I have a problem I need to air and could use your feedback on this one. It's more of a difference of philosophies, but it's affecting me.I'm in a director role. I have seven managers that report to me. I inherited all but one of them, so I am doing my best to work with them and collaborate whenever we can. Two of these managers tend to have guilt complexes (of sorts). Their employees (numbering from 2-16) are front-line staff who keep the clinical areas going. Most of them perform well and do their jobs day-after-day without much change in their routines. However, these front-line staff sometimes have family situations that are problematic. It might be a socio-economic difference, a divorce, or kids going off to school. Whatever the case, some of the front-line staff are not the best stewards of the money they earn at work and tend to look to the hospital to bridge the shortfall.
In short, they don't prioritize their earnings well, live beyond their means, and then blame management for not paying them enough.
I understand this situation, really. However, I feel like I'm in a Catch 22 situation when the managers come to me and say, "Patty is a reliable employee. She's here consistently and does a good job. But she's having a hard time at home right now, can we please pay her more?" No, we cannot.
While I am sympathetic toward these employees' hard home lives, I am not responsible for how they choose to spend their money. I pay them a fair wage and our Human Resources department annual evaluates everyone's wage to make sure they are consistent with the rest of Chicago. I do my absolute best to be fair and consistent in my managerial approach, and to boot, I am still under the administrative hammer of cost control. I cannot just extend raises to employees because they feel they need more take-home pay. And I do not think it is fair to others. For example, what about employee "Tony" who manages his money really well and chose to forego the huge plasma television set that Patty has?
I guess it stems from needing to work with the managers more often so they understand the context. They all know our financial landscape and we repeatedly communicate that our wages are at median for the rest of Chicago….but with these two managers, it is not sticking. They keep raising this concern to me with hopes that I will change my mind. I'm not going to waiver, but I'm not sure how to get these managers to grasp the concept that we're paying our employees equivalently and it is not up to us to save them from their personal financial crises?
Thoughts…?
I guess, in my non-professional opinion, I would say you're doing all that you can do. Keep it black and white and not varying shades of grey.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, $75,000 (or whatever) to one family is not the same to the next family. Meaning, it may not be that Patty is mismanaging her money by purchasing plasma tv's but there may be medical history or other things lingering there. Having said that, Patty will have to learn to manage her $75,000 the same as Tony. It really isn't your job (or the hospital's) to get Patty out of debt or to keep her out of debt.
Keep it black and white (or out of the red)
:)
The best thing I can think of would be for the hospital to have someone come in to present Veritas or Financial Peace (the 2 major financial planning programs- Veritas being a Catholic one and Financial Peace being Christian). Usually classes are done at churches. I'm sure if you looked at the websites you could find someone to offer the classes. Then, you could tell sympathetic managers that their employees MUST take the financial management class AND have something signed from the instructor (after the course) that says they don't make a living wage before you will meet with them about unscheduled raises. My guess is this strategy will A- help your employees throughout the hospital and B- stop any/all requests for unscheduled raises.
ReplyDeleteYou could also send out a memo to all managers stating that raise reviews will be as scheduled and if an employee is in dire financial need, I presume your hospital has emergency funds and employees should be guided in that direction. No one should get or deserves a raise just b/c they can't money manage and insist on keeping up with the Joneses.
I have a rental duplex, an 18 year-old jeep cherokee (that I LOVE, I might add), used furniture, and am quite content. Sure, it'd be nice to be able to more easily afford nicer stuff, but that's not where we are financially and I accept that.
GOOD LUCK, BABE!!