Advice Line | Bob Lewis | InfoWorld | When standards are "Not Invented Here" | July 27, 2007 12:56 PM

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When standards are "Not Invented Here"

July 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

When standards are "Not Invented Here"

Dear Bob ...

Continuing the discussion about IT standards and what to do when people ignore them (see "Roving e-mail," Keep the Joint Running, 7/2/2007): What about the employee who admits the corporate e-mail (or phone system, or desktop, or accounting system, or whatever) does everything their "chosen," but non-standard method does, but still won't change?

In my opinion, this employee has a significant "Not Invented Here" syndrome. I have come close to terminating this employee numerous times, but keep trying to find some management method to redeem this wayward child….who is a year older than me!

The company has been carrying the division that Mr. N.I.H. is supposed to be "developing" for over 4 years. Business sense says, cut the anchor and let the rest of the ship sail. I have been too much of an optimist for too long. Perhaps I am not a talented enough captain to direct a two masted ship.

- Sailing away

Dear Cap'n ...

You could, I suppose, try sarcasm: "Would you like an answering machine to attach to your phone so you don't have to use the corporate voicemail system, too?"

If the employee works for you, say, "Since you can't give me a reason for using your non-standard alternative, it's time for you to decide whether or not you want to be an employee. The company provides a perfectly satisfactory solution for what you want to do. Your decision to do something different, just because you feel like it, isn't acceptable. So if you want to be an employee, it's time to start acting like one. If you don't, tell me now."

If the employee doesn't work for you, you might consider approaching his/her manager. Present the situation, explain that you don't want to be the standards police and would prefer to handle things informally if possible.

Or, if there really isn't any negative impact on anyone other than the employee from making the non-standard choices, take advantage of your natural right to ignore the situation entirely.

- Bob

PS: From your description, failing to follow the company standard is the smallest issue you have with this guy. If I were you (from your account it does appear you're his boss), I'd find his complete failure to produce results to be the more interesting subject for discussion.

Posted by Bob Lewis on July 27, 2007 12:56 PM

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COMMENTS

Mr. Lewis is right on the mark with this. While it is important to be open to different working styles, tools, and approaches (particularly with regard to technology), it is the employer who makes the final call and sets the rules of the house. We all make decisions as to if our employer's rules are reasonable and we can work within them. If not, it is time to find another organization with values more in line with our own.

Posted by: Jeff Helm at July 28, 2007 02:54 PM

This isn't a technical problem, it's a business problem.

If you ran an office with a typical 8 to 5 work day, Monday through Friday, what would you tell someone who wants to work 12 to 9? Or ten hours four days a week?

What would you tell someone who wants to telecommute?

In all three cases -- hours, location and tools -- you ask yourself two simple questions: is the employee equally or more productive using the alternative, and does his use of the alternative cause any additional overhead for anyone else?

If productivity goes down, and the letter above said there's no clear productivity of any kind, you don't even need to ask about cost.

The only tough call is if the employee is productive with the alternative, but causes more work for other employees. Then you have to ask yourself, is the increased productivity worth more than the added cost?

Posted by: Drew Kime at July 31, 2007 08:34 AM

My editor of choice for programming is WordStar. It works for me. Trying to force me off it would get a very negative reaction.

My use of it, though, does not have interactions with other things. It creates ASCII files. Because of no interactions, my preference should rule.

Where there are interactions though, it is more than my preference that rules. For example, if there is a coding standard, then I should have to follow it.

Posted by: Gene Wirchenko at August 1, 2007 10:56 AM

To make it unanimous, it is management's prerogative to manage . My version of response to the employee is, "It doesn't matter to me what you decide to use . The person who will be doing this job is the person who will be using the company email [et al]" . I'll be interested to know what you decide" .

Posted by: Larry Sadler at August 1, 2007 05:22 PM

There are other concerns with someone using an unsanctioned email system other than productivity and cost, which are risk related. For example, is the other email system secure, does anyone else have access to it? Does the other system require periodic password changes? In my business, as in the White House, communications is strictly regulated and all correspondence must be archived for future search, so using Gmail or Yahoo! would put the company at risk.

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