Superstars with Attitude
Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 by Frank RocheHow would you handle a superstar like Allen Iverson if he was on your team? Would you let him skip “practice”? Would you let him say anything goes as long as he delivers? What values do you want to promote when you promote an individual contributor instead of teamwork?
The HR Capitalist answers those questions today in a very interesting post called “HRonomics – Why Your Attendance Policy and Allen Iverson Are Linked…” Click here to read the story.
rick
Sep 25th, 2007
Concept of the article is OK in that some jobs need to be scheduled. The analogy to Iverson does not hold since he is late to practice not games. It is the game time that matters most in the NBA. Sure the team might be better if he practiced with them but the data are not in on that.
The larger issue of flexibility in work hours when flexibility is a real chioce is an important one. Working in professional services, there is potentially considerable room for flexibility. It can become an issue when large groups of employees are involved. I/We try to accomodate all sorts of work life issues whenever possible and therefore any reasonable schedule that provides for client work being done in a quality and timely manner. As my first boss told me, I could work any 70 hours per week I wanted!
I recently though had one new employee who pushed not being in the office to, or in my opinion past, the limit. It clearly was an issue to other employees and eventually got to the point where the employee could not execute the responsibilities of the job.
Once you stop drawing the line, however, it is hard to agree on where the line is.
Frank Roche
Sep 26th, 2007
Rick, really excellent analysis. You make a good point about practice versus the game. The counter to that is what that attitude does to the rest of the team. How does that show the rookies the right thing to do? You’re right about the line…it’s a slippery slope when you start letting go.