As the saying goes, “you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” And a manager in a large legal practice in New Jersey did just that to avert disaster in two situations.
The first potential disaster was the addition of a time clock.
The practice merged with another group, and with the merger came the decision that all staff should keep the same hours. Before then, it was up to each staffer’s individual boss to mind the hours, and some of the bosses were not sticklers for punctuality. Thus came the introduction of the clock. And nobody liked it.
So with no announcement at all, the manager started giving “free-hour cards” to everybody who clocked in on time every day during each month. The cards were good for one paid hour off and could be used however staff wanted. Some people used them to extend lunch or get off early, and some even saved them up for extra vacation days.
The cards were printed out on computer and worked like cash. Staff had to hand them over to get their free time approved.
Soon instead of being unpleasant, clocking in became exciting. Staff fought for those cards.
After two years, people were in the habit of coming in on time, so the cards were retired. And with little protest because the free time was never presented as office policy but only as a temporary extra to get everybody used to the change.
The second potential disaster was impending layoffs
Layoffs was an economic necessity the practice didn’t want to face. So the decision was to let the staff numbers reduce by attrition.
But to encourage the attrition, the office set up an attractive retirement package of severance and benefits that was available for only one year. And eight long-term staffers took advantage of it.
Then to make their leaving a positive event and not a layoff, the practice spent a lot of money saying good bye to them. It held a catered champagne lunch with retirement gifts, speeches from the partners, and a video outlining their history with the practice and humorous things that happened during that time.
“We had a big shindig,” the manager says. Both current and alumni staff were invited, and so were the families of the retirees. Of the eight retirees, the practice replaced only one. The other duties were spread out among the existing staff. As a result, seven salaries were peacefully eliminated, and because the retirees were long-termers, the savings was significant.
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Send your stories to catherine@plainlanguagemedia.com.
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