“It will take me so long to get home I’ll have to go to bed straight away.”
“Is my travel time considered work time?”
“Do I get paid for my travel costs?”
Return to the office: above are some things staff have said to clients of mine, who are managers. The result? Frustration.
These clients are decent people trying their very best to build high-performing teams and create great work cultures. But understandably annoyed at the silly excuses and unreasonable requests being put forward by workers who are clearly very spoilt. These staff enjoy the luxury and privilege of working-from-home (that many professions don’t, we shouldn’t forget); who simply don’t want to come back into the office. Even when it’s only one day a week.
How to deal with it? I’ve given these managers and leaders the tools and techniques needed to deal with the above sort of nonsense. Though the first thing I do is laugh out loud as I say, “Welcome to management.”
The real issue? The broader impact handling these difficult staff has, on the managers – people just like you – who have to juggle a bunch of issues, problems, tricky situations, and conflict, day in, day out.
I have seen plenty of videos and disparaging comments in social media world, slamming bosses and managers. All very much on the side of “the worker.” (And just for the record: we are all workers. Even bosses.) When it’s a (legitimately) bad boss? Fair enough. But there’s a big group of managers who are good people, with solid values, simply trying their best to manage a team. Where’s the support and help for them, when they encounter “bad” workers? Where’s the social media outcry for them? It’s almost non-existent.
Let’s balance the books a little.
Here are some handy hints to help all you decent managers out there, when you get frustrated, angry or stressed, when dealing with difficult staff and their (sometimes ludicrous) shenanigans:
👉 You won’t get rid of the annoyance you feel. Ever. Your job? To deal with it. So quit fighting it. Instead, know it exists. Accept it. Laugh at it. Then learn to handle it … each and every day. Realise that part of your pay cheque each month is a thank you from the business, for doing exactly this.
👉 When a (difficult) staff member knocks on your door, look up, grin, and think to yourself “I know you’re about to be annoying. But I love it.” This takes practice and resilience. It’s the stuff of champions once you nail it, a quite lovely mindset shift.
👉 Find an outlet. You need a way to vent and rid yourself of pent-up frustration, stress, and anger. When I managed full-time, my winning combo was (1) a highly-trusted person I would talk to and who would listen, challenge, give advice, and laugh at me … combined with (2) physical exercise such as going for a run or hitting the gym immediately after work. Nothing like sweating out the negativity and being raring to go the next day.
It’s a two-way street in the workplace: managers and staff. I’m not heavily skewed to one side or the other. For me, it’s all about, “What is fair and reasonable?” But for all you frustrated managers out there: hey, I feel your pain. Hang in there, get the right mindset, embrace the challenge, and learn to love those particularly annoying staff.
After all, some would argue they’re one reason the world needs managers in the first place.
