Like a few hundred other folks, I attended Thursday’s program on “dead wood in libraries.” It was the only program I was able to go to–had I not been felled with a cold, I would have done a couple more on Friday, but such is life. At any rate, this was a great program. I’m so glad I work with live wires, not dead wood!
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Characteristics of dead wood:
identity through their job
people who talk about The Good Old Days
I-deserve-this-job syndrome–entitlement
deserve to slack off
ease into day gently
got meaning from routines [My objection to this one: routine is very nice. Particularly in jobs with a lot of change, including self-induced change, it can be good to know that “the sun also rises.”]
Strategies for dealing with dead wood
1. facing the problem directly
2. let dead wood stay on staff until retire/die
3. getting people to change–NOT a recommended strategy! Can take more time and energy than is worth the investment
Why people don’t perform to standards
1. they don’t realize there are standards
2. the reward is for not doing what they should do
3. no negative consequence
4. they think they are doing just fine
5. they think their way, not yours, is best
6. they have obstalces that limit their performance
7. they don’t want to
All staff should have annual performance appraisals
Clearly state the performance standards
Explore solutions with the employee
Develop an improvement plan with actions and target dates
Downsizing and reorganization can be opportunities to resolve staffing problems
For union jobs, be very careful with what jobs are on the chopping block
Consider using coaching or counseling to help staff transition out of the job
Third-party intervention: broker a “peace agreement” so that both you and your dead wood walked out of the meeting with dignity intact. She did not see this done in libraries but saw it a lot in commercial settings. 20% of the time, employees agreed on the spot to leave; over time, more decided to leave
You just described every person with tenure!
While there’s much in what you say, it is a bit ‘us and them’ to describe someone as ‘deadwood’. Quite often in my experience, those that approximate to ‘deadwood’ are partly so because the organisation has failed to train them, has had a culture where innovation has been resisted and which they’ve simple taken in like mother’s milk. I find that people exhibiting ‘deadwood’ symptoms usually are symtoms of an organisation’s history. Look closer and you’ll see that they aren’t an isolated case, but that they are as much symptoms as causes of problems.