Happy in the Trenches : Recognizing Those Who Don’t Want to Be Bosses

Bob Liebeck would rather make airplanes than assignments. Joyce Koch would rather spend her day writing radio spots than performance reviews. Randy Papke would rather hold a drawing board than a board meeting.

“Being in upper management would take me away from the hands-on work,” said Papke, an art director at Bozell/Salvati Montgomery Sakoda, a Costa Mesa advertising firm where Koch writes ad copy.

From software manufacturers to aerospace firms, many companies run on the creative juices of people who are either unsuited for or uninterested in management positions--employees who thrive in the trenches and have no desire to command the troops.

Liebeck, who designs futuristic passenger jets for McDonnell Douglas Aerospace in Huntington Beach, says he has never felt the urge to become a boss, even though the opportunity periodically presents itself.

“I like the technical work,” he said. “Sometimes I have to do paperwork--program budgets and that sort of thing. I find that if I’ve spent the day on administrative stuff, I feel I haven’t done anything worthwhile.”

Even if it’s done by mutual agreement, however, keeping a proven quantity in the same spot presents challenges for both the employee and the employer. How does an employee stay motivated when there’s no fast track to travel? And how does a company reward its most valuable players without bouncing them up to management and away from what they do best?

“Society, particularly in the United States, tells people that if they are not moving ahead, they are somehow failures,” said Jone Pearce, a UC Irvine professor of management who studies organizational behavior. But in an era of corporate downsizing, there are fewer opportunities to move up.

Liebeck, 56, has witnessed the pressures during his 33 years with McDonnell Douglas: “I see young engineers in our business going for an MBA in lieu of a Ph.D. in engineering because of their desire to be a manager.”

McDonnell Douglas came up with its own way to reward Liebeck and others like him. Twelve years ago, the company initiated what it calls a “dual ladder” to acknowledge high achievers not necessarily treading a management path.

At an annual awards ceremony, McDonnell graduates a handful of distinguished scientists into its brain pool of “fellows.” The position gives the company’s best and brightest a consulting role at the corporate level. And it’s the only promotion that many of the fellows, including Liebeck, would ever want.

“We have scientists working in labs who never find their way to management,” said Roger Roberts, chief technology officer for McDonnell Douglas. “Our dual ladder gives us the opportunity to foster creativity and innovation through promotions based on skills other than just managerial.”

UCI’s Pearce said that when an employee considers his or her job fun and challenging, that in itself offers immeasurable satisfaction.

“A lot of people would be very content in their work if they could just get rid of this negative idea Americans have that they’ve ‘plateaued’ if they are not on the management track,” she said.

In a recent nationwide survey of 1,000 large companies by OfficeTeam, a temporary staffing service, half the top managers interviewed rated “praise and recognition” as the most effective method of motivating employees. Only a fourth put promotion first.

“All other things being equal--that is, if the company is decent to its employees and doesn’t underpay them--people most want positive feedback,” said Steve Pehanich, spokesman for the Menlo Park-based firm. “A simple, ‘Hey, thanks for the good job,’ goes a long way with employees.”

Happy Keller, a computer and video game designer for Electronic Arts in San Mateo, can attest to that. A year ago, after seven years of reliable service without any recognition, he changed departments--and quickly learned the advantages of having a pro-active supervisor.

“I received two in-house awards in a six-month period,” said Keller, 32. “It’s not out of malice that supervisors forget to remind people at the top about non-management employees. But it certainly gave me a lift when someone took an interest in my emotional well-being.”

The company also recently endowed Keller with the title “game director,” which holds greater prestige without--in his view--the headaches of management.

But the real reward for his work, he said, is knowing that people enjoy the fruits of his efforts. “I get a kick out of going to the mall and seeing kids (in a video game arcade) playing with one of my products. There’s no greater compliment than that.”

Jim Guiney, director of human resources for Electronic Arts, said the company continually seeks ways to applaud employees like Keller. “There is a lot of concern here that when you promote creative people into management, you lose their most valuable contribution,” he said.

Gestures that can mean the most to an employee cost Electronic Arts little or nothing: crediting a game’s creators on the box, encouraging a casual work environment, handing out monthly awards. “These things are very significant to employees, even though there’s no money attached,” Guiney said.

But companies should not just presume that a person is not interested in management because he or she has never asked about it, said Bryce Nelson, a former Los Angeles Times and New York Times correspondent who now teaches journalism at USC.

By the same token, Nelson said, a newspaper should not presume that a good reporter will make a good editor. “Being a manager and being a reporter require quite different skills,” he said.

Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman agreed. “If a reporter who becomes an editor has decent management skills, it’s purely by accident,” she said. “Newspapers need to do a better job of training people as they move from one world to the next.”

Nelson recommends heaps of praise, time off for good behavior and awards to boost the morale of non-management employees.

In-house awards can backfire, however, by alienating those passed over, said Scott Montgomery, a partner at Bozell/Salvati. “Creative people have huge egos coupled with thin skin,” he said. “Everybody here does incredible work, and everybody here comes up with ideas that are stinkers. It would be counterproductive for us to single people out.”

Instead, the company aggressively enters its ad campaigns in outside contests. “That way, we eliminate politics as much as possible,” Montgomery said.

From time to time, the firm quietly grants monetary bonuses for exceptional work. “But the best thing we can do for these folks is provide a good working environment--no set hours, no dress code,” Montgomery said. “We gave everyone $200 to decorate their offices however they wanted to, and we got some pretty interesting stuff.”

Papke, the art director, spent part of his $200 on a stockpile of colorful spray paint, then coated his walls with pseudo graffiti. One employee turned her cubicle into a tropical paradise, while another painted a shark on his wall. The result is an eclectic, eccentric, informal setting where jazz or rock music wafts from office doors.

“I have incredible freedom and latitude here,” said copywriter Koch, 37. “I can wear jeans and tennis shoes every day and no one raises an eyebrow. I can come in whenever I want. They’re not strict about quantifiable things like hours, so long as you deliver. They treat us like professionals.

“That means more to me than a management title ever could.”