The Boss Is Watching

I have a friend who just told me about a major change at her workplace. It seems that on Monday, the CEO was on the job and on Tuesday, the CEO was gone and the former CEO and now Chairman of the Board was the new CEO. Some people remembered him from his previous days as CEO and it was interesting from her comments that most people were not looking forward to his new tenure. To me, it sounded like he was from the old school that believed that “I have to see you actually doing something in order for me to be certain that you are working and earning your money.”

Comments to my friend who is relatively new to this organization (3 years) indicated that you have to look busy when he passes by or else he will say something. Other comments were:
If you take any type of paper to the bathroom, you aren’t working.
If you are on the internet, you are not working—even if you are looking up a “patch” for a current software program you are working on at work.
No gathering and chatting as this is a waste of time.

This new CEO is focusing on what he sees, so he is a very visual person and speaks to an “older” mindset where as technology has changed our work functions and being busy no longer equates to looking busy. We are in the information and data age and this is not generated by physical activity.

Watching people’s action can tell you a lot about a person and if you are taking a newspaper to the bathroom, one would probably guess that not much work related activities will take place. So the newspaper is taken in context and a judgment call is made by the new CEO. However, there is no context for watching someone work on a computer and judging that work is not taking place. And how can one judge what is being said in a group without being in the group and/or eavesdropping on the group.

Watching people’s actions or behaviors is different from watching a person’s gestures because gestures convey emotion, feelings and intentions. This new CEO is watching people’s actions without eavesdropping on their feelings. If he did, he would be a much better judge of a person’s intent and action.

I would say again that he is old school. He is making a judgment or evaluation rather than observing what is really going on which is more of a control issue rather than support issue. If a worker does not feel supported, what sort of performance approach will s/he have? If a patch is needed, you can’t buy it from a store—it comes from the internet. If working on the internet is frowned upon, what will motivate the employee to find a fix ASAP or simply let productivity decline due to his/her perception of what the new CEO wants.

A leader’s job is to move people from where they are now to where they need to be and it takes an emotional connection with workers. By having a preconceived notion of things that employees are doing wrong can only hinder the growth of this organization. Hopefully there is a full blown search going on for a new CEO more aligned with contemporary motivation theory.