Seeking some thoughts on a work situation

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hypothetical, of course. :slight_smile:

Andy, Bob, Carl, Dennis, and Zeke work daily together as a team. Their jobs are composed of different tasks. On any given day just 3 of them are at work, and there are typically 3 distinct parts of the job that must be divided up. Generally, first thing in the morning, Carl would say “what do you feel like doing today?” and Bob will say, “I don’t care, how about you, Andy?” and Andy will say “I’ll do task 1” and Carl will say, “ok, I’ll do task 3”, etc. It has been done this way from the beginning of time, and none of the workers has an issue with it.

And now, management proclaims from on high that each days’ tasks must be scheduled in advance, so everyone knows who is doing what weeks ahead of time. None of the 5 want it done this way, but it shall be so.

So here is my question. The tasks consist of varying degrees of physical activity (none of it more intense than walking), and Dennis is morbidly obese. He will happily sit at his desk and do the work, but it is a struggle for him to do much walking.

Some of the guys believe that Dennis should be able to be scheduled for the non-active (sitting at a desk all day, basically) tasks every day. Others believe that Dennis is a part of the team, has a job to do, and should be able to do all parts of the job on any given day. And if anyone needs to get up and move around, it’s him.

More info: Dennis is the newest member, and was aware of all aspects of the job when he was hired. He is also a super nice guy whom everyone likes, does not complain, and does his work.

I’m interested to hear some thoughts on this.
mmm

2

So Dennis just wants to sit at his [del]drums[/del] desk while Al, Brian, Carl, and Mike are standing and walking around? That could work.
I know this doesn’t answer your question, but is it possible to schedule the tasks in advance, the way management wants, and then ignore the scheduling and actually do things the old way?

And I’d be interested in hearing medical advice about how much walking Dennis could safely and reasonably be expected to do.

3

Time-honored method of middle management everywhere. Make a schedule in advance and then proceed to ignore the shit out of it on the regular. If upper management ever notices, then ‘situations on the ground necessitated alterations’ as you of course keep to the schedule as a rule.

4

I’ll second just giving the powers that be a schedule and then doing what you always do.

I don’t know your situation, so if any type of compensation is dependent on it, make sure everyone rotates through all the different jobs.
If it works well, you’ll even be able to just hand in the same one every week.

5

“Work-around” management - they “manage,” and the people getting stuff done just work around them.

I agree with, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but on the other hand, the Dennis issue is a tougher one. Yes, he should do all the tasks that are required of the job he was hired for, but if his teammates don’t mind, I don’t see why management should.

6

Throw Dennis a bone. Let him do the desk job. Tell the management whatever. Then you can, on your own encourage Dennis to move. Walk about at lunch and eat better. You will get pearls in heaven. Win-win!

7

To clarify, management doesn’t really care who does what; they just want it to be scheduled in advance. There are others - outside of the 5 - who occasionally need to know who is assigned to what on a given day. This is likely where the complaint came from (although it’s merely a matter of asking “who’s polishing the widgets today?”).

It is a couple of the workers who wondered aloud if Dennis should be allowed to do only one aspect of the job simply because it makes him physically uncomfortable to do the others. On the other hand, the desk work is generally considered the least desirable aspect of the work.

Nobody is being a hardass about any of this, the few discussions we’ve had are more just an exercise (heh!) in workplace philosophy.
mmm

8

If no one wants to do the desk job and Dennis can only do the desk job and is happy to do the desk job, I don’t see an issue.

Every workplace has that one guy that for whatever reason doesn’t mind the jobs that others would prefer not to do. Don’t take that away from him, you’ll disrupt the system.

9

My thoughts exactly, though there is something about allowing Dennis to stay seated for the whole work week that doesn’t seem right. Even for his own sake.

10

Sounds like they might wanna see Dennis do some moving around for his health. Consider having Dennis make a big show if management is about, but then just go on as you have been?

11

It sounds to me like these five employees already had everything worked out before management imposed new scheduling rules. What prevents them from distributing the work similarly to how they had done it before, but writing it down in advance? Is it that a written schedule would draw attention to the fact that Dennis does nothing but desk work?

I assume Dennis was morbidly obese when he was hired. If the hiring manager had any brains, he must have realized that Dennis wouldn’t be able to do as much physical labor as the other workers, yet hired him anyway.

Is it possible that Dennis is better at desk work than the other four? If so, what’s wrong with a division of labor?

12

Schedules not worth making are not worth keeping, so I agree with the consensus to ignore the schedule.

Could Dennis be given some work with limited movement, for his own sake? That’s assuming that he does not have disability status because of his weight. Clearly not the same as others, but maybe some?

13

If others really don’t like the desk work, then sure, let Dennis do it most of the time. Dennis probably needs to do the walking around part often enough that he can do it efficiently if someone else is out sick.

I would also be wary that management might be working toward specializing and defining jobs. Very soon whatever you do most often may be your entire job description. In most companies, only the desk jobs lead up the management ladder, so getting specialized into one of the more active jobs could curtail your career.

Obviously, I don’t know much about what the job is, so apply logic accordingly.