"The problem is that one of my employees two levels down (he reports to someone who reports to me), Dave, behaves as though we're making clothing for Gucci or Prada. This causes enormous production headaches. It means everything moves much more slowly through his department, because he is extremely conscientious about quality. That is admirable, but it results in things like being short with our subcontractors because they have not produced the products to his standard, even though they have produced them to industry standards."
"We've lost freelance designers because they're being paid being asked to make Prada-level clothing for Old Navy-type wages. He also causes many things to be done over or redoes them himself. This dramatically drives up the cost of what we produce. He should be producing 5,000 items a year in order to justify his salary but he only produces 3,000. This means we have gotten to a point where it actually costs us more to produce these products than we are being paid for them."
A small garment supplier to mid-tier retailers faces major production problems caused by one employee two levels down, Dave, whose luxury-brand standards slow workflow. Dave redoes acceptable subcontractor work, pressures freelancers to deliver unattainable quality for low pay, and is short with vendors. He produces 3,000 items annually rather than the 5,000 needed to justify his salary, raising per-unit costs above revenue. Managerial attempts to curb his rework provoke defensiveness and overwork, as Dave interprets feedback as a dismissal of quality and doubles down by working nights and weekends.
Read at Fast Company
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]