Read time: about 5 minutes

TL;DR looking for methods to ask people to get the job done with the most effective results.

I’m at a position at my job where I have to constantly be directing people. It’s a restaurant job, not a career job or something I want to do for the rest of my life but it’s paying the bills and I have learned a lot about myself in the past 3 months than in the past 20 years.

One of the things I want to improve on is the way I manage and direct people. Most of the staff is the typical lazy minimum wage mindset looking for an easy way out. They usually stand doing nothing, or pretend to be busy to avoid harder tasks.

My nice guy syndrome usually pops up when I need something to get done and I sound something like “hey can you please get x done”, or “can you please help me with x”. My tone of voice usually doesn’t help either.

I’m looking for a gray area to come as not too nice and not too much of an asshole.

There’s a particular employee that I have seen her potential when she wants to work. She gets the initiative and get things done quick without asking. She’s a bit of a people pleaser, toxic, and talks behind peoples back. When I try to get a conversation going with her that’s when she gets lazy and just stands around. Being a people pleaser myself (something I’m working on), I know she can do a better job to seek my approval. It could also be my lack of authority when asking for things or frame.

I currently began hitting the gym again to work on my frame.