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July 6, 2005

The Time Conundrum for Managers

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Posted by Elizabeth Albrycht

Arnold Kling at Econolog offers a few hypotheses on why 20 somethings aren't being used to their full intelligence level (see posts here and here to follow along) His last one struck me:

It takes a lot of effort to challenge employees. It's less risky and less time-consuming to give them scut work.

It got me wondering: If we believe in the hypothesis that managers are overworked, is this responsible for them simply just not having the time to nurture and challenge their employees? (be they 25 or 55) Is this not the equivalent of eating your seed cord (unhappy employees leave)?

At least in my experience as a manager in the professional services industry (PR agency), I spent the vast amount of my time managing client relationships vs. my team. Billable hours were the focus, and, given we were always understaffed (this was the late 90s boom years in Silicon Valley), I have to admit my junior staff didn't get the amount of attention from me they probably needed. It was sink or swim, learn by osmosis. Some thrived, others left. And in the end, I left too, completely frustrated and burned out.

It is easy to blame the managers for not doing their jobs (which are, ostensibly, managing people), but one must acknowledge the pressures managers are under as well, which can lead to a vicious cycle. I ran across this interesting post by Tony DiRomualdo on his Next Generation Workplace blog today, which referenced a report on law offices available at the MIT Workplace Center. He notes from the report:


In the legal profession, revenue growth is the key performance imperative and billable hours is the most important metric of performance. Attracting top talent to drive growth is a priority and salaries and bonuses go up every year in the competition for the best and brightest. Higher starting salaries necessitate revising the rest of the salary structure upward. As salaries rise, growth targets are increased. There is greater pressure to bill more and thus work longer hours. Stress levels increase, morale plunges, people leave. The greater the attrition, the greater the number of new associates needed each year to replace the attorneys that leave. And so, a vicious circle spins on and on.

I saw this process in the PR agency business and the managing consulting business. I suspect it is endemic in professional services. I chose to escape by creating or becoming a partner in a couple of independent networks of consultants. To date, however, these networks don't offer many opportunities for junior staff, who have to learn their trades in often difficult environments. It seems to me we need better business models for professional services companies. Maybe billable hours isn't the way to go?

Comments (1) + TrackBacks (0) | Category: Management Practices


COMMENTS

1. Regina Miller on July 6, 2005 12:42 PM writes...

Classic - what gets measured gets attended to. Usually, the problem is managers are told and even trained to be good managers, but there are no accountability metrics (at the organizational and individual level) in place 1) to get feedback on how you are doing as a manager and/or 2) to get rewarded or incented for being a good manager; and 3) No mechanisms to remove people who shouldn't be managing people ever!

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