By Carol Hurst, LVT, CVPM, CVJ
I’ve been reading a lot of posts in my manager groups lately, lamenting about how in-general, work ethic seems to be decreasing. I won’t bring a certain generational “M” word into the equation because that’s not what I want the discussion to be about. I think anytime someone talks about an overall cultural work ethic degradation, there are larger problems to look at.
What is the problem?
Some of the problems related to work ethic that I’m hearing from managers include:
- A staff that is more “needy”
- A staff more “delicate” and not able to take feedback
- A staff that prefers texting (important or time sensitive information not excluded)
- A staff unable to deal with the pressures of the job
- A staff who wants to know what’s going on (updates, transparency, etc)
What’s the real problem?
Some of these issues aren’t novel and some of them aren’t the problem that they seem to be, at first glance. Whenever I hear complaints about a team who seems to be sensitive or needy (or any of the above descriptors), I tend to ask questions and poke at the culture of the business. Believe it or not, there are still a decent amount of managers and owners out there whose practice management philosophy is that employees are expendable resources that exist to serve the business. It is this mentality that is the root issue in many cases. This isn’t to say that in certain scenarios individuals aren’t the problem, but more often than not I’m hearing the majority of a team described, not just one or two people.
What’s the solution?
Most of my suggestions come from simple, good business practices and some are aligned with the much-needed shift in vet medicine to a more all-inclusive, employee-centric mindset. We have a real problem in our profession with burn-out. The problem of unhappy employees isn’t the employee.
- “Neediness” – When I hear about needy employees or employees who crave updates on their performance, who want in-depth training on their role and who poke and prod for a clear professional development plan, I think systems and procedures. I see too many clinics who don’t have an outlined training program. They have no idea how to foster growth in individual positions. Coaching is feedback given behind closed doors when a simple mistake has snowballed into an emotion-driven event. How dare employees “demand” to want our broken system fixed!
- “Delicate” – There is a much-needed shift in our profession happening. Our support teams are being more vocal about how they are treated in the practice. This can include everyday interactions from peers and superiors along with the communication methods used to convey performance expectations (or lack thereof). It is both not okay to verbally vomit your displeasure or accept verbal vomit from someone else. A lot of us (myself included) need to seek outside training and resources to help communicate more effectively.
- “Texting” – Despite the shifts in society to make everything more convenient, faster and tied directly to our smart phones, we have to set boundaries in our practice. One of these is communication. Texting can be very convenient for a lot of interactions and I won’t discuss an overall, larger cell phone policy but when it comes to setting expectations there’s one simple rule that VetSupport Consultant, Brandon Hess lives by. “If it takes more than one back and forth response, it needs to be verbal conversation.”
- “Updates” – This falls in line with some of the others. A lot of managers/owners seem offended that the teams of today want to know how the business is functioning. They want to know how their role corresponds with practice success. They also want professional development. Once again, this is an area that is under-developed in our field. If we are consistently measuring financials, we tend to really hold them close to the chest. There is often very little to no professional development planning for our teams. The problem here is more shoving us out of our comfort zone in obtaining the tools we need to be successful business owners than it is a problem with the team wanting a little more out of the place they spend the majority of their time.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we really need to be careful when we start seeing our teams mentality as a threat. Certainly if there are one or two bad apples we need to start the process for coaching up or coaching out. When was the last time we evaluated our own culture? Time to turn the magnifying glass inward and find out if the systems we have in place are truly serving, like leadership should.