Feared or Respected....which is better??

Me and other managers are having a debate. They claim that I'm too feared in the office by employees and that will ultimately result in losing them.
I believe that if an employee knows that they're easily replaceable and that I have the will to replace them if they aren't fulfilling their end of the bargain, they will ultimately do their job properly.

The other managers believe in chance after chance and coddling people. I believe in three chances to do it properly or clean out your desk.

I believe that the owner of the company placed me here to make him the most money possible, not to coddle people and constantly fix their errors for them. The others claim that we should nurture employees and allow them to make mistakes that cost the company money because training people will cost more.

I feel that employees will see others getting fired for being idiots and will therefore do their job properly so they can feed their families. The other managers feel that this will cause people to quietly search out other employment options instead.

So....what do you guys think? Assume you own a company that makes a profit of roughly $2million per month. Assume that you should be making about $100k more per month, but aren't because of constant mistakes by employees. (These are real numbers).

Based on those numbers, and you being the owner, which manager would you prefer running employees??

I believe Machiavelli
It is better to be feared and loved. It is too hard most of the time to be both , so feared is better alone than the other option.

a reply to: MrBuddy

To be honest, I would want a manager who is respected and gets things done. With that said, though, if I started to notice a lot of turnover and the most common reason why people were leaving was because of said management, then said management would be the next one out the door.

You don't want to over-coddle your employees, but you also don't want them constantly fearing their jobs. A happy employee is a more productive employee and an employee that respects their leaders will do more for them.

Take what you will from this, if you take anything at all.

a reply to: MrBuddy

$1.2 million loss annually due to employee errors? Fire every single one of them dude...

Why not both?

People respect authority.
A boss cant be the employees friend but that doesnt mean people should work in fear of losing their jobs.
There is a balance to be had, much like parenting.
I didnt have to spank my daughter often because she knew I would.

a reply to: MrBuddy

I was in the AF 24 years and had the opportunity to supervise all sorts. At the end of the day it's the mission that rules. After all...what good is a bunch of coddled employees when the business tanks.

Peeps nowadays are too cowardly to tell peeps they suck. I used to pull in my worst team and let them know they sucked. BUT, then I gave them a roadmap and encouragement to change. Sometimes it worked...Sometimes it didn't. But I gave them a chance. After that...prepared to get ridden like a circus pony.

At work I would say respect is better

If you're hanging out at the ravenite social club then fear is prob the way to go

a reply to: MrBuddy

People work harder for someone they respect , fear is a negative emotion and will only lead to negative outcomes.

double post

I appreciate all the comments guys/gals. Here's an example of the kinds of things I have to deal with on a daily basis:

I told an employee to box up some items, place a pre-paid FedEx label on top, and call 1-800-GOFEDEX to schedule a pick up. Easy-peasy right? I came in the next morning to see the box still sitting on my desk. I asked the employee why it was not sent. Their response was that they since they had never shipped anything before, they weren't sure how to do it. Mind you, this is a 22 year old with a BS degree.
I asked him what was so hard about following my simple instructions. I then inquired how he ever managed to get hired in the first place if he wasn't capable of making a simple phone call. I asked him if he'd ever sent flowers to his mother for Mothers Day. He replied, "Yes". I asked him how he ever managed to do that the first time without ever having done it before and he just stared into space.
This may appear a bit harsh to say to an employee, but the documents we send are mainly time sensitive and that particular envelope needed to be at the destination on a certain date to be signed on the date stamped at the top of each paper.
The mistake now costs money because all papers need to be re-drafted with new dates by in-house lawyers that get paid far too much as it is. Mind you, at the end of the day, it's not a lot of money, but it's how we look in the eyes of the customer that matters in this case.

Should I have made sure that I mailed them myself so this wouldn't have happened? In hindsight, yes. I just feel that such a menial task could've been accomplished by any idiot with half a brain.

This is a great question.

Like a few others have said, the best scemario is that your underlings will respect you because of your knowledge, skills, and for your treatment of others. If they see you always doing your job well while respecting and treating others well, they will want to imitate you.

Respecting others doesn't mean letting them act like idiots. If an employee is screwing up, a respectful way of treating them would be to take them aside and honestly and calmly showing them exactly what they are doing wrong and exactly what is expected of them. An open dialogue with them to find out why they are screwing up, too. You will be able to discern if they are making mistakes because they don't care and suck or because they need some help with required skills or they're nervous, etc. If they are making mistakes but they do care about their work, then they should have a second chance and hopefully some guidance and monitoring for a bit.

The ones who are just careless jerks can go, though.

That said, employees' attitudes often reflect their managers. Not necessarily one -to-one, such as the manager doesn't care so the employees don't care (though that definitely happens). But if a manager treats his employees like they aren't worth much (easily replaceable) and if he's just waiting for them to screw up so he can can them, then the employees will have all kinds of problems.

TLDR / If you respect them and do your job with integrity (which includes valuing others) then your employees will want to do a good job. A manager can affect the office mental and emotional environment and make it go downhill real quick.

a reply to: MrBuddy

In this case- why did one of your employees get assigned by you to do something they hadn't done before? Why didn't you know that he hadn't been trained on that task?

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that shipping a box could be done by a three year-old. But actually, every place's system for shipping is different. There's some kind of database he has to use that has your customers' info probably, right? And he has to use the correct program in the computer to get that info, and correctly get that to the program that creates the shipping labels, right? Or maybe it's in the same program.

Either way, that actually can be a task that one needs to be shown how to do. Every place has a different system and some systems aren't as intuitive as you would think.

So the real question is why wasn't your employee trained on this?

Why didn't you know that this employee didn't know how to do that?

Sounds like a breakdown in your process somewhere.

Your last point there- that you should have double checked and made sure that the task got done is a good one and valid. But you then make an excuse for yourself and say "but any idiot should be able to do that task."

If you can make excuses for yourself, why can't your employees make excuses for themselves?

Respect comes from both love and fear.

Be like Micheal Scott be both loved and feared.

“I want be to fear how much they love me”
-Micheal Scott

a reply to: MrBuddy

a reply to: MrBuddy
Was it your job to send the time sensitive materials or do you just delegate and defer all of your work? That is an honest question based on your comment about sending it yourself.

a reply to: MrBuddy

Respected is always better.

If the employees are constantly making mistakes, it's a management problem. People who are afraid of their manager will do the minimum. People who genuinely respect their management and feel that the management will support them will often go out of their way to do more.

What's your absenteeism rate since you took over? I'll bet if you're playing "Stormin' Norman" that it's gone up.

It also depends upon your employee demographic. Older people who are riding out the last few years, or younger people that are using the job for a stepping stone.

a reply to: MrBuddy


Respected!

Depends on the situation. People just actively #ing around, not working properly or not caring, I have almost no patience for. If someone works hard and tries but makes the occasional mistake it's a totally different situation. Everybody's human, mistakes happen. The way people react to their mistakes makes a difference too. If someone freaks out or tries to hide it....I get pissed. If someone comes to me and says hey I #ed this up what can we do? Again it's different. I'll try and figure out why it happed, a solution and make sure it doesn't happen any more.

I've found different people react to different things. Some people work better having someone dictate things to them, others work better left with some freedom to make decisons. Sometimes I find it really comes down to the individual person.

a reply to: lakenheath24

AF here also.

I treated all my team with respect. Those that did not show respect learned the be afraid. Very afraid.

And I never had to do or say a thing. My team was awesome.

Just going off of your thread title.

Respected, because if you're feared people will try to get you as soon as you turn your back. Since, in order to create fear, you have to mistreat or intimidate people in some way.

I love when people try to intimidate me, makes me wanna take 'em down a notch or two.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
Why not both?

People respect authority.
A boss cant be the employees friend but that doesnt mean people should work in fear of losing their jobs.
There is a balance to be had, much like parenting.
I didnt have to spank my daughter often because she knew I would.

Yes. She respected you because she knew you would follow through.