I was talking to a friend of mine this past week about his job. He was rather frustrated about some sweeping changes that have been going on where he works. In short the company is going for a more measured approach when it comes to work. They want to set goals, track time spent on projects, and in general measure the day to day activities. The system isn’t intended to micro manage but rather help the company figure out where employees are spending their time and if it is important. Which is good and something my friend agrees with. This change isn’t about firing people, the company really cares about its employees and wants every one to be happy along with having a productive, profitable company.

The problem my friend is having is a fellow co-worker was promoted to team supervisor and is taking the above measured approach to inflate in own ego by showing his own self worth to the company over everyone else in his team. This has caused the supervisor to micro manage my friend and the rest of the team to a degree that morale has dropped to an all time low. Our conversation was about my friend quitting to find a new job. I don’t blame him, being micro managed sucks. I don’t know any one who enjoys it.

My friend was so stuck on this that he was blaming the new system and the company. After our brief talked he realized it wasn’t the system or the company, it was the implementation of the measured system by the team supervisor that was causing the issue.

The thing about people isn’t that they are afraid of change, a new way of doing things, or new rules, it is how those things are implemented or suggested. Look at any major change that has happened in this country, from prohibition to the TSA, and what the backlash came from it. With my friend he had no problem with the new measured approach but he had a problem with his team supervisor using the new system to abuse his power. This coming week he is going to talk with upper management about his team supervisor and hopefully something good will come from it.

So the next time you need to make changes to your business, not only look at how it will affect your employees but keep a close eye on how these changes are being implemented. Failed implementation can mean the difference between acceptance of the change and success, or failure and unhappy employees.