Discipline and Punishment Severity
It may be true that “draconian”
punishments harden an individual. Those kinds of punishments, in most cases,
tend to make the individual more severe and less sympathetic afterwards. When I
think of these kinds of punishments, I immediately think of sports coaches. In
that context, they have the goal of strengthening individuals, more so mentally
than physically, and they (the coaches) gain from having the individuals (the
players) having less sympathy as it helps them reach their objective – winning
the game/contest/whatever they’re competing in. But in most contexts (work,
group activities, etc), especially if the main goal is to strengthen the
relationship and increase productivity, harsh punishments may not be the way to
go. I’m thinking that draconian punishments are more of a short-term band aid to
increase imminent production, but long-term it probably does more harm than
help in terms of strengthening relationships and building mutual productivity
and respect. I think that people need to find a moderate balance in terms of
punishment. Not too extreme, but stern enough to encourage better performance
without risking the relationship deteriorating. In addition to moderate
punishment, it’s on the leader/coach/employer or whoever is the one giving the punishment
to reinforce their principles and regularly check-in to see how the
relationship is progressing, and be willing to change their method if
unsuccessful. If the person isn’t responding to light/moderate punishment, then
more severe measures may be necessary
I can think
of one time in my work experience where there was an example of discipline, and
I personally think it could have been handled better. What makes things
interesting is that I was one of the people involved in the dispute. Back when
I was a lifeguard, there was another person on the staff who did not nearly
have the work ethic/desire that the majority of the group had, and it showed
with a lack of productivity on the job. She was lazy, didn’t really take the
job too seriously, and always went out of her way to do even some of the most simple
tasks. I always take pride in my work ethic, and to see her do the things she
did (for example: avoiding cleaning bathrooms, not putting pool equipment away,
and doing this all with a know-it-all attitude) didn’t sit well with me. One
night when we were closing down the pool, she neglected to do an item on our
mandatory closing checklist (I can’t necessarily recall exactly what it was)
and we got into a verbal altercation, because I was trying to get the job done
so we could go home for the night. The manager, our boss, wasn’t actually there
at the time, but he was informed of the situation the next day. Our manager
(Mike) was a very nice guy, and is not one to give out any serious punishments.
He talked to both of us separately and was very respectful with how he handled
it. I had been working with him longer than the other guard who I got into an
altercation with, so I felt like he was more upset with her than with me. Regardless,
I think he should have been a little more stern in his judgement, as neither of
us really received any punishment. As other guards would have been able to tell
you, there was plenty of evidence of her failing to do her job, and there was
no evidence of me doing anything to break the rules or go against the employee
standards. We would constantly talk to him about how bad of an employee she was,
and I felt like he didn’t really do anything about it – but that didn’t surprise
me because that’s just his personality (our boss). I’m not completely innocent
here though, as I definitely should not have had that altercation with her in
front of other staff members. If I were in Mike’s shoes, I probably would have been
a little more stern as to how to remedy the situation, because my relationship
with that co-worker had completely disintegrated. I wish I knew what the
context of their own discussion was (although it was probably not my place),
but that co-worker eventually quit before the end of the summer. This was the
only time in my life I was verbally upset with another one of my co-workers,
and I feel like I didn’t have any repercussions on my end. I’m not complaining
about it, but if I were in the manager’s position, I probably would have
handled it with some low-level to moderate punishment (instead of just talking
to him about the situation). There was really no standard for punishment at the
pool, so maybe having me do a little extra work on the job (work that was not
already expected of me) would have served us better.
Your example brings up a more general question that is worth considering more broadly. Should peers discipline a co-worker when they view performance as substandard, or should that job be left to management? It's something to think through.
ReplyDeleteIn your case it seemed your reaction was immediate - a result of anger directly caused by the situation and indirectly from prior experience - as distinct from a calmly thought out form of punishment that not just you but your other co-workers at the pool would implement in a concerted fashion. While that didn't happen, you might speculate on how it would have played out, whether it was possible, and if it would have been effective or not. It would help me to understand this if there were girls among your other co-workers at the pool. Otherwise, the whole issue might be construed as a gender thing.
Another significant factor in this story is whether your manager, Mike, was aware of any of the prior incidents through his own direct observation, or if he was more removed from the situation so had to trust your word of mouth for understanding what happened. It seems to me that if one doesn't not have direct experience, one is more apt to be cautious with punishments, because there is more than one possible explanation for what happened and one doesn't want to take draconian action based on possible misinformation. That said, if you to the previous paragraph, you might ask what role Mike would have played in a group punishment of the substandard performer.
My reaction was definitely immediate, a sort of in-the-moment boil-over of past observations of this co-worker not doing her job properly. In response to your broader question, I probable should have brought my concerns directly to management as I probably would not have acted the way that I did if I could do the situation over again. There is some responsibility for co-workers to hold each other accountable for the first instance, but in this situation of repeated offenses, it should have been handled by someone higher up than myself at the time.
DeleteIn fact, the majority of the lifeguards on staff were girls, and there were other girls there at the time of the incident. I don't view it as a gender thing because everyone regarded her as a sub-par employee, and gender had nothing to do with it. I don't think that the other people there would have reacted the same way, because I have a certain standard of high-performance (during employment) that sometimes can seem over the top, especially for a work setting as relaxed as this one.
Mike was almost definitely aware of her prior incidents through his own observation, but it is his personality that would cause him to not do anything serious about it until it was repeatedly brought to his attention by us. That is not necessarily how it should be, just his own personal leadership style. I'm unsure how he would have initiated punishment solely based on his own observation, because I'm not sure if he saw her actions in the same way that the rest of us did - because we were the ones working closely with her. Maybe that is a supervision problem on his part, but him being cautious with punishments is a reflection of his personality, not a caution towards being pushed by misinformation that he didn't observe himself.