Just about every day at work, I take a walk around a
nearby park. It helps me so much to have a 15 - 20 min break, both
mentally and physically (stretch those legs, relax those eyes, etc.).
Over the last few weeks I've been watching a crew
of workers repair a broken fountain in the park. There are four guys and
they've been at this project for several weeks.
Whenever I walk by, three of the guys are clustered
together talking and pointing at stuff, and one guy is in the dried up
fountain doing the work: scraping, digging, lifting. I admit that I have
no idea what they're doing (looks like the
pump was broken), but I do know that the one guy in the fountain doing
all the work probably isn't doing his best job.
I'm not saying he isn't a good worker. In fact, I'm
sure he is. And I bet he was motivated and worked hard the first few
days or weeks on the project.
But the manager/leader/foreman/crew chief will beat that kind of work ethic right out of him.
Late last week as I walked by the foreman called the lone worker over and started pointing a pile of miscellaneous pump parts.
"What is this?" he demanded.
The worker started to reply, only to be cut off by a rough shout from the foreman.
"I said to get three blahblahblahs. What's this?"
Again the worker tried to reply, only to be shouted down again.
"What is this? What is this?"
And then I was past the fountain and the yelling faded into the background.
The other two guys, the ones that usually stand next to the foreman and help point at stuff were snickering.
I'm not a perfect manager, and it's always easier
to be on the outside and point out possible errors. But I never treat
people like that. What good could possibly come from publicly
humiliating someone like that? At best, the worker will
feel terrible about the mistake (we did not get to hear his response to
his manager) and go back to work a timid, unmotivated cog in the
fountain repair wheel.
At worse, the worker will quit or do an intentionally poor job.
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