Nationwide, employers assign middle managers a major share of the responsibility for implementing corporate policies on work/life balance.
And that’s an enormous task.
“Employees want to feel … good about themselves, their lives, their careers and their futures,” according to Thomas H. Sawyer, author of “Employee Services Management: A Key Component of Human Resource Management” (Sagamore, $50). “They want more out of their lives than just to work all the time.”
Sawyer, who has a doctorate in educational administration and is a professor in the department of recreation and sport management at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, wrote his book for the Employee Services Management Association Foundation in Oak Brook. He wants to help guide managers in implementing programs that address work/life issues.
And a quick way to do so is for managers to understand employees’ needs and the benefits of work/life programs.
“The caring employer will … concentrate on quality of work/life … [will] build fun and variety into the work experience and create an environment that invites people to come to work,” says the professor, also coordinator of the university’s graduate sport management programs.
These are wonderful goals that every employer should try to attain. But the fact that it’s up to middle managers to make sure they’re achieved worries me a bit.
You remember middle managers–the ones who most strenuously resist work/life programs, who heavily rely on employee face time (being there in person at all times) and who rarely have the training needed to be flexible in their management techniques?
But it seems as if my concern may be unfounded.
According to one management expert, middle managers have gotten a bad rap: They might even be sensitive human beings who simply are misunderstood–including by their own bosses.
“Since senior executives `know’ middle managers resist change, they only pretend to listen to them,” according to Quy Nguyen Huy, assistant professor of strategy and management at Insead,an international business school in Fontainebleau, France. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, he points out the consequences of such an attitude:
“Middle managers, in turn, learn that they won’t be listened to,” says Huy, who recently completed a six-year study of 200 senior and middle managers. His report has an unexpected title: “In Praise of Middle Managers.”
Among the “underestimated” strengths of managers, according to the study, are their entrepreneurial, communications and psychological skills. And they’re also experts at “paying attention not only to employee morale but also to the balance between change and continuity.”
I’m willing to concede that middle managers probably are capable people who don’t get the respect they deserve. I also understand that middle managers, like everyone else, often are overburdened and stressed out, and during volatile economic times may not see the immediate need for implementing or being responsive to work/life policies that top executives in their companies have introduced.
And that’s why I want to assist these misunderstood folks to be successful in helping employees find balance in their lives. Here are some training programs I’ve devised that should be required for all middle managers:
– How I get through the day: An intense study of a day in the life of a working parent with three children under the age of 10, a sick parent and one dog.
– What flexible hours will do for you: Introduction to the use of flexibility to help retain essential employees, including middle managers.
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– Breaking the face-time habit: Rehabilitation sessions to help managers overcome their addiction to traditional work hours and work locations, with careful weaning from present methods.
And without the use of methadone.
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Carol Kleiman’s column also appears in Wednesday’s Working section and Sunday’s Business section. Watch her Career Coach segments on CLTV. E-mail [email protected].