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      12-20-2019, 09:01 AM   #10
unluky
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It's a problem for sure. I have been in management for many years and like to keep a free and happy workforce - but there is ALWAYS one douche that ruins it for everyone. In a perfect work people would be judged on their work and if all the work gets done - we ignore what they do with downtime. But some will always work to the level that the whip requires and you can't show favoritism in today's world. And I am a true believer that the employees should help police themselves.

I am by nature, a jerk. I'm ok with that. I'm the first guy to help anyone with anything , but if something needs to be said - I am probably the one that will say it first. People know this and will let me know when they think something needs to be said but are too gutless to say it themselves. I'm ok with this. So before I was in management - I could always be seen as the "enforcer" of sorts. It usually started as a passive aggressive "If you get us all banned from the internet, we will hang you in the garage after work" type of loud comments to rally the troops to my cause with a few "yeah!" from them to show solidarity. Then it might escalate to a water cooler sidebar where I give them the "someone is going to sort this - so it can be you or someone else, but we are not going down for you" type of conversation. This is probably how I wound up in management decades ago as I always found myself in the office spokesman role because people trusted me and I would say what they were thinking.

I think you have just heard the warning shot. Believe me - if they just wanted to kill the internet - they would have. This was them telling you - we are ok with some, but you outliers better get it together. But of course those people are stupid and never see themselves as the problem and will continue to do so. This is where you come in. Make a mental note of the worst 1-2 offenders. Casually bring it up to others at your level and see if they feel the same way. Then when you see the blatant Youtube watching or whatever - call them out in a causal way - but other must hear you. Most will never say anything directly, but when you open the door some will walk through wit you. A casual "you better not get our internet removed!!!" outloud will semi-shame them in front of their coworkers and might correct it.

Whatever you do - you can't blame the management. Imagine you see the bill for wages and benefits each year and understand that all those wages result in less profits for you. They are necessary for you to make those profits however and happy employees make you $ - and thus you share. But when you walk through the office and see 25% of them watching TV - it would not give you a great feeling would it? You might start thinking that if they have enough time to do that - do you need to scale back? When bonus or raise time comes around - might that not factor into your decision making? In other words - these people might be taking away your internet access and/or wages, bonuses or even jobs. That always made it easier for me to punk them out. I'm not losing $ out of my pocket because you are a shit employee - so get it together.

I had a job once that had quarterly profit sharing bonuses. It was a smaller manufacturing facility that made it's name on quality above all else. He had trouble with people being on their phones too much and not doing the required QC checks as often as he required. He spoke till he was blue in the face, then told me he had a new idea. He walked the floor most days on each shift with his notepad. Come bonus time he would sit each employee down and hand them their fat checks some would be surprised that theirs was lower than expected. He would then show them his note book with the tick for each time he saw them on their phones after being told not to - and each came with a $100 deduction from the bonus check. The main offenders were hit hardest of course, but those $ went back into the pool so the non-offenders actually got bigger checks because it it. Genius. I will tell you the phone issue became far less of an issue after that and when the offenders complained - the other employees back the owner because they just got a better check. I always looked at that sly old bastard differently after that. He didn't even tell me what he was doing and I was his 2nd in command. He wanted no one warned for maximum value.

So again - I think your bosses are imploring you and your coworkers to fix the issue - or they will. I'd take that warning and fix the issue and maybe even make yourself the office hero. Who cares if the abusers get butthurt at you - they are the reason the rest of you are suffering. Screw them. Rally the troops and keep the office a fun place to work.
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