Act Like First-Graders, Get Treated Like First-Graders

A previous manager had no control of the team; he wanted to be seen as their friend and couldn’t enforce any rules without upsetting them. Of course, they knew this and did whatever they liked. I came in after he was fired, and I was tasked with (slowly) bringing them back into line.

One of the early problems was lunchtimes. People took it whenever they felt like it, and when enough people took their lunch, the entire facility stopped working. So, instead of a forty-five-minute downtime, everything stopped for ninety minutes. Orders got delayed, customers were unhappy, and expenditure got higher and higher trying to throw overtime at the problem.

So, back to the rules: take your lunch at the right time. Plenty of people whined about it, but it had to be done. After a few disciplinarys, most people came back into line.

But not [Employee #1] and his mate [Employee #2]. I’d see them go early for lunch, come back to see that everyone was on their actual lunch, and then sit around doing nothing. Working where they did, it had a massive impact and constantly caused issues. It needed sorting.

They knew the rules but knew getting fired was almost impossible due to red tape. No one wanted to manage their performance as they were going to retire soon.

But I was stubborn. I called them both into a meeting. [Employee #1] was all mouth before he sat down.

Employee #1: “What now?”

Me: “We are here to discuss your lunchtimes. As you are aware, I have asked you repeatedly to—”

Employee #1: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, take lunch at twelve. But what if we don’t want to?”

Me: “Then action will have to be taken.”

Employee #1: “You’re all mouth; you don’t have the stones to fire us.”

Me: “I didn’t say I’d fire you, but I could move you.”

Employee #1: “Nice try. You can’t put me on the night shift; I have medical issues.”

Employee #2: “Yeah, me, too.”

Me: “That’s fine. You will both be staying on days.”

They both started to leave.

Me: “HOWEVER, starting Monday, [Employee #2], you will be working on operation ten at [one side of the site], and [Employee #1], you will be working at [the other side of the site].”

Employee #1: “You can’t do that!”

Me: “I already have; it’s been approved by human resources and senior management. Gents, you now have time together for lunch but nothing else. Should you continue to ignore the rules, you can and will be separated further.”

They complained about this more than anything else, but I already had full clearance for the change.

They fell in line after that!