Why does management tell regular staff to work with a sense of urgency?

[snugglegirl05]

I have been wondering this for a while.

Why does management tell regular work staff to work with a sense of urgency?

I overheard this from a manager at Target telling an employee this a while ago, & I could not understand why this was even a good idea.

[EricKei]

They want the maximum amount of stuff done in as little time as possible, so that they spend less money on payroll (which makes sense -- even at minimum wage payroll often accounts for 50% or more of costs, when you include Manager pay in there). If they want harder workers, maybe they should ALL pay more >_>

Either that, or they think that it will make people "look busy" for the benefit of the customers/Corporate.

[underemployeed]

my response this is not a hospital, we did not just have a pregnant women come in with a gunshot wound while overdosing on heroin after he water broke, and here is also the bus full of children she ran over on the way to the ER.
That is a situation that I would assume calls for some urgency, stocking those shelves does not carry the same weight. And while someone might figuratively die from their favorite shampoo being out of stock, I am of the mindset you get what you pay for and it is stupid to expect people to run around like a chicken with its head cut off accomplishing tasks, especially once everything gets done and congrats, you get to go home early.... without that extra pay you were counting on.

[sms001]

Underemployed is certainly right about the philosophy behind it, but I agree with you that it could be worded better. I currently work a 'variable time' job in a restaurant. We have a certain amount of production to do each day, then we leave.

I'm pretty ethical, so although I could stretch it out and get more hours (and hence more money) I don't - we work a strong steady pace, casual but not goldbricking. There are certainly a couple of notches left to kick up to, but this is bottom of the food service ladder we're talking about. I just can't justify keeping up a dog trot all day.

[Bright_Star]

Why should anyone work with a sense of urgency when they're getting paid a pittance when compared to what managers make? IF they get a respectable wage then maybe, just maybe, they'll work their asses off. Till then, hell no...lol.

[bainsidhe]

Either that, or they think that it will make people "look busy" for the benefit of the customers/Corporate.

This. If you're not panting hard with a wild look in your eye, you must not be working hard. And neither customers or corporate appreciate lazy workers. Which is why some ultra-lazy workers are congratulated because they somehow manage to look busy doing nothing, while laid-back but otherwise hard workers get chewed out.

[Dreamstalker]

Most of my duties at the game store were behind a computer; I rarely ventured up to the sales floor unless it was to track down something that had been put back on the shelf or otherwise misplaced. Just because I wasn't running up and down the stairs all the time or working the keyboard like I was hacking into the missile-defense system I "wasn't doing my job effectively". And Dog forbid I actually put on some music to keep myself focused.

[underemployeed]

Even better is my job, we get no breaks during our 8 hour shift and no lunch. Now at my factory job, I got paid more than min wage, two 15min paid breaks, and a 30min unpaid lunch, I did work significantly harder than my current job, and you can be damn sure. I don't put an ounce more effort in than is needed to not get yelled at or make my next shift easier. I mean seriously, they had told me I'm never gonna get promoted. why bust my ass? Actually, if I don't work like a bat out of hell, the managers won't get as good of bonuses, and well I can tolerate no bonus at all if I know, the $50 I won't get is more like $500-1000 for a management

[ShadowBall]

I heard this shit at the scammy call center too. We were required to sound urgent when talking to secretaries and operators. Basically, we had to sound like it was an emergency, send us to the person we need NOW and don't jerk us around.

Personally, I think that's bad business. If you were a busy manager of some kind at any sort of company, would it not piss you off to be told that someone on the phone wants you and sounds like there might be something wrong? These managers might think there's an actual issue, like a loved one is hurt or an actual emergency happened. Imagine this shit and then you get a sales person on the phone trying to sling worthless six-hundred-dollar magazines at you.

My boss herself was proud of the fact that she had some managers convinced there was an actual emergency based on how desperately she spoke to the secretaries.

In any case, I never did the urgency thing because it involved fast talking. This means the manager would know less about what they were getting into. Scam. No. I explained things to people politely, slowly, clearly and answered all questions.

I'm not going to sound like I ran a marathon all day long and scam hard working folks out of money for fucking minimum wage. If I wanted to become an actor, I'd have gone to acting school. I know not all call center jobs are scams - but mine was, big time.

[CoffeeMonkey]

Act with Urgency is one of the "core values" of my company. While I did have one manager who felt this meant that you should run to grab that muffin like it was on fire, most have not.

In my opinion, acting with urgency means acting to get the customer's needs taken care of as expediantly as possible. It means being prompt and treating the customers as if their time is important.

I go to a bagel place sometimes that is soooo sloooow. I don't mind waiting somewhere if it's busy, but even when there's no one there, it seems to take twice as long as it should, mostly because the employees MOSEY. They shuffle, chat with each other while working and sometimes just stand there and do nothing, looking around like they're bored. This makes me feel like my business is not important to them and they'd rather I wasn't there.

Not that I don't believe that some folks have been told by their managers to act like everythings a big emergency omg! Just that it doesn't HAVE to mean that.

[EricKei]

I don't mind waiting somewhere if it's busy, but even when there's no one there, it seems to take twice as long as it should, mostly because the employees MOSEY. They shuffle, chat with each other while working and sometimes just stand there and do nothing, looking around like they're bored. This makes me feel like my business is not important to them and they'd rather I wasn't there.

KFC chikin is like that here. I've waited ten minutes or more (yes, real time, not SCTime - I actually timed it) to get food that I could *already see in the warmer* when there was only one other person in line and one more on drive-thru >_<

[Food Lady]

Why do they make you wait if they have the food ready? Do they not want customers to come back? Unless they don't have enough of all the right chicken parts. I don't get it.

[EricKei]

Maybe they figure, if you're in there already, chances are you WILL wait around and buy something. Most of the time...they're right >_<

Then again, there's a reason KFC has so few stores here, despite it being a fried chicken kind of town (Popeyes originated here, I think Church's did too, and both of them are kicking KFC's butt, have been for years). Granted, you CAN get much, much better chicken than any of them at any local restaursant, you just have to wait 20+ minutes for it to cook...

[jnd4rusty]

I work in the restaurant industry and the words "sense of urgency" is commonplace in this line of work. When you are in a high volume, fast paced business having a sense of urgency is top priority. It is the same with any "fast food" or even sit down establishments. We push people to do the job correctly and quickly because our customers expect prompt and accurate service. When you are making over 900 to 1000 dollar hours selling food during lunch, you must demand the sense of urgency from your crew. One slow paced person working at a turtles speed can bottleneck the entire shift and make it difficult to accomplish your goal. I expect the same thing from people if I am the customer, my time is valuable and when I walk into an establishment, whether it is a restaurant or a retail store, I expect the team to take care of my transaction in a speedy manner. That is not to say that I don't chat with crew or that I am a SC because I am not but I don't like people, who should be paying attention to my transaction, talking with their co workers about when they are going to get drunk, or to just take their time to help me.

[EricKei]

Fair enough ^_^ Just keep in mind that managers will often expect "urgency" from employees in a store with only two customers in it in the dead of night, too