Most companies have written policies on everything from how to earn paid time off to the eligibility requirements for getting a raise. As a middle manager (and this can be anyone from the first tier of management up to those just below the executive team), part of your job is both to follow and to enforce the company’s policies. This means that when an employee calls out sick for the 3rd day in a row, you know that you’ll need to get her to submit a doctor’s note to HR, per policy. Or when an employee asks about the possibility of working from home one day a week, you know that you’ll need her to document the request in writing and share it with your boss, per policy.
Policies exist for a reason. For a middle manager, policies are helpful because they provide some guidance for a few anticipated scenarios. This prevents the manager from having to think through tough decisions independently and in the moment when an employee needs direction. Regardless of whether or not a middle manager thinks that a policy is good, there is something supportive about knowing that you can lean on this document that has typically been handed down from the executive team. The support lies in the fact that a) there is guidance available, that b) policies, by nature, encourage consistency which leads to fairness, and that c) sometimes it’s nice to be the messenger instead of the decision maker.
Now I can say a lot about bad policies, but that would be a whole other post. Instead, I want to focus on the risk for the demise of policy: when people at the top back out of them. I can’t think of anything more demoralizing as a middle manager, than when you enforce an agency policy, and someone above you, or HR, chickens out of enforcing it with you. For example, your employee has been 20 minutes late for work 4 days in a row. You’ve checked in with her on each of these days, assessing the barriers to getting to work on time. She tells you that nothing is going on outside of work, but that the train has been late. You help her problem solve and come up with the solution together that she’ll catch the earlier train. However, she is still late. Her lateness has now added up to an hour and 20 minutes of time not worked. Your company’s policy is to issue a warning after someone is late more than 2 days in a row. You write up a warning and send it to HR for review prior to delivering it. HR reviews the warning and tells you to hold off on warning the staff member because, despite being consistently late, she is the top performing employee in your division.
Can you identify the problem here? There’s a couple of them, actually. First, policies are not a la carte. Just because someone is a top performer in some categories of her work, doesn’t mean she gets off the hook for underperforming in others. If everyone was great at certain aspects of their job but got away with not following policies, why would anyone strive to both excel at their job and adhere to policies? Enforcing policy is not a choice based on how the employee is doing in other categories of her work. Second, if you’ve been clear with your employees about the need to honor the policies, you end up looking pretty weak if you don’t hold them accountable when they don’t honor them. You’re essentially talking the talk but not walking the walk. Overtime this can erode your staff members’ trust in you and your authority.
If you’re in a position to support middle managers—heck, you may still be a middle manager yourself but over other managers—remember that not backing up the middle manager when she is enforcing agency policy undermines the authority she has and ultimately creates distance and doubt between her and her staff members.
Middle managers are the ones who enforce the policies with the majority of employees. If you don’t have their backs, you erode the leadership that exists in the middle of the organization. As a middle manager, this experience feels like akin to when you lean against something, thinking it can support you, but it buckles under the pressure.
Have experience as a middle manager feeling supported or unsupported when enforcing agency policy? Share with us in the comments below.