Can't We Just Ask People To ACTUALLY Do Their Job?

There is a question many business owners have asked themselves at least once. Usually it's after staring at a missed deadline, an unfinished task, or a complaint that somehow took longer to explain than it would have taken to solve.

The question is simple.

"Can't we just ask people to actually do their job anymore?"

It's not a fashionable question. In fact, it's one that often gets whispered rather than spoken aloud. Yet for many small business owners, managers and team leaders, it reflects a genuine frustration about the modern workplace.

Over the past two decades, work has changed dramatically. We have become more aware of mental health, workplace wellbeing, flexible working arrangements and the importance of creating respectful cultures.

These are overwhelmingly positive developments. Most reasonable employers wouldn't want to return to the days when stress, burnout and poor treatment were simply accepted as part of the job.

Yet somewhere along the way, many business owners have started to feel that having a direct conversation about performance has become surprisingly difficult. A request for accountability can sometimes be interpreted as a lack of empathy or even an uncalled for request!

Constructive feedback can feel like walking through a legal minefield. And asking someone to meet the expectations of their role can leave managers and owners wondering whether they're about to trigger a complaint rather than a solution.

So how did we get here?

We're Not Working In 1995 Anymore

To understand the frustration, we first need to acknowledge that workplaces have changed for good reason.

Previous generations often worked in environments where long hours, high stress and poor management were accepted as normal. Employees were expected to put up with almost anything if they wanted to keep their jobs.

I know myself I had a job in the 90s where I couldn't leave the office for lunch. EVER! The phones needed to be manned at all times but we didn't have the staff levels to cover each other.

Many of the reforms we've seen since then have been necessary. Mental health is now taken seriously. Flexible work arrangements have made employment accessible to more people. Diversity and inclusion initiatives have opened doors that were previously closed. Most importantly, employers are expected to treat people with dignity and respect.

These are good things.

The challenge is that every positive change creates new tensions. Today's managers are often expected to balance empathy, flexibility, wellbeing, performance, compliance and culture simultaneously. Sometimes those goals work together. Sometimes they pull in opposite directions and often they are at the detriment of actual hours put into working.

I have had so many instances in the last decade where I just want to say "Suck it up, this is a workplace, we aren't all friends, and unless someone is actually bullying you or being a tool, just DO YOUR WORK!"

Increasingly I'm trying to manage things that a simple conversation would have solved. I have had feedback like:

I can't address both parties in the same meeting, even though talking to them separately is getting me nowhere. That's just "not fair",
They shouldn't be expected to deal with "my" HR problems when I've asked if they have spoken to the person involved to quickly and easily solve the challenge,
It's not fair that I've taken all my sickleave and now you aren't paying me when I'm "actually" sick - and yes that is the exact phrase that was used!

Small Businesses Don't Have Room To Hide

The conversation is often very different in a small business than it is in a large corporation.

Large organisations can absorb inefficiencies. They have layers of management, specialist HR teams and budgets that can hide a surprising amount of waste.

Small businesses don't have that luxury.

If a team of four people has one person consistently underperforming, everyone notices.

The business owner notices because projects take longer.

Customers notice because service suffers.

Other employees notice because they end up carrying the extra load.

In a small business, productivity isn't a line item on a spreadsheet. It's the difference between growth and stagnation. Between profit and loss. Sometimes between survival and closure.

When commentators discuss workplace expectations, they often overlook this reality. The person asking for better performance isn't always a faceless corporation. Sometimes it's a business owner who mortgaged their house, works weekends and hasn't taken a proper holiday in years.

The Conversation Nobody Wants To Have

Many workplace problems aren't actually caused by poor performance. They're caused by avoiding conversations about poor performance.

Managers delay feedback because they don't want conflict.

Business owners worry about saying the wrong thing.

Team leaders convince themselves the problem will eventually fix itself, and it rarely does.

Instead, minor issues become major ones.
A missed deadline becomes a pattern.
A negative attitude affects team morale.
A lack of accountability becomes part of the culture.

The irony is that avoiding uncomfortable conversations often creates more discomfort in the long run. What could have been resolved with a five-minute discussion turns into months of frustration.

Doing Your Job Is Not An Unreasonable Expectation

Somewhere along the way, accountability developed a public relations problem.

The word itself now sounds harsh to some people. Yet accountability is simply the understanding that actions have consequences and responsibilities matter.

At what point did talking to someone become "confrontation". When I was young that was a conversation. Having those conversations allowed us to develop interpretation skills, communication skills and over time it morphed into something that was well and truly inside your comfort zone.

Expecting someone to perform the duties of their role is not unreasonable.
Providing feedback is not bullying.
Setting standards is not toxic.
Asking someone to improve is not oppression.

Of course, there is a right way and a wrong way to have these conversations. Nobody is advocating for aggressive management styles or public humiliation. Respect matters.

But respect should not mean lowering expectations until they disappear entirely.

Healthy workplaces require both support and accountability. Remove either one and the system eventually breaks.

When Support Becomes A Shield

For years, workplaces were criticised for ignoring mental health. Today, the pendulum may have swung in the opposite direction.

Most employers genuinely want to support team members who are struggling. Few business owners want to see an employee suffer from anxiety, burnout or personal challenges without help. In fact, many small businesses go far beyond what is required, offering flexibility, understanding and accommodations whenever possible.

The difficulty arises when every uncomfortable workplace situation is viewed through a mental health lens.

Not every difficult conversation is harmful.
Not every deadline creates anxiety.
Not every piece of constructive feedback causes trauma.
Sometimes work is simply frustrating, demanding or uncomfortable.
That's the nature of work.

There is an important distinction between supporting someone through a genuine mental health challenge and removing every situation that creates discomfort. One requires compassion. The other can unintentionally remove accountability.

Many managers quietly wonder whether they are still allowed to say things like:

"This work isn't meeting the required standard."
"You need to improve your performance."
"This project was not completed on time."
"Your colleagues are carrying a larger share of the workload."

These are not personal attacks. They are workplace conversations.

The danger comes when normal performance discussions become impossible because any criticism is automatically interpreted as a wellbeing issue. If that happens, organisations risk creating an environment where accountability disappears and high performers become increasingly frustrated.

Perhaps the challenge for modern workplaces is not choosing between mental health and accountability.

Perhaps it's recognising that healthy workplaces require both.

Who Pays The Price?

One of the least discussed aspects of poor performance is who ends up compensating for it.

Usually, it's not management.

It's the reliable employees.

The people who show up on time.

The people who hit deadlines.

The people who quietly solve problems without making them everyone else's responsibility.

When organisations avoid addressing poor performance, these employees often end up carrying the extra weight.

At first, they do it because they're team players, but eventually, they start asking a reasonable question.

"Why am I working harder than someone else for the same reward?"

That question rarely stays unanswered forever. Sometimes the best employees don't complain.

They leave.

And when they do, businesses often discover that protecting poor performance came at a much greater cost than addressing it would have.

I Believe Clarity Is A Very Valuable Status

The popular narrative is that employees want less pressure, fewer expectations and greater flexibility.

In reality, I still want to believe that people want something much simpler.

They want clarity.
They want to know what success looks like.
They want to know where they stand.
They want feedback that helps them improve.
They want fairness.

One of the most frustrating experiences for any employee is working in an environment where expectations are unclear and nobody says what they really mean.

Directness, when delivered respectfully, is often kinder than ambiguity.

Most people would rather know where they stand than spend months guessing.

Maybe We're Asking The Wrong Question

Perhaps the real question isn't whether people should do their jobs.

Of course they should.

The more interesting question is whether modern workplaces have become uncomfortable with the idea of accountability itself.

Somewhere between the harsh management styles of the past and the wellbeing-focused workplaces of today, we seem to have lost confidence in having honest conversations about performance.

Yet every healthy relationship depends on honest conversations.

Friendships do.

Marriages do.

Families do.

Why would workplaces be any different?

The goal shouldn't be to return to the workplace culture of previous generations. We know too much now to go backwards.

But neither should we create environments where expectations are so unclear and accountability so uncomfortable that nobody is willing to address problems directly.