Leaders Must Foster Trust

Or they will never be followed.

Photo by lauren lulu taylor on Unsplash

Trust is lacking in our world today. You can see it in the ‘return to office’ movement. Many businesses who were not comfortable with staff working from home were forced into it but the Covid outbreak and when the danger lessened they were insistent on employees returning to work in the office. Why? Because then they could be monitored more efficiently and any problems with communication could be cleared up quicker. They also wanted to have regular meetings to “talk things out”. They said people would be more efficient in the office without the distractions they would face at home.

All of this was nonsense, micro managing, and displayed a lack of trust, compounded by managers either uncomfortable with technology (zoom links etc) or insistence on staff following their specific procedures.

How do I know? Because I have worked with such managers and also worked from home for many years proficientlty. Including being at workplaces where security and privacy concerns were paramount.

Healthcare insurance is highly dependent on confidentiality. Patient records are protected by security and privacy regulations which workers are continually reminded, and recertified on every year. There are rules that mandate that whether you work from home or in an office. My time began in the manual era — before widespread imaging and digital processing. And yet claims processors always worked from home, visiting the office twice a week to exchange stacks of paper claims which they processed at home. It allowed the company to save office space. Eventually customer service reps worked from home, since they were connecting with patients and providers by phone anyway.

At another employer I was working at home in Seattle while the rest of my team -including my manager — worked back East. We had periodic meetings online backed up by text messaging and email, which got the work done efficiently.

I have encountered micro managers in my role as trainer. I have dealt with people who think their way is the only way and instruct their employees to follow their rules without fail. I train with flexibility — explain the process, explain the why and the desired outcome, and then encourage each to find their own process. I even have at times told people “ignore what the boss just said, do it your way”. Most times managers don’t do the daily work, and they are uncomfortable with individualism.

One particularly stressful time was when I was at a company where we had all been working at home successfully. We got a new system and the production rate went down, plus we got a new director (two levels above our current boss). Instead of having us review the data and process and advise improvements the director handed down new policies and mandatory expectations. Those higher up had a new person who had worked on the new system do a test, to see what a good rate would be, then established the expected rate and said we had to attain it. Not the team establishing the rate, just one person. The team as a whole rejected the new rate as unacceptable, but the bosses did not budge.

They subsequently pulled us all into the office, with the rule that we could only resume working at home when we achieved the new rate. To start off with they instituted new mandatory overtime — 3 hrs per day, 10 hrs on Saturday for four weeks -the whole month of June. The extra pay was fine, 25 hrs per week, 100 hrs overall, at time and a half pay. But the stress was incredible, and the law of dimishing returns kicked in — at some point in OT the rate obviously went down,despite our best efforts.

They also dismissed teamwork. They told us to refer any improvements we came up with to the team lead and have them approved first. They specifically told us not to work together to come up with improvements — in essence destroying the team. And if we failed to meet the new standards — which we all did at first- we would be reminded that not only did we have to improve, but “we have every confidence that you can meet the goals”. Passive aggressive, isn’t it?

One more thing. Most of us arrived early in the morning, so that we could get our hours in and then go home. We had been used to having keys to the building and often worked before most of the staff (and bosses even) arrived. The new director stated that no matter when we got there we were. not to go into the building until she arrived. And she was often late, so we were twiddling our thumbs unable to work. We had spent years by ourselves but now we weren’t trusted.

Despite my best efforts, including working through breaks (supposed to be mandated by law) and eating lunch at my desk, I failed to meet the standard and was let go. They did acknowledge my efforts and I was able to collect unemployment, but it still upset me. Funny thing is, my first reaction after I left the building was “hey, I don’t have to come in here tomorrow and beat my head against the wall”. Relief! Then I had to call my wife and let her know I had to go job hunting.

In contrast I remember the years I worked in radio, mostly evenings, weekends and graveyard shifts. It was a small station and so I was mostly the only person at the station during my shifts. I was responsible for both the on-air content and the functioning of the broadcast equipment. Definitely not a “over the shoulder” situation with the boss. I would see him occasionally, most often when I was working graveyard and he would come in to handle the morning shift. I would see the people doing the surrounding shifts and that was it. The only other contacts I had were phone callers, where again I was responsible for answering because I was working solo.

I realized lately how privileged I was and how trusting he was in that situation. He trained me to do the job, answered questions whenever I had them, and called in once in a while to see how I was doing (not very often). And then he went away and let me do the job. He trusted me and all the other staff with his station. I am so thankful for that. He has passed now, but he was the best manager I ever had.