New Job Advice

[rsser]

Yeah, well you could go in and say that management has decided on a work role expansion and appointed you to implement it. Talk about targets and timelines; strong hint of 'shape up or ship out', and deal with the fall-out when it comes. It may well be for some team members that moving on is the best option.

If you took this route I'd advise that you get the clear support of your boss and his/her willingness to back you up if things heat up.

[fenderbelly]

You don't need our advice, you just send them an email with your Kneel suckers signature on the bottom.

Only joking, my suggestion is,

(1) find your way round

(2) give them a week to come up with 5 suggestions as to how their job could be improved.

(3) have a think tank meeting all together, discuss the points raised.

(4) another meeting asking do you 2/3 think you can interchange with each other to spread workload--cover areas for each other and such like.

and you have already started to change things.

everyone likes input if they are being asked to change.Most times if they think they are being listened to they will accept change more readily.

IMO to go from dog control to building and development compliance is one mighty big
step without adaquate training in compliance laws.

Cheers Fred good luck in the new job.

[rsser]

Hmm, I reckon if you've been given a mission from snr management then don't expect a work group to guess it. They're already known to be resistant to change.

I agree it's best to get their commitment if you can but it's likely that only a minority will sign up for significant change without a compelling reason to do so. For the rest, Dazzler will have to provide that reason.

[fenderbelly]

just saw this on another forum.

Two men talking in the office...

"I introduced myself to the group as their operations manager and said: 'Look guys, I don't do hierarchies in my group, I operate an open door policy. Feel free to come and chat to me about anything. just run it by your line manager first.' "

Thank God he isn't my boss. I'd give him 2 out of 4 in the syllable rankings. Just leave the 'oxy' out of 'oxymoron'.

Cheers Fred

[Harry72]

Easy... tell them to do the job they are paid for or pay the price!
Hard economic times are here there is no place for slackers... its unAustralian to bludge on your workmates.

Its a hard line to take but it will get results, just dont let the lickass's use it for advantage against others.
Privileges can be used as tools too

[rsser]

But Dazzler will be asking them to expand their work role, to do something more/different, which as an earlier post indicated will involve training.

That will be a change to the implicit, or explicit, work contract. It's unAustralian, and likely will be ineffective, to force such a change on people.

They have to be given the option of buying in or opting out, and humanely, a route to opt out on.

[masoth]

Not wanting to tell you what you perhaps know, but other local government authorities have these responsibilities combined, so a start may be to identify them and perhaps visit them - this for your own education.
Some may be willing to provide a copy of any written procedures they have. This will save you 'reinventing the wheel' so to speak, and perhaps save you heaps of time. After understanding it/them offer to your team and ask for reactions/ideas. Your crew are likely to be rather nervous about the added responsibilities.

Good luck, soth

[astrid]

beware If management have to look for someone outside the team to inplement their changes, could be they're looking for a scapegoat.

Is the team unionised, are the new duties in conflict with how they see themselves.

crap managers will often recuit a patsy to save their own bacon.

[dazzler]

Hi

Well thanks for all the advice. Have settled in well. The crew are very set in thier ways but seem to accept change when its pointed out how much easier it makes doing thier jobs. Management have accepted training initiatives so we will see how that goes.

What is surprising is how personal people take things, probably forgot about office politics while Ive been away.

cheers

dazzler