Respect the Boundaries or Expect Departures

Result of Crossing Boundaries..

Information Technology is no different than other industries like construction, finance, entertainment, and sports where deadlines are in place to meet objectives to get to successful results.  There are employees, consultants, and vendors in place that are assigned tasks and either work on teams or individually to make sure nothing falls through cracks.  There will always be a mistake or miscommunication that causes some rework or more research and this should be accounted for in a buffer that does not put everyone in crunch mode.  However, if there is poor planning on management's part, emergencies may arise but there are boundaries that should never be crossed if the dedicated qualified people are expected to continue to perform with excellence or even stay.

Here are a few tips on maintaining the boundaries to not lose the good people:
1)  Acknowledge and grant respect for life outside of work.  Work is the means to the end but not LIFE for anyone who is well-balanced.  There will be times when it is necessary to work late hours and weekends but it should not be the norm or be expected continuously for over a month.  Anything over that means there is a lack of respect for the people working.  Burn out is inevitable because the downtime required for people to regroup to perform better than average is missing. Mistakes will be made.
2)  Remove people that cause confusion and misinterpret.  Rework costs any project time, money, and resources.  If there is consistency of a person misconstruing the requirements and changing the direction on a whim, more time and money is wasted for continuous correction.  Management should address and eliminate this factor. Leadership should apologize to those performing the corrections and take the hit for it.  (Notice the difference between management and leadership.)
3)  Do not over-exaggerate minor issues.  We all know the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  Everything is not a disaster or a showstopper.  In fact, all problems are not important enough to be addressed immediately.  Learn to stay focused on the bigger picture and only raise alerts on items that would cause a complete failure.  If someone on the team including management keeps setting every problem as a high priority, their position needs to be reevaluated.
4)  Escalate as the last resort.  If someone did not respond to an email, text message, or phone call at midnight and there were no established rules for overnight support, there is no need to escalate to upper management.  In fact, chances are #3 was not adhered to and there is some undertone of believing the most qualified people are somehow indentured servants answering to a dictatorship.  Trust. That will not last very long. 

In summary, respect those who work for you, maintain the boundaries, and they will work harder for greater outcomes towards your vision.  No matter the economy, there is always a group that can appreciate their expertise and hard work.

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