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Perhaps better phrasing would be "No unnecessary drama" If civil war breaks out - just say "my family is in danger and I need help" Counter intuitively it can

Perhaps better phrasing would be "No unnecessary drama" If civil war breaks out - just say "my family is in danger and I need help" Counter intuitively it can really help in sticky situations: I'm white and one of my employees is black. He didn't get a raise. Instead of getting mad at me because he didn't get a raise, he put in our issue tracker - "Employees don't know how to calculate their pay range" We now have an open skill system and and open salary system. We all know why each of us is paid our various rares and all of us know how to get to the next level. We're also allowed to make mistakes - because there's not much drama, when some real drama comes up, we can deal with it. One of my employees has nervous breakdowns now and then - not a problem because she's not having a breakdown while someone is kicking the copier and some else is playing CNN doom-news on their computer. I can help her because I'm not already tapped out.

soganess 6y ago
Wow. I really like that ticketing system resolution. I'm going to keep that in my back pocket. Seems like it would really help having a formal and public (to the office) way of handling sticky situations. I can tell you see the policy as a net positive. Have you noticed other employees didn't like policy as much? What were their grievances with it?
- benjohnson 6y ago
  You have very thoughtful questions: Nobody has complained - though if they used the issue tracker, we all would find it meta-amusing. In my opinion, the issue system needs to be used all the time for everything - so that nobody feels that thyr're the only squeaky wheel. It does require trust however. We have been known to punt an issue to let us all collect our thoughts. I know the system keeps me from micro-managing, keeps one of my guys from just complaining (we ask for a potential solution), and keeps another employee from feeling un-empowered. The only bad second-order effect I've seen is sometimes people wait to fix simple problems - they tend to it in the system instead of just fixing it. But... Usually I'm wrong, the issue usually is deeper upon reflection.

soganess 6y ago

Wow. I really like that ticketing system resolution. I'm going to keep that in my back pocket. Seems like it would really help having a formal and public (to the office) way of handling sticky situations. I can tell you see the policy as a net positive. Have you noticed other employees didn't like policy as much? What were their grievances with it?

benjohnson 6y ago
You have very thoughtful questions: Nobody has complained - though if they used the issue tracker, we all would find it meta-amusing. In my opinion, the issue system needs to be used all the time for everything - so that nobody feels that thyr're the only squeaky wheel. It does require trust however. We have been known to punt an issue to let us all collect our thoughts. I know the system keeps me from micro-managing, keeps one of my guys from just complaining (we ask for a potential solution), and keeps another employee from feeling un-empowered. The only bad second-order effect I've seen is sometimes people wait to fix simple problems - they tend to it in the system instead of just fixing it. But... Usually I'm wrong, the issue usually is deeper upon reflection.