Leading by example?
Your manager asks you to work more hours to get a project done by crunch time. This is an unusual situation but not long term so you agree to it. Despite having to put in long hours for the next couple of weeks, your manager goes home on time. How does this make you feel?
Now, imagine the same scenario except your manager hangs around the office until you go home or at least until it looks like you're going to wrap up for the day. He/she doesn't pester you or check up on, they are truly letting you work, but you also know they don't necessarily have extra work to do themselves. Is it still better than the above?
I'm just curious as to how people feel about this. I'd really like to get input from people who are currently in management as well.
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I'm a big believer in lead by example. I aim to do so myself -- I try to be the first in to the office and the last one out, almost every day. I look for the same from the managers I support -- unfortunately not all view the world in this fashion. It may be a meaningless to many team members, but when we have large deployment nights I come in to the office to support both the team members as well as their managers.
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I prefer something more like option 2 above. It always really irked me when we'd have a proposal due by "end of day" and everything was brought to me by 5pm that day. Which meant I often was there until midnight pulling it all together while all the contributors/managers who actually get credit for the proposal leave at 5pm or earlier, often saying "whew! glad that's done!" on their way out.
The worst was the time I completed by midnight, went home and crashed, only to wake up to a voicemail from my boss wondering why I wasn't at the office at 6am correcting a paragraph he decided to change around 2am.
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It depends on whether or not the manager could actually be of any assistance. When I moved to NYC a few years ago, I was working as a line cook at Applebee's. Upstate I was essentially a 'team leader' (though applebee's had their own odd term for the position). Since the Applebee's I wanted to work at down here was a different franchise, they wouldn't allow me to just transfer in, I had to go through much of the hiring process again. While I won't say I loved working in Applebee's upstate, it was tolerable, and for the most part I worked with people would put effort into the job and take a certain amount of pride in their work, even if the job sucked. The Crapplebee's I went to work for down here was a totally different story. Some of the managers pretended to give a crap, but most didn't even go that four, and the rest of the workers certainly followed suit. I often ended up closing (very frequently after opening the place as well, thanks to call-outs and lazy managers), and my attempts to move things towards being done right meant that I often took a lot longer than I should have had to. The closing manager couldn't actually leave of course ... but only one ever offered any sort of assistance. More often you could find them out smoking (and since I smoked at the time and had generally gone far too long without a smoke break, that greatly irritated me) or around somewhere chatting on their cell phone. Of course, they would come by occasionally and ask how much longer, or ask or tell me to hurry up ... on those long days when I worked from 7 am to 2 am and this happened, I'm not terribly sure how I managed to not blow up at them.
Now, however, most of the time something needs to be done by me in a hurry, I'm better off with the boss out of the way and he is glad to oblige. On those occasions where its better if he is around, he is always there. And that helps keep me much happier about putting in extra effort or time when needed, and helps to keep me from leaving for a job where I could make more money.
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That is pretty much what I was going to say. If you are needed to do something specialized, and your manager can't help, I wouldn't have any expectation that the manager will hang around just for show. If the manager is just as able to do the work as you, and it is a situation where more hands makes it go faster, then I would expect the manager to help out (unless this "crunch time" was caused by your own procrastination).
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It depends on the situation. I know that if i were in the shoes of someone who couldn't contribute anything to the process by staying late (and especially if they had a family) i'd want to go home. I'd probably tell those people to go home.
The difference comes if those people really could help by being 'the person to pass the buck to' or if they are helping to get through the work.
Though to be fair, i've not been in a situation were i've worked a lot of unpaid overtime for an extended period.
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Agreeing with the others, it depends on their usefulness to me. Certainly it helps pulling a sixteen hour day knowing my boss is pulling a twenty-hour day but if the project's something I and only I can do (and I don't need input from management) they can go on home.
Note it also changes based upon your pay type. If the manager's salaried and I know it, I won't begrudge him leaving early, especially if I'm hourly and getting overtime for it.
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Along the same lines we're seeing here. If the manager can be useful or has other things they can be working on, then a show of solidarity can go a long way for moral.
If the manager would just be a body taking up your oxygen, then much better for them to find some other way to show that they see the effort you are putting in at their request.
* They make a fresh pot of coffee before heading home,
* Dropping off a favorite caffeinated beverage,
* Some change with a note "in case you get the urge for munchies",
* Offering to order delivery and then handing it to the emplyee after the boss paid the delivery guy,
* Dropping you an email during the evening with reminding you that you can call them if you want to talk about the project,
* A thank you email (copying the people whose procrastination caused your loss of sleep and their managers) highlighting the extra time you put in to make sure all of their deadlines were met.
* A private thank you suggesting that you sleep on the next day to make up for the time you lost.
My 2 cents on reminding people that they are appreciated...
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I understand "crunch time" is a reality, especially in software and other deadline-oriented fields, but a crunch in the last few days or weeks running up to launch, especially when it's something that only a small amount of people are able to help with, smells like bad planning.
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Line manager's job is not to hang around the office, but to look after you and make you effective in doing your job. That means standing up to you when necessary, and minimizing instances when harsh deadlines are imposed from on high. When that does happen, I'd expect (and would receive) from my boss the things similar to those RedJen listed:
* personal thanks, and a note being made for the semi-annual performance reviews
* pledge of a in lieu/personal day which I can take subsequently
* offer to have a pizza ordered in, or to approve the expenses for a late dinner in the office
* reminding me to use the the late-night limo right home, and an approval of it later
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Interesting feedback.
I ask because in the past I've never thought about it. In fact, I usually don't get asked to work long hours because I'll do it anyway if I'm afraid I'll miss a deadline. I'll happily slog away alone in the office to meet a deadline.
However, when I had to ask my team to work longer I felt incredibly guilty about going home. Different technology base means I really can't dive in and help. Do you really want a Java developer all up in your .NET code? (I'm going with the generic .NET since we even span that framework's offerings). So I've been hanging around the office but also made a point of not looking like I'm monitoring people's time.
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From my end, I'd expect never to have been asked by my manager to stay. I should be aware of the project's progress and should have sufficient ownership of the project that I would naturally volunteer extra work as necessary.
On the other hand, as has already been pointed out, an explanation that there isn't much you can do and don't want to mess with people's work, along with leaving your reachable-any-time-if-you-need-anything number, and perhaps getting some provisions on the company's account is about the best you can do.
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