HOW TO RESPOND TO THE DISCUSSION BELOW AS A PEER

Concerning 'analyzing the problem', I also think a mistake some managers make is not truly understanding what the problem is. Some managers treat the symptom, but not the problem itself (the cause). WHY is something happening, or not happening, like it should? If you think about it you can probably think of your own examples, but I'll share one that comes to mind right now. One place I worked years ago started using time clocks for all employees to track arrival and departure times, including lunch periods and breaks. It wasn't actually a time clock, but a requirement to go into your computer to a new HR software program and log in and out whenever you came or went. While it annoyed many employees because it was something they didn't have to do before, it wasn't a big problem because they were already sitting at their desk. They could quickly log in each morning and it was the last thing they did before they went home at night, plus logging in & out whenever they went to lunch or took a break. However, there started to be some issues involving the grounds crew and custodial staff. On the surface it appeared they were suddenly taking longer lunch periods. At first, management thought they might just be rebelling because of the new policy requiring them to log in & out. It was strange though because they were good workers and everyone was surprised that they would react defiantly over this new requirement. After further research and discussing the issue with the employees, they discovered the problem wasn't with the employees at all, it was with the location of their computers. Unlike other employees who had computers on their desks, just inches away, the ground crew and custodial staff were all over the place doing their jobs, and had to walk all the way back to their offices or shops just to log in and out so they could go to lunch. Instead of being off the job for their 1-hour lunch break, they might actually be gone 1.5 hours. The extra half-hour was because they had a 15 minute walk, each way, from their work site to their computers. They weren't really taking longer lunch breaks, but it appeared they were. Management decided to put a kiosk in the cafeteria so they could log in & out there, and not require them to walk to their office or shop so they could access their computer. So, instead of management having to address a morale problem, they simply had to install a computer in the cafeteria. The "symptom" was the appearance of taking extra long lunch breaks, but the real "problem" was accessing their computers. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give an example.