Millennial boss reveals why she lets her staff do ‘whatever they want’

A millennial boss has revealed the bizarre strategy she has in place for managing her staff, claiming the unorthodox change saved her business. Photo / @maddybirdcage

Millennial boss Maddy Birdcage, who is in charge of a digital marketing agency, has revealed that she lets her workers do “pretty much whatever they want”.

The Queensland-based boss’ admission, in which she shared her laid-back approach to managing her employees, has now gone viral on TikTok.

“I let them choose when they work, what days they work, what time they work, what they wear to work, and even the tasks they do when they are at work,” she revealed.

Birdcage’s management style is a result of her self-acclaimed role as a “reformed people pleaser” after she realised that employees work best when provided with freedom and trust, reports news.com.au.

Her unorthodox take on management caused quite a fuss online, with some alleging the approach wouldn’t hold up for very long and others jokingly asking if they could work for Birdcage too. One person even hailed her management style, adding their notion it shows what “leadership” is.

Birdcage further revealed that her method was born from wanting her employees to be happy in the workplace.

While most bosses offer employees work-from-home incentives and pizza Fridays to sway opinion, Birdcage insists that this is not what workers want.

What staff want above all, she says, is autonomy in the workplace and a schedule that fits in with their lifestyles.

She reflected on her past work experiences, admitting she used to have a traditional viewpoint regarding how things should be run and had a boss who micromanaged. However, thanks to this set-up, employees were not happy, the business suffered a blow, and when she started taking the job too “seriously”, it all came crumbling down.

In the end, Birdcage was left with a AU$100,000 ($109,000) tax debt and wasn’t even able to pay herself a salary.

When she made the decision to rebuild her business, Birdcage decided to shake things up and take a more relaxed stance when it came to managing her brand.

“I hated showing up as the boss everyone hated,” she told news.com.au. “I used to be so obsessed with how many hours people worked and people hated it. No one wants to work like that.”

Birdcage's non-traditional approach caused a stir online, with some people claiming it won’t work long-term. Photo / @maddybirdcage

Now, she manages a smaller team of nine by giving them the freedom to work things out and putting her focus on the outcome, not the hours that lead to it.

Birdcage creates personal relationships with her employees, never micromanages and adheres to the mantra “nothing is set in stone” in the workplace.

“I had a staff member who was recently miserable and I asked what was going on. They explained the new project I’d put them on was giving them bad anxiety. So, I said, ‘Okay, you don’t have to do it anymore, and I’ll put someone else on it, and you can work on something else’,” she said.

She revealed when it comes to her valued staff, she will move “heaven and earth” for them, making it easier and more enjoyable to work for her.

She has several employees who work around daycare hours and school times, with one who used to work nights as it made sense with her family’s schedule. Another works for three days with extended hours instead of five eight-hour shifts.

Birdcage said her laid-back management style works because she sets personalised and mutually decided-upon expectations with each employee and, most of the time, it works like a charm.