Who Are "They?"

By Hayden Jones
Managing Consultant

Do you know what your employees are doing? It is not unusual for work or functions that once had a purpose to become obsolete over time. Unless told otherwise, employees will continue to work hard to complete the task or functions that no longer bring value to the company. In fact, employees often won’t question why they are doing outdated work.

Some time ago, I approached a young employee who was working diligently at her desk. She had a large stack of applications and was carefully reading through them, looking for specific information. As she found each piece of data, she would write it down in a log that she had prepared. The log had many columns, each with specific data to be recorded. The information included the agent’s name, insured’s name, coverage amounts, premium amounts, and so forth.

Once she had finished the pile of applications, I asked her what she was going to do with the resulting log. She pointed to a corner of her desk and said, “I stack them there.” I then asked if she showed them to anyone or if anyone came by to see them.

She said, “No.” I asked her why she was doing the work since no one appeared to be looking at the logs. She said, “Because they told me to.” I asked who “they” were and she answered, “I don’t know.”

I saw that there were a few logs at the corner of her desk and asked her what she did with them. She explained that at each week’s end she summarized the logs in a separate report. I asked her what she did with the weekly summary report.

She said, “I stack them there,” pointing to the other corner of her desk. I then asked if she showed them to anyone or if anyone came by to see them. She said, “No.” Again I asked her why she was summarizing the logs, since it appeared that no one was looking at them. She said, “Because they told me to.” I asked who “they” were. And again she answered, “I don’t know.”

Noticing now that there were a few weekly summary reports on her desk, I asked what she did with the summaries. You guessed it: She summarized them into a monthly report that was submitted to and reviewed by no one. Knowing in advance what she would say, I asked why she was creating the monthly summary.

She said, “Because they told me to.” I asked once again who “they” were. She answered, “I don’t know.”

It turns out that her predecessor had told her that this was a very important part of the job and that “they” wanted these reports to be completed and summarized. When I questioned what she did with the monthly report she had prepared, she showed me a virtual fleet of filing cabinets that contained all of the monthly reports going back for who knows how long.

Recognizing that I had found a function with no value added, I suggested that since no one was looking at the reports, she should stop producing them. Her response was, “No, we can’t stop doing the reports.” I asked why. She responded, “Because they’ll get mad.” I asked, “Who are ‘they’?” She answered, “I don’t know.” And so it went on and on.

I later stopped by to see the employee’s supervisor. When asked about the reports, he looked confused and said he knew nothing about the logs and subsequent reports. Only when the supervisor told the employee to stop did the employee reluctantly stop producing the logs and reports.

As a leader, knowing what your employees are working on is a critical part of the job. It is also very important that a leader does not become the dreaded “they” who causes or permits no-value-added work to remain in the department. Be sure your employees know who “they” is.