Be a Good Manager: What would you do if…?

You are an executive at a startup company. You noticed one of your most productive engineers is working through dinner again and you suspect this is becoming a common pattern. Most of your engineers are married and do not usually put in this many hours. He is single.

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Your engineer is very goal-oriented and hates leaving work without meeting his objectives. His work is very thorough and consistent with your project schedules.

He usually arrives to work around 8:30 am and now it’s about 6:45 pm. Based on his timecards, you know that he is often staying at work until at least 8:30, which makes for an 11-hour plus day.

The last few times you spoke to him when you stop by his office on your way out, he says he wants to go home for dinner but then sometimes he gets hung up on some unexpected work causing him to take longer than expected to meet his daily goal.

Since your small company does not provide dinner to employees, you offer to buy him dinner like you have a few other times. He says “Thank you,” but never accepts your offer. He says it’s not necessary since he wants to go home early enough to eat.

What would you do?

Please comment, like and share if this causes you to think.

I’ll see you… on the next page.

Challen Yee

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