The Clock Watchers

Dear lovely people,

I was absolutely startled and bewildered to see such a rush. Honestly I thought the office building was on fire so half-walking-half-running, I left the meeting room and went over to my office, grabbed my bag and was at the main entrance in no time only then did I get to understand what had actually happened.

Back to the beginning. I was chairing my first executive meeting on my first day at work as the newest employee and overall boss of Hilltop Conglomerates. It was a late afternoon meeting and we were busy planning for the next year starting in a months’ time. Suddenly like a coordinated army, my staff got up and everybody except me rushing for the door. I listened to the sound of any siren or wising sound indicating a fire breakout and heard nothing. Without a second thought, I found my way out of the building wondering along the way if this was the best way to start a new job.

Outside the building, I saw nothing that could have caused such a commotion. I stood there and watched my colleagues waving to me as they drove off. It took a thickset gateman to explain to me that office hours were over. I headed back into the building to enquire more only to find out that every single person including my secretary was gone. It was then and there I knew I was in for rough times.

The following day after an all-day outdoor meeting, I got to the office at a few minutes to five in the evening. Just as I was about opening the main door, it flung open and I was almost knocked down by my staff in total commotion. The gateman again surfaced from nowhere and started talking to me. “it’s sad sir, I am not impressed with their work habits. The transition between the last CEO and you gave birth to this. Shortly after he left, I noticed that our office clears out every afternoon at exactly 5:00 p.m. and worse of all, the earliest person is here as from 8:30 a.m in the morning.”

That was bad news for a man like me who grew up in the culture of a fast-moving organization. I don't see how we can meet our aggressive New Year goals with such a minimal sense of urgency. My team is out the door every five p.m., and none of them takes work home, I talked to myself walking lackadaisically into the building. I don't want to sound like the new boss who bullies people into staying late, but this is incredibly ridiculous and has to stop. It downed on me then that without bringing the hammer down, I will not be able to get my team members to put more effort into their work?

That’s the problem, the Clock Watchers as I got to call my team, come to work late, spent time chattering and file out in a rush on time every single workday. Yet, they want promotions, they want an increase in pay, they want to be happy and successful in life. I think that for a full-time staff member, a work week of at least 40 hours is appropriate, and 50 hours is not out of the question. I certainly work a lot more hours than that.

What do you recommend I do to get them back on rails?