Theory of Workplace Fairness

System

John Phillips wrote about workplace fairness on his blog and it is a real problem here.

I spend time each day unruffling feathers because of how our CEO treats employees. He has taken two younger lenders under his wing and refers to them as "his boys". They go to lunch together almost every day and he has given them most of their loan portfolio (the balance of which affects bonuses and raises). The kicker was when they took a special trip last Thursday and Friday (on Bank time and the Bank's dime). At the urging of one of the 'boys' the CEO decided they all should go down to a casino and golf resort with a few 'customers'. Not only is this a financially tough time for Banks in general but they did not even bother to ask some of the other lenders if they would like to be included on this 'trip'. The two other C-suite members are livid over the whole situation but no one knows how to appraoch the matter. This situation affects everyone from the tellers on up - we all see the unfairness and how these two 'boys' are allowed to run the show and do as they please.

Any suggestions??

Paul in Cannon Beach

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-11-08 AT 11:51AM (CST)[/font][br][br]What language does your CEO speak? In other words, how do you communicate to him effectively? Is he a bottom line guy? Or is he a popularity guy?

Not to refer to "The Office" for real life situations but its a good example of a boss run amuck. Michael Scott (the boss) wants to be liked and thats all that matters to him. All his decisions stem from that motivation.

Lets imagine your boss feels "cooler" when he is hanging out with "the boys". He likes to be seen with them and to feel part of their world. Then, I'd say his motivation is popularity and image.

That's where I would start my approach with him. Figure out how to communicate with him that he is unintentionally creating morale issues for his other lenders by appearing exclusive. Appeal to his desire to be liked. Explain to him how desirable his time and presence is and how he needs to be careful to spread himself out more evenly.

I'd stay away from anything that sounds like criticism though. Stay positive but be firm about the need to make a few tweaks to his approach. Explain that he stands to lose his popularity with the other lenders if he doesnt address this soon.

This is all assuming that he is, in fact, motivated by popularity and wanting to be seen as "one of the guys".

System

Well Paul,
He speaks English most days - with a southern accent since he is from MS but English none the less.

The southern accent causes a problem in that he is a staunch member of the good ole boys club. He doesn't really care to be popular, he is all about "I'm the boss" and "What I say goes" and "If you don't like it you can leave". Makes him very unapproachable.

He also blows in the wind with his decisions and his attitude. We have to make sure to get an e-mail or anything in writing whenever you do something that might be questioned. He has been known to "throw people under the bus" and say he knew nothing about that decision. We recently discussed bumping a lender's vacation days to get him on a par with everyone else (sorry, we bankers like to use golf terms) and he forgot about that conversation until I resent the e-mails.

No one wants to approach him directly; is there a more indirect way you can think of? We may lose one of our lenders over this whole mess.

Anyone else have a bad boss experience like this?

Paul in Cannon Beach

Ok, so he isnt looking to be liked. I think you have a problem then.

- He abuses his power.
- He can't communicate and doesn't encourage communication.
- He has a pattern of "throwing people under the bus"
- He avoids responsibility
- He is unpredictable

I am not sure there is anything you can do. More importantly, I would be concerned about appearing to be disloyal to him.

lnelson

You are a bank, is there a board of directors or someone who oversees the CEO.

System

Well, they are not very active in the day to day running of the Bank and they are all members of the club as well. One of the co-chairmen is supposed to sign off on every expense item that comes to me for the CEO and no one does. Usually he just gives me the total of his credit card and I pay it off before we incur late fees. It is very frustrating. He has passed on his bad habits to "his boys" as well and getting them to fill out anything is a hassle. They normally just send an e-mail and say ,"You do this". I like the man as a person but he is a horrible boss.

I was debating on printing out the article from John Phillips blog and leaving it in his chair - but I don't know if he'd see the correlation.

It sounds like we all will just have to deal with it; at least until the Bank sells or something major happens (like one of our lending VPs leaving).

Paul in Cannon Beach

I wouldnt leave the John Phillips blog. I personally dislike anonymous notes. It wouldnt be difficult for someone to track that back to HR HERO and eventually to you.

If you feel you could, just bring up the article and talk with him about it. Its probably all you can do.

System

I was not serious about leaving the article in his chair. We only have 25 employees and his office is in plain sight of everyone downstairs. Wouldn't be hard to track me down, darn it. The point was he doesn't see any of this as wrong. He came from a large bank and had bosses who curtailed this behavior but there is really no one here who will stand up to him. I forwarded the article on to my boss, the CFO/COO, who replied, "Should I send that on to ---- ha ha".

System

Thanks for your advice. I guess I will just go back to sending out e-mails to everyone telling them to get their dishes out of the sink and let this one go for now.

Paul in Cannon Beach

You could always take the approach of simply offering some input. Say something like

"I read an interesting article about workplace fairness the other day and I think there are some ideas we could actually implement here. Let me know if you would like to discuss it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this."

At least then, you took a step without putting yourself too far out on a limb. If he doesnt respond, then you know he isnt interested.

System

We are having a webinar tomorrow on how to do Image Capture for our customers. My boss had asked me to be in on it since I will probably be the one going to the customers site to show them how to use the system. I asked a few questions and this was her response. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.

"I asked "CEO" how many people we had that are wanting it. He could only come up with one (one of "boys" customers). I asked him to try and come up with a number that might really use it, so we would know how much we are going to be spending for what number of customers. He says he doesn’t want cash management, he just wants the customers to be able to do capture. His call not mine I guess.
Keep in mind this conversation took place last week and a lot can change in a week."

See what I am up against.

Again , thanks for the help. I may take your advice and try the subtle approach, something has to give and soon.

lnelson

It sounds like a bad place to be.

Go to the CEO and just voice your concerns regarding morale from an HR standpoint. See how he reacts.

If he does not seem concerned drop it as just wanted to let you know, but document, document, document to CYA.

If he shows interest in what you have to say be prepared to have recommendation / solutions to the issues and document, document, document.

Seems like all you can do if none of the higher ups want to be bothered with the day to day.

System

Aside from this issue it is actually a lot of fun here. I only have interaction with the CEO when I have to, and he likes me so we don't have any problems. It is just killing my ees and I hate it for them.
Thanks for the tips. I'm going to use them!

NaeNae55

I really feel for you. I used to work for an organization with close association to another company (we were in business to help their members.) Our board of directors was made up mostly of big-wigs in this other company. One time when our CEO left they decided the chairman of the board should take over the position. He made it his business to take an employee to lunch every day. This would seem good on the surface, but it soon became clear it was only so he could have his lunch paid for. It certainly wasn't to talk business, and the 'get to know you' was intrusive while at the same time being clear he really wasn't interested. Our credit card expenses went way up. Our benefit packages changed to give him the optimum benefits (even if it hurt some employees). There was no one to check him.

I was the staff accountant at the time, and found it really disturbing to have to explain every month the difference between cash flow and income. I know many people don't know the difference, at least, not until it is explained to them (once). However, I felt someone running a multi-million dollar business should at least understand a balance sheet and other financial statements. Silly me. Actually, I also exaggerated about the explaining every month bit, because he finally started to get it after about 8 months and even stopped asking me after about a year.

I eventually left the company. Within a few years he made a deal with another company and the old was merged with the other. Employees lost their jobs. Many were promised that they would be moved, but it never happened and they eventually left (it took about 4 years to clear them all out.) The replacement CEO had a nice severance package though, and after all, what else mattered?

ritaanz

If I understand your posts, your boss, the COO, knows what is going on and thinks it is humorous. I cannot see you being able to accomplish anything if no one higher up the food chain sees a problem. Looks to me as if this situation will implode from the inside. Take pictures.

System

Thanks for commiserating with me. It helps to know other people have been there and survived! I feel for the folks here who really need their jobs and just have to take the abuse. A favorite quote they say is, "I'd say something but I'm not ready to move into my cardboard box under the overpass yet".

I'll take lots of pics and post them here so you all can see x;-) it should be interesting.