7 Lessons from Manual Labor

Organizational Psychology in it’s most raw form.

Most of the time, manual labor can be somewhat brainless and physically exhausting. There is one goal in mind for the team of laborers to accomplish and ideally everybody will work to achieve this goal in a timely manner. In my experience, there are some days that seem to fly by and other days that seem to drag on forever and I am constantly checking the clock. Currently, I am a manager for a company that installs fridges into college campuses. At the beginning and end of the summer, I hire a team of people (usually friends) to pick up and install the fridges. The work is usually done within a few weeks. As an organizational psychologist, it fascinates me to see how the team forms and how my actions as a leader can affect the day.

1. Have a GOAT Lead the Way

GOAT — Greatest of all time. One does not simply achieve GOAT status easily. I like how Jim Collins describes Level 5 (GOAT) leadership in his book, Good to Great. “Level 5 leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will. They’re incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organization and its purpose, not themselves”. More on Collins here.

The reasons why people work have been studied for years. The leadership throughout all levels of the organization has a powerful impact on the work ethic of employees. I’ve noticed that I work harder and think positively about my work when I am working for a great leader. A great leader or even a great manager will have a passion for their work. The passion will be easy to recognize, and their pure enthusiasm for the work has the ability to inspire.

2. Encourage and EMPOWER

Individuals crave autonomy. Too often I see managers try and control every process. The manager has a certain vision of how the work needs to be done. What is truly important is that managers align their employees with a vision for the organization. For my first job, I was a “courtesy clerk” at a grocery store. My manager told me to think of the store as if I was in charge of it. This empowered me, and basically gave me a job description. I always had something to do as a “manager”, instead of just looking for the next spill to clean up. Ideally, all unskilled labor would take pride in their work and work as if they have just to much to lose (or gain) as their supervisors. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Empowering workers goes a long way. It boosts productivity, but more importantly it improves the culture and mood of the workplace. Sometimes, as a leader, fewer instructions can go a long way. People need to be aligned with the vision of the organization, not the process. The process may change day to day, but the vision remains the same. If a manager is too controlling over the process, the workers may not be as creative because they lose a sense of freedom to craft their job. Aligned, team oriented employees should fill the roll that is most needed at the specific time, which may vary greatly throughout the day or may not vary at all. The best teams I’ve been on are aware of what everybody is doing and the effort they are putting forth. The most dysfunctional teams that I have been on consisted of people who were only concerned about the work ethic of other employees. They were so worried that it hindered their own production and mood.

3. Persevere through Adversity

I spent 8 days at California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo (SLO) installing and uninstalling over a thousand mini-fridges with a team of guys. In some ways, the trip was a disaster. Every single day something unplanned happened, none of these mishaps were our fault. A truck would show up late, a building would be locked, and hours were wasted. Looking back, these setbacks seemed to unite our team more than anything. There was one night where we had nothing to do for six hours during the day and had to work until midnight. That night was the hardest we worked and it seemed to fly by. We blasted the music, put our heads down, and moved those fridges. There was one mission, and everybody was on the same page and wanted it to get done.

I’ve experienced plenty of internal adversity in my experience of being on sport teams, school teams, and work teams. Great teams consist of passionate people that care. Just because two people are aligned with the team’s goals does not mean that they will get along. Disagreements are bound to happen, and I think they are healthy. There are healthy and unhealthy ways to approach these disagreements, but most importantly there needs to a culture that allows and encourages different thoughts and opinions. I’ve witnessed and been in a couple fights within my baseball team that escalated beyond just verbal disagreements. I don’t know if it’s just a guy thing, but we would always feel much closer after a fight and a resolution was established.

4. Work is Fun?

There’s a few things I’ve tried to make the work more entertaining. Manual labor can get extremely repetitive and definitely boring. Music definitely helps. At SLO, we all noticed a major difference in pace when our huge speaker died. It went from a dance party to a sloth party. There are multiple studies showing how music can influence mood and productivity. However, there may be times when music is unsafe, unapproved by the client, or just not appropriate. Furthermore, I’ve found that little competitions can make things more fun and interesting. For example, I implemented a step and stair contest and whoever had the most at the end of the day won a gift card.The specific ways a team has fun will differ depending on the culture of the group. Our group of California kids use skateboards as dollies for the refrigerators, which is definitely entertaining and a little dangerous. My point is that it is critical for the organization to allow a certain degree of freedom and flexibility for fun.

5. Take a Break!

As Dory from Disney’s Finding Nemo would say, ‘Grumpy Gills’ may come out if no breaks are taken. There’s a time to grind without ceasing, but there’s also a time to not grind at all. There is an increasing amount of research coming out about the benefits of taking breaks. Check out this article here. In manual labor jobs, the work is physically and intellectually taxing, as opposed to growing amount of intellectual labor only jobs. Without breaks, incidents are more likely to occur due to fatigue. The quality of and speed of work may diminish. Furthermore, employee morale may lower and burnout may increase.

5. Flow and Slow are Contagious

Flow- “The mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity” (Robertson et al. 2012). This state can be hard to achieve. Sometimes, we blame not enough caffeine, not enough sleep, bad diet, other people, etc., for not being able to achieve this flow state. Work is much easier in this state and all outside distractions seem to go away. In team oriented, manual labor type jobs, I have found that flow and slow can be incredibly contagious. Team jobs obviously depend on other people. So if one person is working slow it almost forces the rest to adjust to that pace and vice versa. The leader often sets the pace for the rest of the workers. Their mood and work ethic strongly effect everyone around them.

One Negative Nancy can kill the vibe completely- In just about every place I’ve worked there has been a Negative Nancy, Debbie Downer, or Sour Sally. Meanwhile, I’m just trying to be Positive Pauly ;). I don’t always succeed unfortunately. As I mentioned earlier, mood is contagious. If someone is always in a bad mood, it may indicate that they are not a good fit for the job and might be time for that person to move on.

6. Provide for the Squad

The notion of providing for employees speaks volumes about the organization. Many times, the distribution of pay is somewhat unequal between the organization, managers, and grunt workers. I’ve heard so many times, “we aren’t getting paid enough for this” or “that’s not part of our job description”. These kind of attitudes are detrimental to productivity and the health of the culture. Perhaps these attitudes can be avoided with a simple employee first mindset.

An employee first mindset would ensure that employees are valued and recognized. One way an organization can do this is by providing the adequate resources for a job. This seems obvious, but it is often neglected. The resources provided by the organization say a lot about the organization to the employee. Cheap, outdated, or broken resources may slow production. Such resources also display a poor message to the employees. It shows that they are not willing to give the employee the best chance for success or perhaps that they are not worth spending the extra resources on. Furthermore, I often bring food for my employees. In my opinion, even the type of food can say a lot about the organization. Does the provided food reflect that the organization cares about the well-being of their employees? If I bring food, I need to account for the entire team’s preferences and sensitivities to make sure everyone is getting what they need!

7. Accountability and Transparency

Accountability and performance management is kind of a touchy subject. I had an entire class devoted to it in grad school. What I’ve gathered and seen through experience, is that there needs to be a culture of accountability and transparency throughout all levels of the team. This is incredibly easier said than done. Correction needs to be immediate as well. If someone is doing something wrong, there is no need to wait until a performance review to bring it up, and it isn’t just the leadership that should be in charge of holding people responsible. I’ve seen teams dismantle from lack of accountability. Next thing you know, people are talking behind each other’s backs and losing focus on the actual task at hand.

Concluding Thoughts

Much of my experience is unique because the teams I have been on are mostly short-term and the workload varies. However, I’m confident that many of these observations and tips apply to long term work. My main point is that employees need to feel valued instead replaceable. If leadership and the organization can successfully create such a culture, it will be a better place to work for all and most likely more profitable.

References

Robertson, I. T., Alex, J. B., & Cooper, C. L. (2012). Job and work attitudes, engagement and employee performance.Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 33(3), 224- 232.