Shape up or ship out!

I think this week will be some sort of watershed for our office, either the beginning of something special or the beginning of the end for some staff. Those who can rise to the challenge will prevail, those who find it too much will leave.

It's okay, we haven't reinvented accountancy we've just had that favourite of British management, a crisis meeting. At some point over the past year the whole dynamic of the office has changed by the arrival of two new members of staff, one has completely taken over the office through sheer personality, the other has dragged the office down through the sheer lack of personality - okay, that may be taking things a bit too far but not much. The time taken to complete jobs is taking longer, the lack of respect shown to the internal management team and the lack of respect shown to clients and other members of staff reached a conclusion (hopefully) on Wednesday when a two hour meeting took place to air some of the current problems, address the malaise that has taken over the office and try to redress the balance.

The change has been noticeable almost immediately in respect of one member of staff who works for me, she's told me she now feels motivated and can actually see a point to her working life - blimey, I didn't expect that! I've had a meeting with another member of staff that veered between hostility, laughter and a scene that reminded me of the staring competition that used to feature in BBC2's Big Train. Things had to be said. Things had to be done. It wasn't about upsetting people or playing the big 'I am' it was about trying to stop the firm drifting aimlessly from one crisis to another. As I said to one member of staff ,some people regard our office as a warm place to spend eight or nine hours a day drinking coffee and discussing what to do outside of office hours. When questioned there was no explanation as to why jobs that were taking six hours two years ago were now taking eleven, in one case a job that took twelve hours now took fifty six (fortunately that wasn't one I was manager of).

Of course I have to hold my hands up and say that if I didn't acknowledge the time I spend on the Internet (5Live) I'd be a complete hypocritical ass. I can at least offer myself some self justification by the fact that I work ten hours a week unpaid - it's what British managers do.

The test will of course come next week when this weeks remedial action begins to become part of the collective memory. As I said to one female member of my team "the trouble is, you've become too fat and flabby when it comes to work," - eat your heart out Gene Hunt! She did actually reply by saying I was right and that she had become aware of the situation but didn't know what to do about it, I was tempted to use my ex-boss's favourite expression, "Job starts Monday, you don't," unfortunately that type of employment law doesn't exist anymore.

As management we've been lax, perhaps we've let the staff down by not putting them under enough pressure but we are employing experienced adults not children and as Harry Redknapp once told his Bournemouth team, "It's time to shape up or ship out."