Moderate Punishments
During my time in RSO’s and internships, I have noticed that positive reinforcement tends to make people more motivated and productive than negative reinforcement-such as a punishment. I believe that moderate punishments can help an employee stop a certain behavior; however, I do not think that moderate punishments motivate people to reach their full potential and highest level of productivity.
During my summer internship at First Midwest Bank, there was a summer intern that was not focused enough on dedicating enough time to the internship program. This intern had additional jobs outside of the program, which caused him to show up late, leave early, or work on unrelated tasks at the office. While working on a group project with him, I heard his manager yell at him as a form of discipline. I only witnessed it once, but I know this happened multiple times. I think this intern was somewhat fearful of the yelling, but not enough to change his actions. It seemed like he continued to behave the same way, but he would try to hide it from his manager. This reaction is very different than most of the summer interns would have behaved; however, most of the interns were concerned about their reputation at the bank because they were dependent on it. Whether it was to receive a full time offer or maintain a good network of connections, the interns had a reason to be fearful of consequences for poor performance. This was a very different scenario for the intern being disciplined due to various reasons. This summer internship was not one of his priorities because he was an international student that had a full-time job set up for him in his hometown. This intern wanted the job just to try something new in a different country, but he was not reliant on the program by any means. Although this description paints the intern to be the “bad guy”, he did not perform poorly enough to be fired because he still was completing his assigned tasks. In addition, he was not going to be at the company for longer than ten weeks, and the short duration of the program did not allow enough time for a new hire to replace him. If I was the manager in this situation, I think I would have tried to build a stronger relationship with this intern, rather than yelling at him. This would have given the intern an incentive to fix his actions because he may not have disrespected a relationship that he cared about.
I recently read a post on LinkedIn that went viral, and it was about fixing issues within the workplace. The post was written by a manager that was experiencing difficulty in changing an employee’s performance. According to the post, this employee was constantly showing up late and not completing their tasks. After the employee spoke to several managers over a period of time, the discipline did not seem to make a change in this employees behavior. In fact, the threat of being fired just caused the employee to become more introverted and worsen their behavior. Before firing this candidate, the manager decided to take one last approach to the situation. He stated that after looking back at the incident, no one seemed to truly care and ask about what was going on in this employee’s life. That day the employee opened up about several hardships that they were facing at the time, and the manager helped the employee seek a solution for their emotional distresses. The employee started different programs and therapy and returned to work after a month. The manager said in his post that this employee came back as a completely different person with a much stronger work ethic. I think this example shows that being empathetic and finding out the root of a problem can sometimes help the outcome of a situation more than being disciplinary. This situation shows that the manager focused on building an interpersonal relationship to change the behavior and productivity of an employee.
During my summer internship at First Midwest Bank, there was a summer intern that was not focused enough on dedicating enough time to the internship program. This intern had additional jobs outside of the program, which caused him to show up late, leave early, or work on unrelated tasks at the office. While working on a group project with him, I heard his manager yell at him as a form of discipline. I only witnessed it once, but I know this happened multiple times. I think this intern was somewhat fearful of the yelling, but not enough to change his actions. It seemed like he continued to behave the same way, but he would try to hide it from his manager. This reaction is very different than most of the summer interns would have behaved; however, most of the interns were concerned about their reputation at the bank because they were dependent on it. Whether it was to receive a full time offer or maintain a good network of connections, the interns had a reason to be fearful of consequences for poor performance. This was a very different scenario for the intern being disciplined due to various reasons. This summer internship was not one of his priorities because he was an international student that had a full-time job set up for him in his hometown. This intern wanted the job just to try something new in a different country, but he was not reliant on the program by any means. Although this description paints the intern to be the “bad guy”, he did not perform poorly enough to be fired because he still was completing his assigned tasks. In addition, he was not going to be at the company for longer than ten weeks, and the short duration of the program did not allow enough time for a new hire to replace him. If I was the manager in this situation, I think I would have tried to build a stronger relationship with this intern, rather than yelling at him. This would have given the intern an incentive to fix his actions because he may not have disrespected a relationship that he cared about.
I recently read a post on LinkedIn that went viral, and it was about fixing issues within the workplace. The post was written by a manager that was experiencing difficulty in changing an employee’s performance. According to the post, this employee was constantly showing up late and not completing their tasks. After the employee spoke to several managers over a period of time, the discipline did not seem to make a change in this employees behavior. In fact, the threat of being fired just caused the employee to become more introverted and worsen their behavior. Before firing this candidate, the manager decided to take one last approach to the situation. He stated that after looking back at the incident, no one seemed to truly care and ask about what was going on in this employee’s life. That day the employee opened up about several hardships that they were facing at the time, and the manager helped the employee seek a solution for their emotional distresses. The employee started different programs and therapy and returned to work after a month. The manager said in his post that this employee came back as a completely different person with a much stronger work ethic. I think this example shows that being empathetic and finding out the root of a problem can sometimes help the outcome of a situation more than being disciplinary. This situation shows that the manager focused on building an interpersonal relationship to change the behavior and productivity of an employee.
Two things you might ask here. First, do managers react to employees in a calm and thoughtful manner, where if punishment did occur then it would be part of an overall plan to raise the worker's productivity and improve the worker's attitude on the job, or does the manager react more immediately, out of anger and frustration, so the punishment becomes part of venting? It would be good, in theory, for the answer to always be the former situation. But I'm afraid that far too often it is the latter. And part of that is the managers aren't trained to produce that solution. But another part may be the manager is experiencing frustration elsewhere, possibly in a situation where the manager can't express that. So the manager takes it out on the employee.
ReplyDeleteThe other question is might it be better to have the employee sever, than to try to rehabilitate the employee into a productive worker. In the story you told, the employee was experiencing issues outside of work. That certainly happens on occasion. What should happen, however, if the employee is experiencing issues in the workplace, perhaps with a different employee who is deemed productive? I think that case is harder to work through.