Thursday, August 27, 2009

Friction

I have a meeting with my team every Monday morning. We talk about progress and I update them on any issues and give them the opportunity to raise anything that they want to say. This week, we had the meeting on Monday, but they also want another one today. I clarified what their objectives were for the six month project earlier in the week and sent them an e-mail to make sure they were entirely clear – although in that sense the task that we are doing is relatively straightforward, along the lines of “you have six months to complete this much work”.

Sending the e-mail seems to have opened a can of worms and they now want to meet today to discuss some ‘issues’. I had a bit of an idea what that meant, but then last night I got a text from one of the team to say that they were going to specifically ask me what the bonus would be for hitting their target. The person who texted me was concerned I might get “ambushed”. Fortunately, that has given me a bit of time to think and hopefully I will sound reasonably coherent when they ask me.

I am not quite sure what has brought about this sudden slightly militant approach by the team, but hopefully this will calm things a bit.

8 comments:

Soup said...

Good luck for your meeting. I think a lot of people are feeling more militant, it's just a symptom of the unease that the recession has brought with it. People are frightened and unsteady and so trying to stand their ground and get what they can now.

The Gripes of Wrath said...

Of course, it could just be you aren't feeding them enough biscuits: biscuits mollify the feistiest soul.
(-and will they get a bonus if they hit their target? Surely hitting a target is just achieving what they are supposed to - exceeding their target might be bonus worthy, but even then, a chocolate biscuit might suffice. Have I been working in the voluntary sector too long, do you think?)

Anonymous said...

Biscuits always work with me.

Random Reflections said...

Blue Soup - I think you're right. Bizarrely, they actually wanted more objectives to be set for them, as a starting point. they had been cut back to reflect the fact that they were focussing on one particular task, but they were insistent that they wanted more.

Gripes - I am not much good at providing biscuits, but perhaps that is the key to their hearts. They have had a very stretching target set, so by hitting it they will have exceeded the normal target by a long way. So they should get the bonus for that. The way they are going, they should exceed even the very stretching target, so hopefully there should be no quibble about paying up.

LKSN - welcome back! I will keep that in mind, should I ever need to bribe you.

Spudgy said...

Bonuses in this economic climate......jammy buggers!

Random Reflections said...

Spudgy - one of the many caveats I put on the conversation was that I needed to check there was actually still some money!

Kahless said...

Aha, you must be a banker, given you are talking bonus in the recession!

lmfao!

Random Reflections said...

Kahless - A banker... oh my, no... the economy would be in even worse a state if I worked in banking!