Multi-Tasking is a Win-Win

Recently, several fellow colleagues have inquired how I am able to read entire training manuals (see Item 1) while managing my employees. There is a simple secret behind my multi-tasking success: Style-wise as a manager, I'm a little old-fashioned. And mean.

It's true, I like my employees to complete a large part of daily work assignments on their own. I am certainly willing to assist with projects, hold one-on-one training sessions and the like, and I greatly enjoy this aspect of management. However, thinking back on my own early days of employment, I recall a good portion of my workday spent daydreaming at my desk. Daydreaming has served me well throughout my career, providing a release from everyday stresses in the workplace and world, and allowing the mental time and space for another important work skill, creativity. Developing daydream and related workplace skills is by nature a solo activity, requiring employees to forge their own way. Managerial restraint is not only encouraged in this venture, it is required. But, providing employees time and space to develop their daydreaming skills in turn allows The Manager time and space for a little daydreaming of her own.

Here at The Lo.Co., we adhere to the following procedure.

Problem
The Manager would like to get a thing or two done around the office without employee interference. Assisting the Housekeeping and Kitchen staffs, maybe, or catching up on paperwork. Or, reading those all-important training manuals vital to managerial sanity and, in turn, optimal managerial performance. Also, The Manager would also like to encourage a little autonomy in her employee(s). Because she's mean.

Solution
1. Set up the employee at their work station with all the necessary office supplies. Maybe it's indoors with access to paper and crayons, a pile of books, and a box of toys. Or maybe it's out on the grounds with the grass, trees, garden, and sky. A box of sidewalk chalk and a container of bubbles can also come in handy.
2. Set up a chair with a good vantage point, where you can subtly monitor the employee's activities and provide assistance if absolutely required. Sit down in chair. Kick back. Open book and begin to read.
3. Periodically check in with employee, who should be focused on completing her assigned projects. Use discretion, intuition and common sense when fielding inevitable employee demands. For the majority of demands, I find that the phrase "Go play!" works nicely. Applying a good measure of enthusiasm to the phrase helps disguise your meanness.

Result
The Manager allows both her self and her employees the time and space to work on independent projects. For The Manager, it's things like cleaning, cooking, and paperwork. For employees, it's honing select skills that will serve them later on in their career. For everyone, it's simultaneous productivity and a big sigh of relief. Old-fashioned and mean, yes, but undeniably multi-tasking at its finest.

One thing that must be noted about my career: I went into it without a lot of managerial experience, with very little background. I never managed in the past for pay, and had very little experience in general with small employees. Why I decided to become a manager is perhaps material for another workday, another file in the cabinet, but for now let me say that before entering into this career, there were certain managerial practices that I found off-putting, that I did not picture myself using. One of these practices is holding multiple conversations while taking calls.

The Regional Manager informs me that it must be an American Tradition for employees to demand a lot of attention the instant a call comes through on the office phone. So true. Every day during Lunch Hour, our CEO checks in on the company to see how things are running. Lately, K.Lo specifically requests to speak with the CEO, wishing to report on her current project. For example, today she was eating an orange, and so whispered, "Or-nage," (pronounced just this way) three or four times into the phone. Yesterday, it was "Chick-en," as she was eating chicken, and the day before that, it was "Shirt," as she had just put on a shirt. She follows this report (prompted by The Manager) with, "Bye-bye, Dad-dy," and "I loves you, Dad-dy," also spoken slowly and in a whisper.

This exemplary employee phone etiquette is case in point: When the employee speaks with the CEO, all rolls magically well, but when The Manager is speaking, employee requests for assistance automatically skyrocket. N.Lo is suddenly starving, K.Lo has done something or other with her employee meal that requires twenty napkins, N.Lo needs to be held, K.Lo needs to be held, employee conflicts arise because clearly both cannot be held at once, and then they all need a diaper change. And possibly some time in the Employee Bath.

I feel so often like one of those managers on TV, in a scene where the kids are screeching, the dogs are barking, and the manager is shouting above it all, trying to dispel the chaos surrounding her, all while holding a conversation with a client or business associate on the other end of the phone. The manager is distracted, the conversation disjointed. It's loud and frantic, where I prefer calm and cool. On TV, it's supposed to be funny, maybe because it's just true? I find it a little obnoxious, myself. Surely there must be another way to do things? But who am I to mess with tradition.