I work in healthcare and to say that the mindset of the other managers is from the 1950s is an understatement.
They refuse to hire anyone that they believe has been “job-hopping”, even though I work hard to explain that people simply leave jobs that don’t give a shit about them now. The younger generation is so much smarter than mine/ours – we stayed for loyalty to the company because that’s what we were taught. You stay if you’re being treated well.
They refuse to work with good workers – ex. I have a team member struggling with weekend childcare. I came up with a solution where she can work overnights on weekends in order to still fulfill her weekend commitment, but also help her with her sitter situation. I finally got it to squeak in with an approval, but it took me days and days of begging. This is a 9+ year stellar employee.
They won’t let the team wear jeans because “we are business casual”, even though the CEO “dresses for his day” and frequently wears them. But the managers get to make the final decisions for their dept. and don’t feel it “sets a good tone”.
One manager writes up anyone pulling their phones out. I encourage my team to use theirs as a tool – use it to play music for an upset resident or show them cute cat videos. Show them pics of your kids. Don’t sit on FB, but use it to interact with them. They love it.
I have people asking to move to my team and heard a mgr say “It’s because she lets them get away with murder.” Yet know what I don’t have? Family complaints that their loved ones are in dirty clothes or in bed all day. They’re engaged and happy. Why? Because I have a happy, engaged team.
But I can’t manage every single team member.
This is happening at every single facility around the country. How do I fix it? How do I make these other managers see that they’re causing the problem? They’re the same age as me (50s) – if I can take the time to learn how you “young folks” want your workplaces to be (), why can’t they? (And to be clear – that was a joke – it should be this way for everyone. Just know that getting people in my age group to get there is gonna be harder.)
Help.