It was time for employee reviews. This was 2012, construction work was hard to come by, and I was not quite ready to start my own business. Consequently, I had left the residential building industry and taken a job managing a company that manufactured cell phone towers. I had several employees under my supervision doing the work of casting and trimming various composites to make faux tree branches that could then attach to a cell phone tower in order to try and make it look less ugly. The work was hot, hard work, that required the use of a number of nasty materials, but our finished product was good, business was booming, and the people were great.
As I pondered the list of these great people that I was preparing to review, a name jumped out at me. Patrick is my third brother and is about ten years younger than myself. I have had the benefit of putting three of my four brothers to work at various times in our careers and with all of them it has been (I think) a mutually beneficial experience. I get smart, capable hands for the busy summer months, and they get guaranteed, decent paying work between semesters at school. Just like the rest of my brothers, Pat is a great hand. He works hard, is good with tools, and instinctively understands processes. Every now and then he would pop into my office with a valuable suggestion on how I might trim minutes off our production time. In addition to this, his output numbers were among the best on the team, even after just a few weeks on the job.
But I had one beef with Pat. Every time I made the short walk from my office out into the warehouse, he would be talking. Some folks are able to talk and work at the same time, but not Pat. His hands drop to his sides, his full attention turns to his partner, and no work, not even sweeping, can happen when Pat is in conversation. I always a had a mile long list of things I needed to get done, so I rarely moved through the shop at a leisurely pace that might invite conversation. Yet despite my purposeful strides and direct attention, Pat, wholly unphased, would drop his task and interrupt my hustle to share a story or invite opinion on one of his off-the-job projects. My attempts to redirect him back to his work varied in levels of gentleness, depending largely on the amount of pressure I was feeling in the moment from my deadlines and obligations. Still, my castigations never altered his behavior for more than about an hour, and next time I stepped into the shop, a cheerful, undeterred Pat would be ready to chat the day away.
His time for review came, and I called him into the office. He ambled in grinning half sheepishly. With the big brother reviewing the little brother, both of us felt a little like we were acting out some sort of trope, or a scene from a weak sit-com. But I cut through the awkwardness with the positives:
“Pat, your numbers are great, your attitude is great, and every now and then, you give us a killer suggestion. We are giving you a raise.”
His sheepish smiled broadened. “Thanks!”
“BUT… You talk too much. Frankly I don’t understand how your numbers are this good because you seem to always be talking rather than working. I need you to seriously buckle down and work steady, so the other guys who don’t have as great of numbers as you don’t pick up bad habits. Imagine what your production numbers could be if you stop conversing so much.”
Pat’s sheepish smile was immediately replaced by angry, brotherly offense. “I do NOT talk too much! I hardly ever talk; that’s why my numbers are good!”
I was surprised. “Pat! That’s not true! Every time I walk into the shop, you drop your work and try to start a conversation.”
“But that’s with you! I don’t talk to anyone else. I just work!”
Realization slowly dawned on me. “Pat! I’m your boss! And if the only thing I ever see when I walk into the shop, is you talking to me, then I automatically assume that this is how you behave even when I’m not there!” Long ago, I had picked up on the fact that most workers do not behave the same way when their supervisor is present as they do when he is away. But usually this looks like a sudden increase in intensity and production when the boss walks into the room, followed by a steep slide into a lackadaisical plod as soon as the boss leaves. It never occurred to me that one would work like mad while the boss was away, only to drop all productivity and look like a slacker as soon as the boss showed up.
Pat’s sheepish grin slowly crept back onto his face: “Oh, I guess I’d never thought of that. I can see how that would look bad.”
I was not able to tell if I was more amused or irritated by this whole exchange, but I sent him back out to the shop. “Just save it for after-hours! But keep up the good work!”
I’ve never since encountered such a pattern with my employees, and every time I think about Pat’s review, it makes me smile. First, because of the unique humor of Pat behaving in the exact opposite manner of just about every other worker in the world. But second, and more importantly, because Pat showed me so much about himself. To this day, Pat has an unquestionable and impeccable work ethic, but his work is built around people. He thrives as a high school teacher and a coach, where that work ethic lines up beautifully with his relational acuity, and he can put them both to use every day, joyfully developing the next generation.