I think we all find it pretty shocking. Personally, I don't understand it, and I mean not at all. If you don't do what your boss tells you to do, you will be gone and fast.
My five most egregious examples come from three different generations. One baby boomer, two Gen X, two Millenials. Laid off the baby boomer because I told him to stop writing custom code, and stick with our standards. He kept writing the custom code thinking it would protect him from being furloughed. Surprise! Took down his code, replaced it with standards. Not difficult. He's still shocked.
Second was Gen Xer (senior role) agreed to perform an event assignment within her job description to my face, then told my direct report she refused to do the job, though she told me 24 hours earlier she would do it. Here's the type of worker she is: when we furloughed our workers, we agreed to pay their benefits in full in exchange for the furloughed individual to spend 1-3 hours transitioning duties to other people. Of my eight, this is the only one who said "Screw You" and went to the beach instead. What do you think the odds are that I'll hire her back?
Third was Gen Xer. Very difficult to work with, made life difficult for others. She ran events. I asked her to take one additional step that would take about two hours extra per week. She flat out refused. And during our busiest event week, she was a no-show for personal reasons. She was responsible for scheduling events, and scheduled two events at the same time that required the same people to attend -- and she claimed it wasn't her fault. Adios.
The two Millenials are interesting. One of them runs our expertise/experience management database. We have a diversity goal that requires us to perform to very specific measures, and it's difficult to calculate those measures based upon the requirements set forth by the sponsoring agency. This was an assessment of 12 months' worth of data. There is a simple, yet incorrect way to calculate the data and I warned her at the outset that wouldn't be sufficient and to calculate the data using my approved method. With two weeks until the data was due, I checked to see if she was calculating the diversity metrics properly, and basically, she either lied to her boss or pretended that she didn't understand the assignment. In short, she was conveying "no" to both me and her boss, that she didn't and wouldn't perform the task to my easily-understood specs, so she could save about 85% of the hours required to complete the task. So I gathered about 60% of our team, gave each of them the instructions, parted out the task in equal components and assigned my most micro-managing director to make sure it got completed. In four days, 90% of it was complete. And the Millenial was furious -- at me. I embarrassed her, you see.
Otherwise, she's a performer. this was a hiccup for her, but I'll pay close attention to see if she has this, or other shortcomings. She's going out on maternity leave. I don't have much say as to whether she can return. On the whole, I like her, but this incident threw me.
As to the other Millenial, she's a low-ceiling coordinator who has been agitating for a managerial role, better pay and a higher bonus since the day I arrived a year ago. I've found that over the last six weeks, she's been saying no to about 1/2 dozen assignments that belong to her (if she wants to be a manager). She took medical leave ten days ago as her peers increasingly clamored for her to do her #$%& job, and she will be out for five more days.
My five most egregious examples come from three different generations. One baby boomer, two Gen X, two Millenials. Laid off the baby boomer because I told him to stop writing custom code, and stick with our standards. He kept writing the custom code thinking it would protect him from being furloughed. Surprise! Took down his code, replaced it with standards. Not difficult. He's still shocked.
Second was Gen Xer (senior role) agreed to perform an event assignment within her job description to my face, then told my direct report she refused to do the job, though she told me 24 hours earlier she would do it. Here's the type of worker she is: when we furloughed our workers, we agreed to pay their benefits in full in exchange for the furloughed individual to spend 1-3 hours transitioning duties to other people. Of my eight, this is the only one who said "Screw You" and went to the beach instead. What do you think the odds are that I'll hire her back?
Third was Gen Xer. Very difficult to work with, made life difficult for others. She ran events. I asked her to take one additional step that would take about two hours extra per week. She flat out refused. And during our busiest event week, she was a no-show for personal reasons. She was responsible for scheduling events, and scheduled two events at the same time that required the same people to attend -- and she claimed it wasn't her fault. Adios.
The two Millenials are interesting. One of them runs our expertise/experience management database. We have a diversity goal that requires us to perform to very specific measures, and it's difficult to calculate those measures based upon the requirements set forth by the sponsoring agency. This was an assessment of 12 months' worth of data. There is a simple, yet incorrect way to calculate the data and I warned her at the outset that wouldn't be sufficient and to calculate the data using my approved method. With two weeks until the data was due, I checked to see if she was calculating the diversity metrics properly, and basically, she either lied to her boss or pretended that she didn't understand the assignment. In short, she was conveying "no" to both me and her boss, that she didn't and wouldn't perform the task to my easily-understood specs, so she could save about 85% of the hours required to complete the task. So I gathered about 60% of our team, gave each of them the instructions, parted out the task in equal components and assigned my most micro-managing director to make sure it got completed. In four days, 90% of it was complete. And the Millenial was furious -- at me. I embarrassed her, you see.
Otherwise, she's a performer. this was a hiccup for her, but I'll pay close attention to see if she has this, or other shortcomings. She's going out on maternity leave. I don't have much say as to whether she can return. On the whole, I like her, but this incident threw me.
As to the other Millenial, she's a low-ceiling coordinator who has been agitating for a managerial role, better pay and a higher bonus since the day I arrived a year ago. I've found that over the last six weeks, she's been saying no to about 1/2 dozen assignments that belong to her (if she wants to be a manager). She took medical leave ten days ago as her peers increasingly clamored for her to do her #$%& job, and she will be out for five more days.
Audaces fortuna iuvat