Hi, welcome back to our Ask Me Anything segment where we take on a question that you have sent us. Our listener who I'll call Lucy sent us this one. Lucy is in a small team of about 8 people. Everyone is working in a high pressured environment with long working hours. It's a specialist job and they have been asking for more manpower because they're afraid to make mistakes. Several mistakes have already been made because people are overworked.
As a result, the team has been subjected to a few internal audits and they're just told to do better. Now when they highlighted that they need help, management shuts them down according to Lucy, and calls a few of them troublemakers. Lucy is asking if middle management is not listening to them and there are problems caused by a manpower shortage. How can they escalate this and to whom?
I think the situation here is that they have escalated it, but the middle management is not listening. So when I read this question, right, I just thought to myself like, wow, I feel for Lucy and the team because it sounds like they are really trying their best. But they're not getting the support from the management. Yeah,
then do I whistle blow? Do I go higher up? Because I think a lot of people do wonder whether the higher ups know that there is an issue and they are also trying to cover up, then it's going to be even worse.
So I think at this point, It really depends on how much faith Lucy has in her management, the highest one, because there are sometimes management they know, but they don't want to respond or they're not responding appropriately. So the issue is not with not knowing, but the issue is that management is not stepping up to do what needs to be done. So if I'm Lucy, right? I would say I would look at the management's responses. Is it that the leaders that are there, are they
close to the ground? You know, if they're close to the ground and if they are really caring about the operations and the work that they do, right, then maybe there's a chance that I can look for the right leader to speak to. You also know that there are leaders who are just on the ground for tokenism, just to show face. They're not really caring about the workers. So I think she needs to see other such people, such managers in the office.
I think also in many companies they have got employee sentiment, engagement surveys. Has there been certain things like they've done before and
feedback loops as well. Yes, there been things that have been mentioned a few times.
So usually like from my experiences, people do give feedback, but they get very disappointed and discouraged when the feedback is not acted on. And year after year, the same thing happens. I'm guessing here that Lucy's situation is not the first time. I believe that this has been repeated for a particular amount of time already and maybe it's getting like too much talk, no action, and nobody seems to be bothered, and yet they are the ones who have to face the consequences.
OK, I'm going to play devil's advocate here. I hear that Lucy saying that they were subjected to a few internal audits. And these internal audits have shown that they could be doing better. So from the management's point of view, there is no problem in terms of a manpower shortage. So what exactly is wrong in this situation?
So when internal audits flag out things, right, then it's supposed to send management into investigation and mitigation mode. They start to look out for what's the issue, what's the root cause? Is it manpower, is it? Sources, is it a policy or process issue. And they found
that there's nothing. It's just that the team has to just do better, that's what they say.
So I'm just wondering why is there that the ground feedback that it's not enough manpower and the lack of manpower is causing all these mistakes to be made. So somewhere along the line we can see that between the management and the ground staff right there is this there's a disconnect disconnect, there's a mistrust and If this carries on, right, I think it's just going
to make work very unbearable. Yeah. So at this point of time for Lucy's case, I think it's either you stand your ground and you try to hope for the best, look at the leaders that you have and try to see whether you get to the right person or wait for the right opportunity for things to change. That's one. The other one is, of course, you leave. You find another place where you can contribute meaningfully because I think
she loves her work. Yeah, so find a place where you can perform, you can do your role without all these situations and environmental factors. Of course, there's also a third thing, right? Some people would say, you should be the change. You should stay on and you know the issues well, raise your hand volunteer to try to solve it, but that's a long shot. Whistleblowing, whistle blowing, if the policy is there and if the
management is indeed serious about it. My own gut feel from this is that they know, but they're not doing anything about it and they're just pushing the blame down and letting the people on the ground shoulder it. So if that's the kind of response from the management then. No amount of blowing our feedback will help.
OK. Well, Lucy, I hope that your situation turns for the better and I hope our conversation perhaps will even give you the right tools to advocate for yourself or your team. If like Lucy, you have a work related question, do send it to us. We are at CNA podcasts at Medcorp.com.sg. We are also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Meliten and YouTube where a video version of this is at. The team behind the Work It podcast is Kristina Robert, Joanne Chan, Junai Johari and Sai Ye Win. Sound mixing
is by Carrie Lim, video by Hanida Amin. I'm Gerald and I'm Tiffany. Have a smooth work week ahead.