When I was
a junior in high school I had two different jobs at the same time. I used to
work part time as a lifeguard at Lifetime Fitness and I used to be a sales
person at Abercrombie and Fitch. Over the time that I worked at the two places
I got to experience different types of managers along with different types of
organizational structures.
To start off I believe that my most efficient and successful team that I have been part of was at Lifetime. We had a general manager, a manager and an assistant manager. The general manager was as involved as the latter but she would do surprise visits at the pool to check if everything was in order and if the pool deck along with the windows were cleaned off good. The manager was in charge of the whole team of lifeguard most of the time and she would create schedules for each person when to clean, for how long and where needs cleaning. The schedules would usually rotate everyone off every 15 minutes, so I would clean for 15 minutes the pool area and when my shift was up someone else would come and clean the pool floors while I went back to lifeguarding. If the manager wasn’t there, then the assistant manager was in charge of everyone and setting up these schedules for everyone to follow. At the end of the month if we proved that the surprised inspection along with compliments from the members were positive then the general manger would gift each of us a gift card with usually $50 each. This was a great incentive for each of us to actually care about the work that we do and to maintain the pool and the pool deck clean at all times and up to the standards of the company. Due to the strictness of the manager and to the incentives provided by the general manager throughout the year that I worked there, no month went by without us receiving the bonus and getting compliments. Also, the communication between each member was impeccable, the manager signed everyone up for a group messaging app so we could communicate with everyone clearly and if the manager had a message to send to all of us she could do it easily. I found that through this app it was really easy to find a substitute for a day that I couldn’t show up and have a written response that someone would show up for my shift, something that lacking from my other job. This constant communication made it easier for us to become closer as a team and closer to our supervisors which I found to be an integral part of how a successful team and business functions.
On the other
hand, at my other job with Abercrombie and Fitch the we had a similar organization
with a manager and an assistant manager but we just couldn’t function that well
as a team. The managers weren’t strict enough with us and we didn’t receive any
incentives for being good workers and for accomplishing our jobs well, so from
the get-go nobody gave it their one hundred percent. I remember on my training
day there, a more experience employee showed me how to fold the shirts and he
told me that we should actually fold it a certain way in order to be up to the
company’s standards but since the manager never cared at how they really looked
he said that as long as they look somewhat decent they are good to go. I found
that really weird in comparison to what I had to do at Lifetime Fitness, where
perfection was stressed on at all times. At A&F the communication between
different employees was also terrible, for example I asked one of my teammates
to cover up one of my shifts that I couldn’t make it to anymore, he said he
would only to find out later that day that my manager gave me a warning for not
showing up to work and for not having anyone to cover my shift. So I called the
person that was supposed to cover my shift for that day and his response was
that he didn’t realize that he was busy that day and he forgot to let me know
that I should find someone else.
All in all,
I found that the system who had a simple hierarchy where the workers reported
to one leader and that one leader would communicate with the big boss worked
the best. Through the simple hierarchy we were able to improve our teamwork and
to help the business to run smoother for everyone. When in comparison to my
other job where nobody had any respect for the boss and for the rules that were
imposed by the company Lifetime seemed much more professional and a better team
to be part of. None of the jobs I worked at had any dual authority because none
of them believed in splitting up teams, although I think that this model would
have worked very well for my job at Lifetime since the competition to earn the
$50 at the end of the month was a huge motivation for everyone. The Simple
Hierarchy was a perfect fit for me at one job while on the other one where it wasn’t
as enforced it really ruined the teamwork perspective of the job.
You are the first to give a comparison across two different environments. Let me ask whether either situation really involved team production. When you are actually doing the lifeguard work, does it matter what the others who worked at Lifetime Fitness actually do? Or is being a lifeguard and individual function only? For example, if there are two lifeguards on duty at the same time and they have somewhat different areas to cover but some overlap, the overlap is really a team production activity. Communication then between the lifeguards would also be a team activity. Was there any of that at these jobs?
ReplyDeleteThen there is the matter of doing the job conscientiously or not. As you mentioned, monitoring mattered as did some pay for performance. What about who had the jobs? Did you know any of the others who worked at either place ahead of time? If so, were some more prone to be productive than others?
Finally, the prompt asked you comment about the role of structure. Your experience suggests that structure is far less important than other factors in getting good performance. You might comment a bit on where structure did matter some and whether the structure was appropriate for the nature of the team work.
You talked about how you had three managers, which all had various impacts and importance levels. My basketball team had three coaches who also had different positions and impact levels. I think in a successful organization you need to have a hierarchal structure, and that it is one of the most important things to have. In your situation these people were people that you wanted to be one day, you could look up to them and I think that having those types of people there to guide you and be role models is extremely important.
ReplyDeleteI think that you describing two different scenarios, especially those with different effectiveness, was really interesting. I liked that you made the connection that where the teamwork was prevalent was also the area where you were provided incentives. I think this is something that is talked about a lot in recent years, and is often times a quality in which millennials are deemed with - thinking we deserve incentives for doing the job we are supposed to do as our job. I found it unique, however, that the situation where you had strict bosses was also the one where you got incentives, which actually benefitted you since you were almost always guaranteed an incentive just to make sure you were upholding the standards of your manager. I think that this style of leadership for managers and coach will continue to develop as out generations do.
ReplyDeleteTo professor Arvan: When I worked at Lifetime Fitness it was very important to always know what your fellow workers were doing and what they were up to at all times because if there was an emergency such as a kid drowning or somebody getting hurt everyone would have to come and help out, so by knowing where everyone is helped out a lot in case of emergency and it made us more productive. Also, by knowing who is in charge of watching a section of the pool was helpful although not always important since it was always expected that we al watch the whole pool and we all be aware of our surroundings at the same time. Most of the lifeguards at Lifetime were from my high school. Since my high school was so close to the workplace we would often walk there in groups after school and that helped us become better friends and better teammates. The structure was definitely very helpful when there was an emergency on the pool deck. For example when a little kid slipped on the floor and broke his arm our team had a good structure and a good teamwork so throughout the crisis everyone was aware of their surroundings and knew what to do, one person called 911 one person went to get the medic, 3 people were tending to the child and one person went to get the right equipment to tend to the situation.
ReplyDelete