It was June of 1974, and I began my new job as manager of a hotel in Suburban Chicago. It was exciting and new, and I wanted to get started building a winning team. I soon became aware of a situation that needed to be changed and I knew making the change would not be popular. It dealt with payroll: Paychecks were issued weekly, and we didn’t have a payroll service. I knew we needed to change to bi-weekly, and I realized that if employees had their choice of weekly or bi-weekly, they would choose weekly.
I thought about my options and decided to make an announcement on July 1st that on January 1st we would be going to bi-weekly. This would give the team ample time to make any adjustments as a result of this change.
After I made the announcement, one person came up to me and expressed their disapproval. I empathized with them and mentioned that I was giving a 6-month lead time for each person to adapt. Also, if they found the new policy unacceptable they would have ample time to find a new job. From that point on, there was no further discussion. Soon the concerns had passed, and when we came to January 1st, everything went smoothly.
I can’t help but think of what would have happened if I had announced the change effective immediately. There would have probably been some resentment, and resentment can grow and fester.
Here is my suggestion: If you need to make a change that is disruptive of normal routine, allow sufficient time for processing. You will have more buy-in and less resentment.
