4 ms·

Good point. One way I could try to pre empt this is to say: "nobody was ever fired for answering 4 or 5 to this question" But I'm not sure how effective that

Good point. One way I could try to pre empt this is to say: "nobody was ever fired for answering 4 or 5 to this question" But I'm not sure how effective that would be.

hrktb 7y ago
Another angle is to declare from the start wanting improve the situation whatever their stress level is, and ask what your efforts should be directed at. If they don't have much to complain about it will be low priority items, if they're in a 4-5 situation it will be a longer discussion. At least they might be more open to explain heavy stuff if they know you're there to solve them and not just analyse.
PorterDuff 7y ago
I'm afraid I wouldn't believe you. With rare exceptions, management wants to hear 'no problem' and that 'everything is fine'. The next thing to do is a PowerPoint chart for the 2nd level managers showing names and stress levels over time with trends.
- jschwartzi 7y ago
  This seems appropriate when talking about optimizing stress levels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZTvMYQSl_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZTvMYQSl_w
- rmetzler 7y ago
  Companies loose more when people run into burnout and become sick or leave the company. If the company doesn’t care about your wellbeing, leave. Also you should leave when there is more middle management then people who do real work.
- Pfhreak 7y ago
  > With rare exceptions, management wants to hear 'no problem' and that 'everything is fine'. This makes me so sad. As a manager (formerly an engineer), I want to hear about problems as soon as possible! I can help! It's my job to clear roadblocks, to help find interesting projects, to keep the team working well together for the long term. It doesn't do me, the engineer, the project, or the team any good to hide problems. Such a bummer when managers push for short term results over the long term health of the team.
  - PorterDuff 7y ago
    I should be more clear. When I say 'management', I'm really referring to 2nd level managers and up. From my experience, line managers are either the member of the technical staff who tells the lords and masters that everything is fine (and are mostly fighting fires or pushing a chunk of hardware through a pipeline) or they have three ring binders full of yearly company-supplied HR stuff. In neither case is there enough power to really 'run' things. Heaven help you if there's a completely separate creature known as the 'project manager'. OTOH, directors/VPs (and other intermediate levels in larger firms) are not only the people that senior technical staff will run to for various reasons, but also are the folks who love to hear 'no problem' and that 'everything is fine'. Bringing them things to worry about is best done cautiously. In the final analysis, the worker bees are ERUs. YMMV (very much so) of course. I can speak only for about a dozen companies. The world is a big place.
asdkhadsj 7y ago
That question (and all variations of it) give me stress just thinking about answering lol. I immediately begin to micro-analyze what the likely outcome would be for each scenario. Does these get recorded, and reflected upon to judge my ability? Will it spread? What will the 1on1 manager think of me? If I answer 4-5 am I not capable? If I answer 1-2, are they going to think I'm more capable than I am, and overwork me? etc etc. Probably not a fault of the question / approach.. just how I operate. Every move in life is a chess move.. and it's stressful. You'd think I'd be further along in life with that attitude. Yet, it's a fairly recent (~10years) adjustment.
- carapace 7y ago
  I Am Declaring War on STRESS! Denholm The IT Crowd | Series 1 Episode 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZTvMYQSl_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZTvMYQSl_w
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
  We had someone answer 5 because they had just had a family member die... I asked him if he wanted to apply for bereavement leave.. he declined because he wanted to immerse himself in work. I kept up with him until he felt at around a 3 and then I asked him to take bereavement then... he kept sending me pictures of his WoW Classic character doing quests during his vacation... love that guy.
doingmyting 7y ago
"They were fired for other unrelated reasons, I assure you, but definitely not for answering 4 or 5" :) If it's prefaced by this I would be even more scared. It's like a parent telling you "I won't get mad or punish you if you tell me the truth". Spoiler -- they always get mad.
logfromblammo 7y ago
"...because they all understood intuitively that they would be fired if they ever did. Also, past performance is not indicative of future results." So it would be zero effective. Employees cannot trust their employer to act ethically, at any level of management, ever. Full stop. Every measurement that could be used to influence management will be gamed. The employee can't know whether their manager is asking out of genuine concern, or due to a top-down directive to identify stressed workers, probably so they can be fired first. If you want to know if the employees are stressed or unhappy, ask via an anonymizing third-party, such as their union rep.

Good point. One way I could try to pre empt this is to say: "nobody was ever fired for answering 4 or 5 to this question" But I'm not sure how effective that would be.

hrktb 7y ago

Another angle is to declare from the start wanting improve the situation whatever their stress level is, and ask what your efforts should be directed at. If they don't have much to complain about it will be low priority items, if they're in a 4-5 situation it will be a longer discussion. At least they might be more open to explain heavy stuff if they know you're there to solve them and not just analyse.

PorterDuff 7y ago

I'm afraid I wouldn't believe you. With rare exceptions, management wants to hear 'no problem' and that 'everything is fine'. The next thing to do is a PowerPoint chart for the 2nd level managers showing names and stress levels over time with trends.

jschwartzi 7y ago
This seems appropriate when talking about optimizing stress levels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZTvMYQSl_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZTvMYQSl_w
rmetzler 7y ago
Companies loose more when people run into burnout and become sick or leave the company. If the company doesn’t care about your wellbeing, leave. Also you should leave when there is more middle management then people who do real work.
Pfhreak 7y ago
> With rare exceptions, management wants to hear 'no problem' and that 'everything is fine'. This makes me so sad. As a manager (formerly an engineer), I want to hear about problems as soon as possible! I can help! It's my job to clear roadblocks, to help find interesting projects, to keep the team working well together for the long term. It doesn't do me, the engineer, the project, or the team any good to hide problems. Such a bummer when managers push for short term results over the long term health of the team.
- PorterDuff 7y ago
  I should be more clear. When I say 'management', I'm really referring to 2nd level managers and up. From my experience, line managers are either the member of the technical staff who tells the lords and masters that everything is fine (and are mostly fighting fires or pushing a chunk of hardware through a pipeline) or they have three ring binders full of yearly company-supplied HR stuff. In neither case is there enough power to really 'run' things. Heaven help you if there's a completely separate creature known as the 'project manager'. OTOH, directors/VPs (and other intermediate levels in larger firms) are not only the people that senior technical staff will run to for various reasons, but also are the folks who love to hear 'no problem' and that 'everything is fine'. Bringing them things to worry about is best done cautiously. In the final analysis, the worker bees are ERUs. YMMV (very much so) of course. I can speak only for about a dozen companies. The world is a big place.

asdkhadsj 7y ago

That question (and all variations of it) give me stress just thinking about answering lol. I immediately begin to micro-analyze what the likely outcome would be for each scenario. Does these get recorded, and reflected upon to judge my ability? Will it spread? What will the 1on1 manager think of me? If I answer 4-5 am I not capable? If I answer 1-2, are they going to think I'm more capable than I am, and overwork me? etc etc. Probably not a fault of the question / approach.. just how I operate. Every move in life is a chess move.. and it's stressful. You'd think I'd be further along in life with that attitude. Yet, it's a fairly recent (~10years) adjustment.

carapace 7y ago
I Am Declaring War on STRESS! Denholm The IT Crowd | Series 1 Episode 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZTvMYQSl_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZTvMYQSl_w
WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
We had someone answer 5 because they had just had a family member die... I asked him if he wanted to apply for bereavement leave.. he declined because he wanted to immerse himself in work. I kept up with him until he felt at around a 3 and then I asked him to take bereavement then... he kept sending me pictures of his WoW Classic character doing quests during his vacation... love that guy.

doingmyting 7y ago

"They were fired for other unrelated reasons, I assure you, but definitely not for answering 4 or 5" :) If it's prefaced by this I would be even more scared. It's like a parent telling you "I won't get mad or punish you if you tell me the truth". Spoiler -- they always get mad.

logfromblammo 7y ago

"...because they all understood intuitively that they would be fired if they ever did. Also, past performance is not indicative of future results." So it would be zero effective. Employees cannot trust their employer to act ethically, at any level of management, ever. Full stop. Every measurement that could be used to influence management will be gamed. The employee can't know whether their manager is asking out of genuine concern, or due to a top-down directive to identify stressed workers, probably so they can be fired first. If you want to know if the employees are stressed or unhappy, ask via an anonymizing third-party, such as their union rep.