Better A Short Fuse On A Firecracker Than A Long Fuse On A Stick Of Dynamite
Little bursts are far easier to handle than to let it all build up until it detonates in an explosion that leaves body parts sliding down the walls.
Being a boss isn’t just about planning for world domination, the joys of accounting, and wrangling with vendors. It is very often about dealing with the human emotions of employees. Oh, and it is so much fun (sarcasm spread thick). People are always getting on each other’s nerves. It’s what we do. We’re good at it. But there is a way to mitigate the impact of all that nerve-getting-on: tell people they are annoying you. Let me explain:
There came a time as owner of my company where I found myself constantly dealing with petty bickering between my employees. Someone would come into my office and complain about someone else who was doing something stupid that was “disrupting” the “flow” of “production.” What they meant was the person was “annoying” my “personal” “sensibilities.” But, sure. Okay. I would say that I would handle it, track down the offending employee, have a chat, and inevitably end up in a he-said, they-said situation. Frustratingly, I would often make matters worse by prompting an “I can’t believe you ratted me out to the boss” comment from the offender to the offended.
[squeezing the bridge of my nose] Grab me a Tylenol.
To resolve this, I decreed that if anyone was going to come to me to mediate personal issues, I would immediately get the other person in the room and we would hash it out together. Grown-ass adults should be able to handle interpersonal relationships without calling in the boss. My “bluff” was called exactly twice. The first time I think they didn’t think I was serious. The second time they probably thought the first conversation was so uncomfortable (even for me) that I wouldn’t want to do it again. They were wrong both times.
Putting two people in the same room to hash out their differences caused me to realize the little things were getting in the way of the larger things.
Case in point: Employee #1 complained that Employee #2 wasn’t putting a wrench back in its proper place after using it. Is this egregious? No. Would it drive you nuts if you were looking for a wrench in the place where you are supposed to find a wrench and found there wasn’t a wrench in the wrench place? Yes. Yes you would. After putting the two in a room and talking through it, I found that the wrench in question was always being used in the same location. To put it back only to have to retrieve it again was a waste of steps. Not wrong. The solution: buy another wrench and put it on a hook where it needed to be used most often. The other wrench could stay with all the other wrenches. Peace returned to the realm.
Over. A. Wrench.
The wrench, of course, was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. There were also other petty differences and a buildup of unaddressed nuisances that were destined to reach critical mass and explode. That it happened over a wrench was irrelevant. Putting the two together forced us all to realize how silly the conversation was. Were we really wasting everyone’s time over a wrench? Yes, we were. But was it really about the wrench? No, it was not. It was about all of the other unaddressed nuisances.
On reflection, I realized I was doing the same thing myself. Employees would do something stupid but not so egregious that it needed a reprimand - or barely a reference - so I let it slide without comment. But, these small things would build up. I would notice them more. It would get on my nerves more. Little stupid things would build up until I popped. It was unfair to the employees and it was unfair to me.
We had another meeting.
I gathered everyone together to unveil a new policy:
We would tell people when they were getting on our nerves the moment the nerve was struck. We would do it respectfully. And we would look for solutions right then and there.
I told everyone that it is better to be a short fuse on a firecracker than a long fuse on a stick of dynamite. Little bursts are far easier to handle than to let it all build up until it detonates in an explosion that leaves body parts sliding down the walls.
I started practicing it immediately and my employees took it to heart. It didn’t take very long for a harmony to fall over the place that seemed almost otherworldly. Everyone was treating each other with much more respect. Employees were handling their interpersonal relationships with each other like adults. Everyone knew exactly where I was coming from - all the time. It was refreshingly bizarre.
A couple of realizations:
When small issues are not addressed at the moment, the moment passes and the issue forms a foothold where other issues may accumulate.
As pressure builds, too much time is wasted talking about the little stupid things rather than the big important things.
Unaddressed nuisances can cause fissures in an organization as the “aggrieved” party gathers support and whispers about the other guy.
Most of the time when someone is causing a problem, they have no idea that they are causing a problem and are thankful for the heads up.
As time went on my meetings with employees became more about production issues and building efficiencies and much less about the stupid things like someone wearing too much cologne. What happened was, by dealing with the small stuff on an interpersonal level, everyone started dealing with the small stuff on an operational level. When we fixed the small stuff, the big stuff took care of itself.
When we dealt with the firecrackers, we didn’t have to deal with the dynamite.
QUESTION: What’s the most annoying little thing a fellow employee ever drove you nuts doing?
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At a company long long ago, a former coworker would clip his nails at his desk and they would shoot away to other people's space and he didn't do a thing to clean them up. I came to work and found a big toe-sized nail on my keyboard. I didn't blow up. I glued it to the enter key on his keyboard.