Speaker 1: Hi, welcome back to our Ask Me Anything segment where
Speaker 1: we take on a question that you have sent us.
Speaker 1: Our listener who I'll call Lucy sent us this one.
Speaker 1: Lucy is in a small team of about 8 people.
Speaker 1: Everyone is working in a high pressured environment with long
Speaker 1: working hours. It's a specialist job and they have been
Speaker 1: asking for more manpower because they're afraid to make mistakes.
Speaker 1: Several mistakes have already been made because people are overworked.
Speaker 1: As a result, the team has been subjected to a
Speaker 1: few internal audits and they're just told to do better.
Speaker 1: Now when they highlighted that they need help, management shuts
Speaker 1: them down according to Lucy, and calls a few of
Speaker 1: them troublemakers. Lucy is asking if middle management is not
Speaker 1: listening to them and there are problems caused by a
Speaker 1: manpower shortage.
Speaker 1: How can they escalate this and to whom?
Speaker 2: I think the situation here is that they have escalated it,
Speaker 2: but the middle management is not listening. So when I
Speaker 2: read this question, right, I just thought to myself like, wow,
Speaker 2: I feel for Lucy and the team because it sounds
Speaker 2: like they are really trying their best.
Speaker 2: But they're not getting the support from the management. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then do I whistle blow? Do I go higher up?
Speaker 1: Because I think a lot of people do wonder whether
Speaker 1: the higher ups know that there is an issue and
Speaker 1: they are also trying to cover up, then it's going
Speaker 1: to be even worse.
Speaker 2: So I think at this point,
Speaker 2: It really depends on how much faith Lucy has in
Speaker 2: her management, the highest one, because there are sometimes management
Speaker 2: they know, but they don't want to respond or they're
Speaker 2: not responding appropriately. So the issue is not with not knowing,
Speaker 2: but the issue is that management is not stepping up
Speaker 2: to do what needs to be done. So if I'm Lucy, right?
Speaker 2: I would say I would look at the management's responses.
Speaker 2: Is it that the leaders that are there, are they
Speaker 2: close to the ground? You know, if they're close to
Speaker 2: the ground and if they are really caring about the
Speaker 2: operations and the work that they do, right, then maybe
Speaker 2: there's a chance that I can look for the right
Speaker 2: leader to speak to. You also know that there are
Speaker 2: leaders who are just on the ground for tokenism, just
Speaker 2: to show face. They're not really caring about the workers.
Speaker 2: So I think she needs to see other such people,
Speaker 2: such managers in the office.
Speaker 2: I think also in many companies they have got employee sentiment,
Speaker 2: engagement surveys. Has there been certain things like they've done
Speaker 2: before and
Speaker 1: feedback loops as well. Yes, there been things that have
Speaker 1: been mentioned a few times.
Speaker 2: So usually like from my experiences, people do give feedback,
Speaker 2: but they get very disappointed and discouraged when the feedback
Speaker 2: is not acted on.
Speaker 2: And year after year, the same thing happens. I'm guessing
Speaker 2: here that Lucy's situation is not the first time. I
Speaker 2: believe that this has been repeated for a particular amount
Speaker 2: of time already and maybe it's getting like too much talk,
Speaker 2: no action, and nobody seems to be bothered, and yet
Speaker 2: they are the ones who have to face the consequences.
Speaker 1: OK, I'm going to play devil's advocate here. I hear
Speaker 1: that Lucy saying that they were subjected to a few
Speaker 1: internal audits.
Speaker 1: And these internal audits have shown that they could be
Speaker 1: doing better. So from the management's point of view, there
Speaker 1: is no problem in terms of a manpower shortage. So
Speaker 1: what exactly is wrong in this
Speaker 1: situation?
Speaker 2: So when internal audits flag out things, right, then it's
Speaker 2: supposed to send management into investigation and mitigation mode. They
Speaker 2: start to look out for what's the issue, what's the
Speaker 2: root cause? Is it manpower, is it?
Speaker 2: Sources, is it a policy or process issue. And they
Speaker 2: found
Speaker 1: that there's nothing. It's just that the team has to
Speaker 1: just do better, that's what they say.
Speaker 2: So I'm just wondering why is there that the ground
Speaker 2: feedback that it's not enough manpower and the lack of
Speaker 2: manpower is causing all these mistakes to be made. So
Speaker 2: somewhere along the line we can see that between the
Speaker 2: management and the ground staff right there is this there's
Speaker 2: a disconnect disconnect, there's a mistrust and
Speaker 2: If this carries on, right, I think it's just going
Speaker 2: to make work very unbearable. Yeah. So at this point
Speaker 2: of time for Lucy's case, I think it's either you
Speaker 2: stand your ground and you try to hope for the best,
Speaker 2: look at the leaders that you have and try to
Speaker 2: see whether you get to the right person or wait
Speaker 2: for the right opportunity for things to change. That's one.
Speaker 2: The other one is, of course, you leave. You find
Speaker 2: another place where you can contribute meaningfully because I think
Speaker 2: she loves her work. Yeah, so find a place where
Speaker 2: you can perform, you can do your role without all
Speaker 2: these situations and environmental factors.
Speaker 2: Of course, there's also a third thing, right? Some people
Speaker 2: would say, you should be the change. You should stay
Speaker 2: on and you know the issues well, raise your hand
Speaker 2: volunteer to try to solve it, but that's a long shot. Whistleblowing,
Speaker 2: whistle blowing, if the policy is there and if the
Speaker 2: management is indeed serious about it. My own gut feel
Speaker 2: from this is that they know, but they're not doing
Speaker 2: anything about it and they're just pushing the blame down
Speaker 2: and letting the people on the ground shoulder it. So
Speaker 2: if that's the kind of response from the management then.
Speaker 2: No amount of blowing our feedback will help.
Speaker 1: OK. Well, Lucy, I hope that your situation turns for
Speaker 1: the better and I hope our conversation perhaps will even
Speaker 1: give you the right tools to advocate for yourself or
Speaker 1: your team. If like Lucy, you have a work related question,
Speaker 1: do send it to us. We are at CNA podcasts
Speaker 1: at Medcorp.com.sg. We are also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Meliten
Speaker 1: and YouTube where a video version of this is at.
Speaker 1: The team behind the Work It podcast is Kristina Robert,
Speaker 1: Joanne Chan, Junai Johari and Sai Ye Win. Sound mixing
Speaker 1: is by Carrie Lim, video by Hanida Amin. I'm Gerald
Speaker 1: and I'm Tiffany. Have a smooth work week ahead.