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Which
organizational plan would you use to ask employees to work overtime to meet an
important deadline? Would you use a direct request or a persuasive message?
Signed,
Seeking Overtime Commitment
Dear Seeking:
A direct request is my preferred way to ask workers to work overtime. That direct request should include a discussion with the employees of the reasons why the request is made and solicitation for the workers suggestions about how the production needed might be accomplished, possibly without working overtime.
If workers are customarily informed of what is going on--orders coming in, productivity, supplies, labor costs, profits and how all these affect the bottom line and their specific jobs--there comes to be a sense of teamness, we call WEGO. A workplace with WEGO does not treat workers in a manipulative way with persuasive messages. Rather there is a genuine spirit of collaboration.
Any request of overtime, must be specific to the situation. That is to say, there is a history to a manager asking workers to work overtime. How often has this request been made? If workers are asked too often, they will feel that management should hire additional people. If certain workers are favored, given the opportunity to earn overtime pay, others will feel mistreated. If requests are not made with advance notice and workers are expected to give up their weekend plans, they will complain and argue that management doesn't know how to manage. So answers to the question you pose, you must understand, will hinge on the recent history of a particular workplace.
Let us know what you think of our preferred answer, and do review our Q&A Archive to get a better picture of the WEGO approach.
WEGO is not manipulative.
Bill Gorden