Note to Managers: Just Ask
I’ve been having a series of small breakthroughs in my home office. This might sound weird, but I work with three computer monitors. Yep, three. I worked with two for the longest time then someone suggested that I try three. I thought, “I don’t know. That seems pretty extravagant.” And it is. But I found myself in a place where I could get a couple of reasonably priced monitors, so I decided to give it a try.
And if you think working with two monitors is awesome…three is better. Way better. Anyway a few weeks ago, both of my external monitors stopped working and I couldn’t figure out how to fix them. Then finally in a moment of frustration, Mr. Bartender and I looked up the user manual online, hit three buttons and voila! the monitors started working.
The next day, I read an article about some privacy issue with Zoom that instructed me to immediately delete the app. After doing some research to determine that was the right thing to do, I went to my webcam permissions and noticed an option for audio permissions. The reason I’m mentioning this up is been looking for this little box for months! I’ve been trying to find a way to use my headset with my iMac and it’s been so frustrating. Boom! Done.
When I saw today’s Time Well Spent from our friends at Kronos, it was an immediate reminder for me that sometimes the answers to our biggest frustrations are right in front of us. And to get the answers we need, sometimes all we have to do is take the time to ask.
Technology can do the asking for us. In this Time Well Spent, managers are looking for an employee to pick up an open shift. Wouldn’t it be great if the company’s scheduling software automatically asked employees who were qualified and eligible to cover the open shift if they want it? Because that technology exists.
Employees can handle things on their own. Even if your organization doesn’t have technology that automatically reached out to other employees, wouldn’t it be awesome if the open shift was automatically posted in a place where any employee could see it and sign up if they want the extra shift? Because you know, that technology also exists.
Managers can use technology to distribute mass messages. Managers don’t have to sit in their offices calling lists of employees to find someone to fill an open shift. They could use platforms like Workplace by Facebook or the company intranet to let employees know there’s an open shift. The technology already exists.
Sometimes organizations take the long way instead of letting technology help them, just like my examples above where I spent a lot of time trying to find something that was right in front of me.
If you don’t know the answer, just ask. If you’re looking for a better way, just ask. If you want to see if the process can happen faster, just ask. You get the point. We don’t have to search for our answers in a sea of noise (or in a haystack).
11