Lessons from a washing machine

Today, I had to get a new washing machine.

Believe me, that’s not an easy thing for me. I hate having to buy new things. I would very much prefer to fix the old and carry on.

But my washing machine broke a couple of weeks ago, and, in spite of my attempts to fix it, the poor thing was just done. I had no choice. I had to replace it.

As I was doing my first load of laundry in the new machine, with the old one still sitting sadly in the corner, I found myself seeing management lessons in the experience of the past few weeks.

I know. It sounds crazy, but stick with me here, and hopefully you will follow my nutty analogy.

My old machine was a generally good machine. It did what I asked of it, it did so with little need for oversight, and it was dependable. That really is like a lot of employees. In general, they are good and honest and will do their jobs well.

 The old machine was a good one

We got it at an estate sale years ago, and when we got it home, we found that the hose connector threads had been sheared off. The machine was in perfect working order but it had to have the threads to work. I found the piece online, and I replaced it. The machine just needed some attention up front, and it has worked incredibly well ever since.

New employees are like that. They aren’t perfect. They bring habits from old jobs, different knowledge sets, and a unique way of seeing the world. In order to help them reach their potential in our specific cultures, it is vitally important that we spend some time giving them attention up front. On-boarding is perhaps the most important training we can give our employees. Conversely, failure to do so will be costly down the road.

With my old machine, I made sure that I cared for it properly. I kept it cleaned and I removed dust and dirt from inside the casing from time to time. Every now and then, a load of clothes would become imbalanced, and it would shriek and moan, but I would just stop the machine, rearrange the wet clothes, and then let it get back to washing.

Similarly, if we, as managers, don’t care for our employees regularly, they likely will break down. Or check out. It is important to hear their cries for help and to address them. We should provide plentiful and genuine praise for jobs well done. We should be providing training regularly. We should be giving employees ample opportunity to grow. And we should do whatever we can to keep the loads balanced so that they don’t work so hard that they eventually break down.

At some point, though, all employees will have to be replaced. Perhaps they decide to retire, or perhaps they move on to a new opportunity. In those cases, we support them and make sure they understand how grateful we’ve been for the work they’ve performed.

But sometimes a part breaks and it cannot be fixed. My machine just stopped spinning. I tried replacing the coupler and the agitator dogs. Neither worked. I checked the clutch, and it seems fine. In spite of my repeated efforts to fix it, the machine was just broken beyond my ability to repair it. Once I realized that, I began immediately working on getting a replacement.

All too often these days, employers are quick to replace “broken” employees. And there are times when doing so is necessary, but I can’t help but wonder how many employees are replaced because managers won’t or can’t put in the time to try and fix the problem.

It is hard to tell an employee that he or she needs to improve, but I think most of them welcome the chance to improve (even if it hurts initially). Maybe the fix is a simple one, like retraining or just increasing awareness. Perhaps the fix takes a little more time, like developing an employee improvement plant. Sometimes, a disciplinary action works as a course correction. In general, though, I have found that investing in employees and helping them to grow is a better move than jumping to replace. It takes time and money and heart to make an employee a part of your team initially, and, if you lay the proper foundation, those efforts will help you to retain an otherwise good employee. I spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos and reading blogs to try and diagnose the washer’s problems, and I attempted every single fix I could find. It was worth it to try and retain an otherwise good washing machine.

But at times, we have to admit that the relationship is just not working. I went to a laundry mat once and realized that doing so regularly would cost me a lot of money. I spent hours educating myself and then taking the machine apart. I bought a couple of parts, and neither worked. I had to admit that hanging on to the washer was starting to cost time and money, and it was time to let it go.

But employees are not machines, and realizing that it is time to let them go is difficult—or it should be. Eventually, though, you have to weigh the best interests of the company and its clients or customers. You have to consider the needs and expectations of employees and management. You have to look at a bigger picture. When remediation no longer works, you have to part ways.

I feel sad that I wasn’t able to fix the old machine. I hope to be able to give it to someone who can fix it and who can make it useful again. And that’s always how I feel about employees who have to move on. I know that they are just the right person for some position somewhere, and I hope that they are able to land there.

In the meantime, though, I am on the third load of clothes, and, honestly, I’m thrilled that I have a machine that works, because having it frees up time for me to work on other tasks and chores. It allows me and the rest of the family time to be otherwise productive, and we can readily have the right clothes necessary for the different jobs that we do.

My new top-loader is nice to have

But, as I’ve said, employees are not machines, and if we start seeing them as such, we’ve lost our ability to be good managers. The lessons learned here are valuable, though, and I made the right decision to get a new washer. But, given a choice, I would still have the old one spinning in the background and continuing on as a productive part of this household.

It’s not easy letting it go.