Posted on 08/12/2009 6:18:37 PM PDT by franksolich
A friend from a long time ago--just before the turn of the century--came up here to the Sandhills of Nebraska today, and we spent a long time reminiscencing about the Good Old Days of Reagan, Bush, Gingrich, and Bush, and speculating about when the 0bamareich's going to come crashing down.
He reminded me of something I long ago had forgotten, and having been reminded of it, an old question recrudesces to the surface. Where did I go wrong?
Back then, just before the turn of the century, I was records supervisor for a private contractor to Immigration & Naturalization, in Lincoln. There were usually 12-24 file clerks under my direction, sometimes a few more, but as they knew what they were doing, and going a great job, I mostly ignored them and "file searches" for persons of "interest" to Immigration & Naturalization, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whatnot.
And so it took a while--a few months--before I was aware that a guy working under my supervision was openly and profligately mocking me behind my back.
(Excerpt) Read more at conservativecave.com ...
It may not have bothered you enough to report or dismiss him, but would you have been bothered if he had done it to another employee? I'm sure you would have stood up for anyone else treated this way but your actions maybe have given a very different impression.
Don't let it bother you anymore, though.
As I posted at CC, I suspect your boss wanted you to infer what she wanted you to do (terminate him). That way she’s out of the loop and it’s your baby. After all, she was being stalked and likely worried about the possibility of retribution after the firing.
As for your handling of the situation, it would have been better to confront the man and let it be known in no uncertain terms that his actions were unacceptable. Such things are very disruptive and breed on others. Also, others don’t like a negative environment and aren’t happy at work. It’s best to take things in hand and end them quickly.
I don’t think you really did anything “wrong”, Frank. It’s more a matter of personal style.
I have little patience for idiots, and I would have asked him how funny he thought his little act would be in the unemployment line, but hey - that’s just me. I wouldn’t have fired him right away, but it wouldn’t have taken more than a couple more incidents of insubordination...
Seems you have a bit more self-control than I have. :-)
You say that this person was doing above-average work, but it seems to me that acting professionally, or at least in a civil enough fashion to get along with co-workers, IS part of his work. And by ignoring it you unnecessarily allowed him to create a more stressful/uncomfortable work environment (as evidenced by your other employees’ complaints).
I was involved in a similar situation, I gave his entire family smallpox infected blankets.
Was that pre-ADA? Sounds like an open-and-shut disability discrimination case.
It was the late 80’s. But the young man did not want to pursue it — I talked with about it a few times. I negotiated a small severance for myself which had me sign away any claim.
My deal is, how was my reaction any different from this idea of letting God take care of something?
As you can see from my comments over at conservativecave, I wasn't aware of a whole lot that was going on; the situation was, to say the least, ambiguous. When groping through the darkness, one does what one can, and as already noted over there, I personally have found cold silence to be an excellent, a great, a wonderful, modifier of behavior. It's just that in this case it didn't work, a rare or unique exception to the rule.
And, as usual, God and time and chance did take care of it. I probably drove the guy even more nuts, by my ignoring this aspect of his behavior, as if it didn't exist. And then he overstepped somewhere, made some sort of stupid mistake (probably involving the other supervisor), and whmmmmp! law-enforcement came down on him.
And during subsequent years, while this guy was locked up in the state insane asylum, the woman supervisor went on to a better job in Denver, and I myself about a year later, on to a better-paying job in Lincoln.
That applies to personal relationships (to a small degree), responses to illness and catastrophe, and such, but not to dealing with employees. As a supervisor/manager, you're being paid to handle people at their workplace. It's what you get paid to do, among other things. Ignoring a deteriorating situation (letting God handle it...) is not advisable.
I personally have found cold silence to be an excellent, a great, a wonderful, modifier of behavior.
Same answer as above. Supervisor/managers are paid to get involved and settle thorny issues. That's why they get the "big bucks" (comparatively speaking, of course).
Had you gotten involved and reprimanded the employee doesn't mean it would work either. Progress is up to him, after all. But it would mean your making use of the tools at your command as supervisor/manager, and doing the job expected of you. Sure passive reaction to unpleasant situations works at times. But in management, it's not the way to go.
I'm not sure what "authority" I had; this private contractor was micro-managed by touchy-feely women.
I've been in supervisory positions where the boss would set down parameters for me to follow, they would go home and leave me alone to follow their instructions. Something better be on fire before I call him at home and I watched those businesses run smoothly and truck the money in the door by the bushels. I've been an interested bystander (supervisor) where the indecision and cowardice of micro-managers ran businesses into the ground.
Micro-managers lack confidence not only in their underlings, but themselves also. They lack the ability to formulate a plan of action and coherently convey that idea to those they are in charge of. This leaves those that work for them unsure of where they fit into the workplace. Chaos will reign.
Look at Obama and his interference into that dustup between that cop and that dingaling. Micro-management. Then look at the recent Billie Jean King debacle and the Queens DVD goof up. Chaos.
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