Staffing Staff Freedom

[Dawn 1]

So on my site, I'm currently having the problem of how much freedom I should give my staff. I've kind of gotten the feeling from them and others that they feel like they are being controlled too much and like I'm being a bit unreasonable. However, in the past on other sites, I have had the problem with giving too much freedom to staff, and they have gone and done tons of stuff that I was definitely not okay with. I'm really worried that I might have staff do this to me again, so I've always been pretty controlling and always want to know what they are doing (Unless it's something small, I'm not that controlling) before they do it. So while I want to give my current staff more freedom and make them feel like they can really contribute, I'm also afraid that if I give them too much freedom they might end up taking that way too far.

 

So what do you think, how much freedom should staff get on a site? How much freedom do staff on your site get? Or if you are a staff member on a site, how does it make you feel either having or not having freedom to do what you like?

[Death Kitten 200]

Okay, so, right off the bat, there is no one right answer to this. Your site, your rules, but just keep in mind that you have to find people who agree and understand with your outlook to have a successful game.

 

All that said, if you don't trust your staff, things aren't going to go well. Especially if the lack of trust isn't because of them, but because of the actions of others, and they don't understand why you're so cautious. I'm on the paranoid side myself, but I'm also very open with my players and staff about how I've been burned in the past, and it helps them understand when some of my rules are a little on the strict side.

 

If you want to learn to trust your existing staff more, start loosening up a little at a time. Find an area you weren't burned in, or an area the current staff have shown themselves to be reliable, and give them room. See what they do with it. When they show themselves able to function within that without doing something wrong, look for another area to loosen your control in.

 

And once you've started loosening up, you will need to figure out how to handle new staff in the future. Do they start with lesser freedom and very gradually loosened to the same level as existing staff, or do you only hire from within your game to make sure you're already familiar with the person and their habits?

[xexes 108]

You say exactly that.

 

A good staffer will understand and respect your wishes and find a balance in there. Sure, sometimes everyone makes mistakes, but no one is going to dramatically change everything behind your back, and even if they do, you as the owner can fix it back.

[Dusty 55]

Freedom could be given within certain roles e.g. advertising, archiving, app approvals etc. etc.  add role name here _________. 

Clear guidelines for the roles would be ideal. Anything outside those guidelines would then need to be checked with you or whoever are the head admins.

 

The fact they want to do things is awesome! Embrace it and channel it so they know their boundaries and where they definitely need to request a consensus before acting on an idea. 

 

@Gothams Reckoning has a section about this in one of the guides:

 

Quote

Acclimating Your Staffers

This is where it will come in handy to have had the exact way you want your jobs done to be written down. If you haven’t done that yet- do it, and then show your new staffers that list. Before anyone gets a move on with their work, make 100% certain that everyone knows what it is they are supposed to be doing.

Be sure to encourage communication between yourself and your staffers, and make it as easy for them to contact you as possible. If they ever need help with completing their jobs, can’t keep up with them, wish to quit, etc., you want them to feel safe coming to you with this information. The sooner issues like this are brought up to you, the quicker they can be handled. There will also be much less cleanup for you to worry about.

 

 

If they know their boundaries and the boundaries are clear and stable, then they will have freedoms to act within those boundaries without having to check in on everything. Also be clear on crossing over boundaries, e.g helping each other (when it's ok to jump in and when to ask first) when it is not within your allocated role. This one can all too easily cause conflict when the boundaries between each admin/mod's role are not clear enough. In the best of intentions, one may jump in and do something in the name of helping and upset the one that actually didn't ask for assistance or expected to be asked first. 

There is also a great guide about staffers that are not fulfilling their roles (flaking).

 

Make sure the lines of expected communication are very clear and well defined  (A good rule of thumb for all staff is "if in doubt, don't assume. Stop, ask, wait, and then act."

[Kit the Human 759]

^^ Ditto. Don't punish someone for someone else's actions (easier said than done) but also, make it clear as to what kind of things you're expecting from your mods.

 

My mods are really just there to cover my ass if I'm not around. So that means making minor edits to profiles and dropping ads. They're welcome to make suggestions or criticisms to me though.

 

As a staff member, I like knowing what's expected of me and I like feeling like any suggestions I have will be considered. I don't need to say, have the freedom to make edits to the informational docs.

[Josie 198]

This is an excellent topic, with great responses!

 

No one can tell you how much influence and freedom your staff should have, save for you, as you alone know the vision of your game and are the main person pursuing that vision. In answering the question, try to think with your gut instead of your head so much. How much control and influence does your gut say your staff should have? Don't think about the times you've been burned before: think about what you want. Once you have your answer, then you can go about implementing it.

 

Whatever you decide, communication is key in implementing it. You cannot expect your staffers to know what you expect of them unless you first tell them, and having things written down for future reference is also a big help.

[Krank 0]

If you can't fully trust your staff, they don't need to be staff. You don't need that looming question in the back of your mind every time you're gone for a day or two. Though it might be hard to allow more freedom after getting burned by it before, you really need to evaluate just how well you know these members and make it very clear to them that if they do something you feel is out of line, there will be repercussions. I know that being staff on a site can be frustrating if everything I do has to be ran by the lead admin first. Although I understand your hesitation, the more freedom you can give your staff, the better they're going to be able to help you run the site. I'd make sure their staffly duties were clearly outlined so you could keep check on what they're doing (or what they're not doing). But as aforesaid, putting too much restriction on them makes them no better than glorified members.  

[Raven 18]

I think the balance to this is: standard things, let them do what they will. Anything new, they run by you, but you should be quick to answer. Don't let it sit there for long periods of time without a response. If you need to think about it, be sure to let them know. I'm a staffer on another site and I love Cyn to death, and she understandably gets worried sometimes about this kind of thing. Personally, I feel it's entirely reasonable to run things by the head admin to make sure they're all good. In fact, I personally prefer this since it means that I don't have to worry that my idea is shit when it goes up.

[CovertSphinx 710]

First off: DEFINITELY explain to your staff exactly why you've gotten so "anal" with your job restrictions.

 

Second: staff roles that are clearly defined would likely remedy a lot of the "can I do this?" and "Can I do that" questions.

[ThistleProse 8]

Everyone here has brought forward good points. I think it's really important to be transparent with your staff: what you expect of them, what they can expect of you, and where their boundaries are, so that they can be comfortable in doing their job, but also so you can be comfortable taking a day off from the site and not come back to utter mayhem.

 

Someone above mentioned making sure your staff can reach you, and I think this is incredibly important. I personally make sure my staff have my AIM as a minimum but I also offer them my Facebook and, once we're on good enough terms, my phone number. Its not required, but it helps make co-coordinating everything so much easier! Especially when I'm stuck at work and something is going on on site that the other admin or mods think I need to be made aware of now.

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

You can put up a basic guideline of responsibilities for your team, and it helps to give each person a role that suits their strengths! For tasks like ads, it's a good idea to rotate the duties so no one gets burnt out from advertising for months on end.

 

For example;

1. Reviewing applications with or without your final input (possibly for a trial period)
2. Sorting finished apps and member groups
3. Organising threads, e.g threads that are completed, abandoned, events, etc
4. Moving plot pages and trackers, ooc intros e.g when a player leaves the game
5. Welcoming new players into the general community
6. Advertising; posting first-links, link-backs, new aff requests
7. Moderating ooc board by shutting down disputes before they escalate
8. Helping with lore, faq boards, suggestions

 

[katherineespair 36]

Make a list of things you are comfortable with them doing and designate those tasks and what is expected of them, then just let them do their jobs.  Create boundaries then relax. If they do something outside of your lines then you have reason to be upset.

[Bamf 11]

So, when I started my site it was just me and my co-admin (just the two of us, we can make it if we try!). He had to go on hiatus for an undetermined amount of time and I needed major help. I picked up some of most active people to be staff. As I have said before, I'm new to this and kind of flying by the seat of my pants. Couple of staff members were great! The other two not so much. When I finally wrote out duties though, I could tell them if you can't follow these guidelines then no more being staff.

 

It helped me define their duties and if there was an issue, to be able to go back and point to the guidelines. Luckily both ex-staff members realized they weren't ready for those positions but stayed on the site. Good peeps, just staffing right now wasn't for them.

 

I have an issue with delegating out work. I feel as the head Admin everything is my job. That's been an issue for me as of late. It's not that I don't trust them, but I was doing most of the work for awhile there. I'm currently working on allowing others to do things. It freaking hard!

[xexes 108]

I had an additional thought.  "minecraft" staff situations ("go and build all the things!") aren't very compatible with a specific vision, so

 

Instead of telling staff what not to do, why not tell them instead what you'd like them to do? Telling a staffer "I'd like you to handle applications and ads.", can be extremely effective, as they now understand what their job is, and that it doesn't include, say, world-building.

[Rune 1,099]

I make sure I know and trust my staff, so I trust them to not be idiots.

 

But we also establish jobs and work together in aspects that require it.

 

For example: Two people handle applications, with others picking up any slack when needed. One person handles ads. One handles graphics/coding, one handles awards. (These can double up, so, say, the same person that handles awards also handles apps.) 

 

When it comes to events/lore/site changes, its proposed in a staff section visible only to us and we critique the hell out of it and use it as an open discussion. The same generally comes to banning people, unless its considered a problem right then and there. (For example, had an underage kid trying to pose as an adult. They were banned without discussion.)