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In the organisation I work for there is a culture of management praising employees (sometimes my directs) for a job well done via email and copying in senior managers and other interested parties. Almost always it involves one person starting it and then lots of others joining in afterwards and continuing to copy in everyone else. 

On other occasions my manager will do this for one of my directs and copy me in. For me to follow this up afterwards via email seems "after the event" and I'm not really sure of the value that my direct would place on it anyway. 

On the one hand I see this as a good thing because it is a recognition of someone doing a good job. However on the other hand I don't see it as being as effective as proper feedback (or even praise) being delivered face to face. I am therefore reluctant to enter into these email praise chains just to be seen to be doing it but I am concerned that this could be harmful to me as senior managers may assume that I don't praise my guys at all. I have not yet implemented feedback, which is what I really want to do, but do often praise people personally for a job well done.

I don't want to do something I don't believe in just to avoid looking bad to senior management. I do want to do something because it is effective. Would welcome any thoughts or comments?

G

asteriskrntt1's picture

Hi G

I don't see the issue here.  There is nothing immoral or illegal about it.  It may not be what you think is best, but who cares?  We all have to do things in our jobs we don't like and follow systems that seem ridiculous and inefficient.  Plus, you are objecting to this and you are not even doing your preferred, the MT feedback models.

If this is your biggest issue, you really have a dream job.  Play along and when you get around to giving MT feedback, your directs will appreciate it.

 

Gazman's picture

I guess that it's just one of things that bothers me but in the grand scale of things it doesn't really matter. There are lots of other things I could and should be focussing on, thanks for the reality check.

Mark's picture
Admin Role Badge

Let's just say I wouldn't place the range of managerial behaviors as bounded by illegal and immoral.  Let's start with effective.

When you compare what your organization's culture is on this point, you could say, relative to face to face feedback, it's not as effective. 

On the other hand, it's not as bad as many other possible cultures.

The question is not what everyone else, but rather what you do.

I'd recommend you do your best to give feedback in the best possible way, as well as go along with this part of the culture.

Mark

rsshilli's picture

We have the same type of culture, but I personally put the following constraints.  Email is good for:

  • Little accomplishments (ie. "Thanks for setting up an account for me" or "Thanks for helping out George yesterday")
  • When the person is in a different location, or worse in a different time zone

The rest of my thanks comes out in 1-1s and the weekly team meeting. 

I doubt your boss is worried that you don't thank people enough.  If your team is achieving business results (which is hard to do without showing appreciation) then you're in good shape.

Ryan

bflynn's picture

Personally, I'd hate it if I got a bunch of emails saying that I did a good job - how insincere can you get, the boss says thanks and everyone else feels like they have to chime in?  Walk over to see me, say "great job", thank me and ask me to keep up the work.

I do get that they're trying to draw attention to you to the big bosses. Ok, but for me a handshake and my commitment to doing better is far more effective.

Gazman's picture

I can see that it's not such a bad thing really. Thanks Mark for the reminder to focus on my own behaviour, must get started on feedback soon.