Here comes the situation

I was scrolling on Twitter when the following post from @ann_kasumova caught my attention.

This dilemma touched on some of my feelings when I started my career.

I was not precisely that employee. I didn't outperform my colleagues so heavily, and I also worked the 8 hours my contract said I should work.

But I did a better job than most of my colleagues at the same level. And I used to arrive late to the office.

In the situation described by Anna, the typical reaction lies in whether the employee is having dishonest or unprofessional behavior. But the case is more complex, and many other dimensions should be considered.

Logical Perception

The first thought is to consider that the worker has a 9 to 5 shift. If they work less time, they are cheating. They should assume more activities if they finish the assigned ones in fewer hours.

In that scenario, we believe that the worker is doing something wrong. So we will take action accordingly. These actions go from firing to talking with and persuading them to work the agreed hours.

In any case, and independent of the leader's style, the message is that this situation is unacceptable. We must either replace the employee or convince them to change.

The above analysis only focuses on the employee working fewer hours than agreed. And the consequent action assumes dishonesty from the worker. But that is only one perspective.

Ultimately, we have an employee almost twice as productive as the rest. It could be their methodology, capacity, or both. In any case, there is a benefit that we should extract from it. Ignoring it is a terrible mistake in our job as leaders.

What are we missing?

A few inconsistencies show up with this way of thinking.

1) Any employee, leader, boss, or Company in the World is delighted with this quote:

"Work Smart... Not Harder".

But we are instantly penalizing the employee that works smart.

2) The employee may have some facility to enter a flow during a short period and difficulties extending it for the whole day. It could be a trait of the personality. Considering that diversity is gaining strength in the workplace, why shouldn't we take different personalities as part of the diversity?

3) In terms of fairness. We assume it is unfair if an employee works fewer hours than the rest. We think they are putting on different effort.
- First, this is not necessarily true (see item 2).
- Second, so what? The Company is not interested in efforts but in outcomes. If employees do their best without the desired results, they will soon be unemployed. As hard as it may sound, this is true.

Fairness is difficult to measure. Is it fair that employees who produce twice as much as their colleagues earn the same?

Additionally, we should look inside to understand the way we are coming to our conclusions:

• How much of this analysis is based on ego or thinking there is only one way of doing things (our way)?
• Are we considering the results or value that this person brings to the Company?
• Is this analysis biased by fear of dealing with extraordinary situations (a different personality) or facing more significant issues (the rest of the team slowing down)?

Opportunities in Front of Us

The situation is already happening, and we are living with it. We don't know how long this has happened, but we can cope with it for some more time, at least until analyzing it correctly and thinking about an excellent action.

The first thing to understand is why this person takes less time to complete the same activities than the rest of the team.

1) Is it a method? -> Share it with the colleagues

2) Is it capacity? -> Assign to this person other activities that bring more value to the Company. That way, they can have a different position in the Company with adequate challenges and benefits (payment and perks).

3) There isn't any other place to take advantage of that capacity? -> Accept their behavior. Consider it as a way of retaining an employee that brings value by keeping them happy.

Applying the above items will be a complex task for any leader. They need to get prepared for the effects that will come afterward. But it will also be beneficial in the long term.

Collateral Effects

No one likes to change something that is working. It's natural. Things usually get worse before getting better.

If you discover one of your team members has a method that allows them to do the job faster, they may be reluctant to share it with their teammates. They know they may lose some advantage.

If you have an employee overqualified for the current assignment, you must convince them to move to a new one, prove that this employee fits that position, and hire someone else to replace them.

Accepting the employee working fewer hours will cause issues with the rest of the team. All of them will ask for the same, which will be challenging to handle. You can also use this exceptional situation to incentivize colleagues to achieve the same. A transparent measurement system should exist to define the expected and achieved productivity.

Summary

We were presented with a situation that tempted us to find a responsible and take immediate action. The automatic reaction points at the one that generates the problem by being different from the rest.

As leaders, we many times need to make fast decisions. But it is always better to first analyze the scenario and identify the urgency and the factors that should be considered.

Every challenging situation will have many options to choose from, and none of them will be perfect. Our job is to generate new alternatives and take action weighing their pros and cons.

Ultimately, it's not about avoiding problems but choosing the ones we want to deal with.