我写这封信是为了驳斥你之前的观点,即包括采用灵活的工作时间在内的排班方式会导致混乱。大概五年前,我开始担任一家医院的社工部负责人,当时这个部门非常不被其他部门尊重。医院工作人员在需要社工时往往找不到人。就算找到了,也会是响应时间太长,而且不一定起到帮助作用。
Most of the social workers felt overworked, underpaid and unappreciated. Staff morale was in the tank。
大多数社工都觉得自己工作强度过大,工资过低,且不被赏识。整体员工士气非常低落。
One of the critical components to turning this around was my introduction of self-scheduling. Every social worker now works the hours he or she chooses. Chaos? To the contrary. I now have a happy, smoothly operating team with high morale. LOS ANGELES
后来我扭转了这一局面,其中一个非常关键的原因在于引入了自我排班制度。现在每个社工都按照自己选择的时间工作。这会导致混乱吗?恰恰相反。现在我的团队人员快乐,运转自如,士气高涨。(洛杉矶)
It’s a fair point: Flexible scheduling systems can certainly work, and I did not mean to imply otherwise. It’s useful to remember that freeing workers from overscheduling can definitely have benefits — on morale and effectiveness。
这个观点很有道理:灵活的工作时间当然是可行的,而我之前所说的并非否定这一点。避免让员工过度劳累肯定可以带来好处,诸如提高士气活和效率。记住这一点当然有用。
But it’s all in the details, and even the most open scheduling system still has to function as a system, with parameters and clear communication. If I can actually decide on the fly to leave early without warning anybody (the situation that the earlier reader described), friction seems inevitable. And if everyone in your department takes Friday off, it’s hard for me to see how any colleague who needs a social worker that day will be satisfied。