have done this. But why does this professional relation matter so much when the subject of this article is workaholism and passion?
From my point of view, a healthy professional relationship with your direct manager can be an essential contribution towards an increase in passion and motivation for an employee and the opposite of this can be a key factor – together with other causes- for workaholism.
I consider that the manager’s working style influences employee attitude towards the workplace. And seeing as I couldn’t help notice that in Romania we have a high degree of competitive and/or perfectionist trends in a company’s organizational culture, it’s easy to see what the attitude of employees that have this type of manager will be. How do you react when your manager constantly reminds you that you have to be the best or that your work has to be perfect? You go along with it, right? And this means either a huge workload or more energy put into accomplishing the same task (however making sure you aren’t wrong).
I had the opportunity to work on projects regarding organizational culture analysis and I realized how easy it is for a manager to influence employee attitude through the way in which they encourage certain behaviors. And sometimes you don’t even need to verbalize it. Therefore, if I want to look for the source of workaholism, I look at the manager the employees have and the way in which he manages his people because in the end he represents the model.
However, I can’t help seeing that we have
workaholism rather than passion in many companies.
I see very tired people leaving for home,
I see young people that don’t brag about what
they do instead they complain that they have
a lot of work and they can’t seem to find
time for themselves. And very frequently conversations
reach a Romanian conclusion: "it is what
it is, what can you do?" In other words,
this is it, I said yes to being a slave, although
I realize that some things are being done
wrong, but what can I do? Go and show my boss
that he’s wrong? Or insist even when my idea
was rejected the first time?
My answer to these questions is: if you want to have a personal life, if you want to remember years from now that you truly lived your life, if you want to have other memories beside your computer monitor and desk, then the answer is YES! It’s time to challenge the status-quo even more. For me, the situation described above, in which an employee realizes that he works to much and it’s not healthy or realizes that something isn’t right in the relation he has with his manager or wants to make change happen he has 3 options:
• Give up, quit and
look for another company where you can work
the way you like and therefore keep your
mental well being (I also made this
step at a a certain point because it was
my opinion that it’s more important to work
in an environment in which I can freely
express my ideas instead of staying in a
system where I had to be conventional so
as not to upset those around me)
• Stay in the company and don’t
give up, based on the principle
that if one door closes you have to open
another one and insist until you have the
necessary support or you get what you want
(this type of attitude has its risks
and not everybody is willing to adopt it
but in the end you can’t be successful without
taking chances)
• The third option is the one where
you accept the situation
and "it is what it is" becomes
your motto or, as I like to say, you should
do the same thing that a person falling
from a skyscraper without any chance of
surviving does: "Enjoy the flight!"
(In my opinion this type of situation
seems pretty hard to accept for most of
our countrymen. Especially when Balkan influence
makes them constantly question a system
they have accepted but haven’t had the courage
to change)
A trainer recently told me that one of his communication sessions isn’t aimed at developing participant’s abilities to communicate better with others but makes them understand and work with themselves. Many participants come to that course expecting to learn manipulation techniques and leave with a better understanding of who they are and the areas they can improve.
I realize that the same principle can be applied in the case of passion or workaholism. What can you as a manager do when you realize that your employees aren’t motivated, passionate and enthusiastic about what their work or that they don’t plan on staying with the company for too long? It’s a big warning sign that something in your management style isn’t working. The solution: diagnose your leadership style, ask for a 360 degree feedback from those with which you interact frequently in order to see what has to be changed.
Or maybe your company culture is tacitly or
openly encouraging behaviors that make people
become conventional and safety oriented instead
of being preoccupied about obtaining excellent
results and taking chances. And then you might
want to remember your three options if you
realize something has to change: give
up and leave, fight
till you succeed or accept
the situation as it is ("Enjoy the flight!").
Rares Manolescu
Senior Manager
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Human Invest is a Premier League company in the arena of training and
organizational development consultancy services, present on the Romanian market since 1998.
We are recognized for conceiving and implementing programs which offer managers an authentic experience towards improving their leadership
performances, and thus we support companies in becoming more and more engaged in delivering excellent services for their clients.
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