It's Lunch Time! For Half the Team?

December 2, 2008 8:38 PM

How do you deal with a boss that brushes you off when you offer a better solution to a problem when their solution has rather large and obvious holes in it?

We've gotten a new team leader as of late who's quite young and inexperienced in the workforce in general. As a result of the front-line staff goofballs screwing up lunch times he's decided to implement a lunch schedule.

The only problem is that we're a small call centre department with only a few people and if the first person runs late it means we possibly have half of our team out of the call queue on their lunch break. I noticed this pretty much immediately and devised an alternative table which would result in a maximum of 2 people ever being out on lunch which has no difference in the amount of time people are out on lunch in total.

Me: Here you go. How about this?
Him: It'd be unfair on our new team member and this has a maximum of 3 front line staff in the queue.
Me: Ok then switch him to an earlier lunch and this experienced person to a later lunch? And that schedule can have the potential of only one front-line staff member in the queue.
Him: It wouldn't kill you, [other experienced staff member] and the mail shift [who doesn't answer calls until they've been waiting 45 seconds] to take some calls.
Me: Yes and we don't mind taking calls but if you're relying on our mail shift to answer calls as a last resort you're damaging the percentage of calls answered in 15 seconds stat.
Him: Well then the first person won't be late for lunch.

Now I've spoken to the supervisor who has basically told me "He's new and under a lot of pressure. Don't make his life difficult" and I agree to some extent. But I just can't shake that it's extremely inefficient, customer service will suffer and that he's just shooting himself in the foot when it comes time to justify why the stats look so crappy from 12-1.

Is there any way that I can get it through to him without rocking the boat?

posted by Talez to work & money (11 comments total)

Based on your story, it sounds to me like there's nothing you can do. While I was reading your dialogue, I imagined that while you were explaining your perfectly sensible objections, he was thinking Ok! It's go time! First Boss Challenge! Gotta maintain authority! Your supervisor's comment (essentially, "he's wrong, but leave him alone") makes me wonder whether the team leader didn't actually share the experience with the supervisor before you did. I'd say listen to the supervisor... your team leader is new and under a lot of pressure. Don't make his life difficult.
posted by moxiedoll at 8:55 PM on December 2, 2008

Yeah I kinda figured but I'm a primarily a problem fixer in the team and I'm not really adept at dealing with other people. I just thought some others might have some insight in how to ease into these things and make someone see the light.
posted by Talez at 9:08 PM on December 2, 2008

The subtle way to approach this is to listen to his objections, and sort of tacitly agree with them: "Oh, I see what you mean." Then you wait for a point where the deficiency becomes clear, particuarly to his boss -- and re-present your plan, except now instead of "My way is better" you take the approach "Here's how you can CYA".
posted by dhartung at 9:21 PM on December 2, 2008

People don't want to be saved when they believe their plan is going to work, and you're just being a perfectionist or a pessimist. You're going to have to let him try it. Graciously save him with suggestions once the plan starts going south. Make him look good by helping the plan to work, rather than embarassing him for being a n00b.

If you do that often enough, without being an "I told you so" prick, he'll start saying to himself "hey, I should have just asked Talez in the first place." Sometime after that, he'll start asking you for advice and listening when you give it. Sometimes even before the damage is already done.

Basically it amounts to, good leaders know to maximize the use of the experience and talent on the team and not bother trying to personally invent every wheel. You have a shiny new supervisor. He's not a good one yet. You can train him, over time. Not all in the first day.
posted by ctmf at 9:27 PM on December 2, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Now I've spoken to the supervisor....

Okay that seems a bit extreme for such a minor issue. Lunch times? Really?

Even if you're 100% right (and it sounds likely), so what. He'll need to make mistakes, too, after all, and all you're doing now is drawing a line from which he might (falsely?) conclude you're a problem rather than a valuable helper he could lean on.

Be helpful, but don't be pushy. He's the leader.
posted by rokusan at 9:59 PM on December 2, 2008

You've said your piece, you've given your reasons, and he's turned you down. The way the rest of this drama goes is: he implements his plan, it fails exactly the way you've predicted it will fail, his boss notices the stats are worse and tasks him with fixing that, he does so by implementing your plan without crediting you, and gets a pat on the back from his boss for being such a rapid problem solver. Customer service is of course no better than it was before he messed with it, but he looks good.

At that point, everybody has what they want except you, because your good idea just got stolen with no credit to you. You have a couple of options at that point. Which one you deploy depends on whether this guy is actually growing into the job and becoming a valuable part of the team or is merely a stock standard ladder climbing corporate parasite.

Option A - the "keep the boss" option - is to keep feeding him good ideas and letting him take the credit for them. Although he knows you're useful, nobody above him will know that; from where they sit, he looks useful. If he's a good boss, he will organize for you to quietly get stuff you want as long as you keep paying the ideas tax.

If you pick option A, you also need to document every occasion where you present a solution to the boss. Nobody needs to see that document but you. It's your insurance against his losing interest in supervising your team and using your efforts to further his own advancement.

Option B - the "stuff you, boss" option - is to get palsy with his supervisor, and get good at working the obvious solutions to your boss's screwups into casual conversation. Filter your ideas carefully for this. You only want to use the no-brainer, guaranteed-to-work subset. Also, if you go over your boss's head, you need to observe the proper rituals to allow all concerned to pretend that you're not just trying to knife your boss. Most of this is sticking with appropriate forms of language - "I don't get why we don't just do X" instead of "I don't get why he doesn't just do X". You also need leave the screwups running for long enough that you're confident that the higher-up will have noticed them before you start talking alternatives.

Both these options clearly suck donkey balls. What you really need to do is find a proper job instead of staying bogged down in the standard call centre drama. Life is too short for jobs with scheduled lunch breaks.
posted by flabdablet at 11:01 PM on December 2, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Heh. The team leader and supervisor sit next to each other cause it's a small and close team. Speaking to the supervisor came up in casual conversation. He's only a kid but the only one competent to apply for the job after the old leader left.

But I like the idea of looking for different work. I've been in the same job over 4 years and I am pretty bored.
posted by Talez at 1:56 AM on December 3, 2008

The team leader is the kid not the supervisor btw.
posted by Talez at 2:20 AM on December 3, 2008

You can always add this at the end of your ideas: "What do you think?" Sometimes, that makes it seem like a collaboration instead of advice.
posted by belau at 4:50 AM on December 3, 2008

If you want things to work out with this guy, maybe try to bring him onside. Sit with him, and say "I know you are new and under a lot of pressure, must be tough being in your position..." etc etc etc until he feels like you have his best interest at heart, and just float the idea as a possibility. I usually say things like "maybe this would be a better idea, but you'd be a better judge than me, what do you think?"

Otherwise it sounds like you're telling the boss what to do, and they never like that very much.
posted by Admira at 12:47 PM on December 3, 2008

I would say that whoever is assigned to do the schedule should be in charge of figuring out lunches, and if there isn't such a person, someone should be given the job. I am a scheduler at a public library and I know that lunches can be a big honkin' issue when you serve the public. Even our smallest branches have a scheduler, who is never the boss because they don't have time, but the boss backs up their decisions. If you suggest that someone be assigned as scheduler, it sounds positive rather than negative ("You're wrong!"), but be careful if you don't want to do it, as you might get the job. But you say you like to solve problems, so you might enjoy it.
posted by ash966 at 3:10 PM on December 4, 2008