DON’T ASK ME TO DO THAT - I CAN’T CHANGE NOW!
With Pitchcare’s Health and Safety Workshop in September getting rave reviews, Trainer and Conference Speaker FRANK NEWBERRY turns his attention to those of our work colleagues who resist even legally enforceable changes to their work practices. He suggests three options supervisors might consider trying to help people change their ways at work.
In a recent article for Pitchcare I referred to some team members as ‘old fogies’. I described these people as being those who have been doing a reasonable job on a limited range of tasks over a period of years. They can often be older team members who are quite happy doing the same job year in and year out, but this is not exclusively an issue with older workers. Some of the most radical, progressive and inspiring people I have ever met have been in their 60s, 70s and 80s and there are also many younger team members who prefer to do a limited range of duties.
You will have trouble with a capital ‘T’
This is fine all round if it fits in with what the employer wants from his/her people. However, if your people resist changes in work methods or decline new duties that are seen as important then you have a little problem. Some changes can even be a legal requirement e.g. new Health and Safety legislation may require a change and, if your people resist the law, then you will have trouble with a
capital ‘T’ to add to your little problem.
A great guy I know (a turfcare professional in a supervisory position) told me that he recently tried to get one of his older staff members to change his ways because it was a legal requirement to do so, and the response came “Don’t even ask me to do that - I can’t change now”. The person took the view that he would never be held accountable in court for dangerous or hazardous work practices if his supervisor got someone else to perform those duties in future.
You may need to listen for every hint and nuance
My first reaction, as someone who is an ‘old dog’ having to ‘learn new tricks’ myself, was to suggest that he could get others to do that particular task, and other tasks, and even more tasks until the guy is eventually on ‘light duties’. Now, a consequence of going on light duties is a lighter pay packet. I resisted saying “see what he thinks of that idea”, when it occurred to me that the worker might actually want to go on light duties and might even accept,
if not welcome, a calculated pay cut.
Stranger things have happened; the person may have been feeling
uncomfortable for some time, wondering what to say and dropping hints that might not have been picked up. In a culture where people are rather shy about such matters you may need to listen for every hint and nuance. So, option number one for your consideration is:
1. Offer them a new deal - if you can - with lower wages for doing less work
If a pay cut sets a tricky precedent, and the worker is willing to work a full week, then you might consider reverting to a series of improvement projects that the person can do to fill up the hours they now have available since they declined the new tasks, or declined to do some old tasks that have to be done in a new and safer way.
As indicated previously in this magazine any project work the person does would need to have real merit. For example the improvement
projects would have to:
• Be relevant or connected to the work being done by the team
• Add value to what the team does and/or the way it is done
• Be seen to be of real value by the employer
I believe that any project work a person does is done best if the person concerned thinks up the project. So, perhaps you could start by asking what they would like to do. Perhaps they could be asked what they think needs doing or what they have always wanted to try out but have been too busy to do in the past. Also, a little testing or experimentation, a few inspections or examinations, some reviews or evaluations here and there, can often be of real value.
When I ask groundsmen and greenkeepers what they would like to spend more time doing at work they often indicate that they would like to visit other sites or other places to check out ‘best practice’. It should be emphasised that best practice might extend to the policies
When I ask groundsmen and greenkeepers what they would like to spend more time doing at work they often indicate that they would like to visit other sites or other places to check out ‘best practice’ 100
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