Why do we spend so much money controlling our people?
“…In the end you will see what many of you already know in your heart: that mainstream management is embedded in, and relies on, a culture of domination” - Samuel A. Culbert
There’s been a lot of talk about Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson’s BBC interview where he says that his company has no No HR and no IT departments by design. ‘There is a tendency for large companies to "infantilise" their employees and "drown creative people in process and bureaucracy", says Jackson.’
Command and control management assumes the worst of people
It is so nice and confirming to see that what you think and mull over in your own head is something others feel and are actually in a position to do something about. I’ve always felt that companies infantilise their employees. Command and control assumes the worst of people. Crushes them and sucks out the creativity and drive. Surely there’s a better way. If we believe in democracy why are our companies run like dictatorships and autocracies?
Nowhere is employee agency more crushed than in the performance review and the employment and ongoing drug/medical test.
Both processes assume not only that corporations know better than the individuals within them how to manage their work and their health but that somehow this overbearing and intrusive activity is motivational, which of course is bonkers.
Let’s take the performance review first.
About 10 years ago a book caught my eye, ‘GET RID OF THE PERFORMANCE REVIEW!: HOW COMPANIES CAN STOP INTIMIDATING, START MANAGING–AND FOCUS ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS’, by Samuel A. Culbert.
“…In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it’s immoral to maintain the façade that annual pay and performance reviews lead to corporate improvement. Instead of energizing individuals, they leave workers depressed and cynical. Instead of stimulating corporate productivity and innovation, they lead to cover-your-ass behavior that reduces the amount of time that could be put to productive use.”
His assessment was so spot on I thought surely that everyone would read his book, see the light and companies large and small would transform.
But nothing happened. I felt I was alone in thinking that there was something terribly wrong with the system. Fast forward to today and attitudes seem to be shifting, slowly.
In fact when I did a quick search to find an update of the book I was amazed to see how many articles there were about how awful performance reviews are. Finally!
This isn’t a dig at HR. I know many HR folks who are genuinely focused on making a great contribution to their companies. The problem is in their conflicting objectives: encourage, motivate; then discipline, manage out and make redundant. How can employees trust people who say ‘I’m there for you’ when they know that at the end of the day that is categorically not true.
Why do we start with the assumption that employees are using drugs and they have to prove they aren’t?
As for drug and medical tests, according to The Atlantic ‘The data are a little patchy, but the best estimate is that about 40 percent of U.S. workers are currently subjected to drug tests during the hiring process.’ Now this isn’t an issue for those of us in the UK but that doesn’t mean it never will be.
In the States companies can require job candidates and new hires to suffer drug tests and medical exams as a prerequisite to employment. So invasive.
Why do we start with the assumption that employees are using drugs and they have to prove they aren’t? It seems to me the real reason is to set the stage. The employee must be subjugated at the start to ensure overall compliance to the greater authority.
“It’s become sort of a game,” Lewis Maltby, the president of the National Workrights Institute, told The Washington Post. “Employers know that it doesn’t mean anything. Anyone who smokes pot will just stop for a few days. It’s an empty ritual that nobody wants to be the first to give up." The Atlantic
My question is: how in the world will this approach insure great, groundbreaking thinking and action?
How can you put your heart and soul into doing your best if you are constantly looking over your shoulder?
It makes no sense.
Surely there’s a better way?
Is Octopus opening itself up to litigation and a crazy free for all or has the CEO cottoned on to something that can make companies much better places to work - higher performing, more satisfying for the employees and with headcount focused on where it will best help the company thrive.
I understand the challenges company leaders face. The command and control instinct is a reaction to fear of losing control and having people go off in too many directions. It can seem like the easiest and best way to ensure everyone is on the same path to the same destination.
But is it really?
Just because you control someone’s movements on a factory floor, their toilet break times in a call centre or you’re micro-managing their work in an office/virtual office it doesn’t mean their hearts and minds are with you. Their drive towards your goals may only be surface deep.
Should we all become fractional workers as opposed to employees?
Perhaps there’s a new and better future way of working that will get the outcomes companies want without infantilising and dehumanising the workforce?
I have to admit that one of the best things for me about being on my own is that I am no longer subjected to performance reviews. I have liberated myself from that soul-destroying process that kills all drive, creativity and ambitious thinking for the both reviewer and the reviewed. Thankfully I’ve never had to endure a drug test or medical exam to work.
Now I’m sure there are those who would argue that performance reviews are a necessary part of the process to keep control and alignment to goals. But I don’t buy it.
As a fractional worker I am completely aligned to my clients’ goals. Even more so than if I was an employee, because their goals are my primary agenda. I’m not worried about politics, jockeying for position or getting the next promotion. I want to get them where they need to be. Full stop.
As for my health and sobriety? That’s my business.