Anonymous Letter

JM in ATL

Sorry for the lenght, but I thought some details would help...

I received a letter in the mail yesterday, sent from a satellite office in another city, but the envelope was from the corporate office (by way of return address).

In this letter it states that certain employees are being treated with favortism and fraternization is going on. Certain ee's will get taken out to lunch by the director who runs the office and that they will be gone for hours. The director of the office also take this group out for the night a few times a month (according to this letter). The author says that this is unfair and should be taken care of immediately and that the situation is causing conflict.

Now here comes a catch. The director who runs the office, is also married to one of the hourly employees, who is best friends with another hourly employee. WAIT IT GETS BETTER!! Last year when we rolled out the new employee manual, one of the policies was that management and staff are not to BECOME involved or direct supervise- report is prohibited, blah, blah, your standard anti-frat policy. Of course the director and married hourly ee have to be an exception to this rule b/c they were hired on that way. They both started when we opened the office and he is the only manager.

Well, the staff revolted- ALL OF THEM - and they refused to sign the anti-frat policy b/c of director and ee and that they weren't going to sign a policy that wouldn't allow them to socialize with their boss outside of the office (as they interpreted it). We have only hired two new people since this policy was established, but one of the ee's we hired has been friends with the director since he was a kid. In fact, she used to be his babysitter.

Anyway... the letter is pretty much begging that we put an end to this. And I have no problem with that. However, I'm afraid that the director will effect morale by announcing to the staff that he is now "forbidden" to go to lunch with anyone, blah, blah, blah. He's about as mature as a 10 year old and has the management skills of one as well, but he has "YEARS of experience and is invaluable to the company" (said as sarcastically as anyone could ever imagine).

So, my question is, would you do a private investigation or would you take the risk of the manager behaving like an idiot when you tell him to directly stop taking select ee's to lunch?

Gillian3

Obviously, you have a serious problem that needs to be addressed, anonymous letter or no. The problem with anonymous letters, though, is that if fits the writers perception, not necessarily others and if you act on an anonymous letter there may be the accusation that you responded to something that was not officially brought forward and does not contain the whole picture.

Perhaps you should show the letter to the boss of this individual, and if you feel that the letter accurately describes the feelings of the group, say so. Then the boss gets to give input which is a whole bunch better than you piling in and being accused, by the boss, of responding to an anonymous letter without asking questions.

Maybe the boss will support you, maybe not and if maybe not, another reason for not piling in without support.

marc

Is it true that the staff refused to acknowledge the company policy? How do you handle a write-up when the EE refuses to sign? You note on the form that you had the conversation and they refused to sign. That does not stop the results of the write-up from being implemented.

If you let that sort of thing stand, the EEs will be telling you which policies you can enforce and which ones you cannot. They do not run the company. Whoever is the boss of that branch should be taking some direct, positive action and put a stop to this. Perhaps a termination of those blantantly violating the policy is in order.

Get the top dogs in on this and have them take some action, or put the company can put it's collective tail between it's collective legs and let the EEs run the show.

Don D

Several thoughts:

You said "....standard anti-frat policy, bla bla bla". Anti-frat policies are largely just that, bla bla bla.

Refusing to acknowledge receipt of a copy of a policy is meaningless. Policies and their enforcement have absolutely no correlation with employees signing to acknowledge their existence. Simply make a statement on the form as to when it was given to them and that they refused to sign the acknowledgement.

No, I would not consider hiring a detective. If a management decision is made to view this situation from a discreet distance, do it yourself.

I agree with Gillian7 that the manager of the major offender should be handed the letter for his decision. If that person is unapproachable or perhaps culpable, give the letter with your written recommendation to the senior executive of the organization.

Even though the letter is anonymous, it probably contains a lot of truth and should not be dismissed just because it is anonymous. If you are affected by Sarbanes-Oxley, your company has a legal obligation to investigate even anonymous reports, especially those.

This seems to be the tip of an iceberg involving an office that has been allowed to run entirely off the tracks and remain wrapped around the axle. It's more than the silly chatter of immature co-workers. Georgia is notoriously At-Will. Fire the whole lot of them once you verify the letter.

E Wart

You probably shouldn't have put the anti-frat policy in your handbook if you weren't going to "abide" by it.
I too feel it is not in your power to tell employees what to do in off hours. However, Managers should know that due to their position, they have to be above reproach and need to separate personal life from professional.
Without knowing the size of the office, I am not sure if I would let the manager see the letter. He may be able to easily figure out who it is and have it in for this person in ways you can't prove or detect.
I think it would be good to talk with the Manager and address it with the new policy and ask him if there is "socializing" going on between him and other employees like during lunch. Who pays for the lunch? (Is there a policy against this?) How often is it done? Then ask him if he thinks this really helps him be a better manager or could it harm his creditibility? Maybe try to talk with him from this angle. It sounds as if nothing you do will help anyway... but if you do this and warn him that it needs to stop due to the policy and document the discussion and what could happen if it continues. (Maybe have his superior do the discussion if they will and can do it well.)
Otherwise, I am not sure what you can do (other than ignorning it) unless that person who sent the letter comes forward. Without proof this is going on it is hard to address, other than telling the employees not to do it and the consequences of what will happen if done and if you aren't going to enforce the policy.
E Wart

Don D

E: My suggestion, as was Gillian's, was to show the manager of the offender the letter, not the offending manager. His supervisor. You mention that it would be hard to prove. I maintain it will be unbelievably simple to scope this activity out and prove or disprove it.

Whatever

There is a tremendous managerial problem here (and I am not talking about this branch manager). The company institutes a non-frat policy and immediately excuses two people from it's enforcement. When other ees refuse to sign the non-frat policy, management appears to have ignored the situation. When ees revolt, someone should listen. Since then, two people have been hired (one of whom was formally the baby-sitter).
You appear to have a group of very angry, demoralized ees on your hand. To just deal with the branch manager may not resolve the other problem. Someone has to speak with the ees. Their concerns have to be addressed (which is not the same as giving in).