Unique Situation Regarding Employee Not Giving Notice

I work as a Department Head within a small nonprofit organization. To give you some background, the majority of the staff have left due to an unprofessional executive director who seems to thrive in an environment of conflict, chaos, and lack of planning. There is no morale and most people (including myself) are looking for a way out.

With that said, I have an employee who has confided in me that she been offered a wonderful position with another company. She has encountered numerous conflicts with the ED, all of which were unsolicited. The past three employees who have resigned have attempted to give appropriate notice on good terms, but have all been told to clean out their desks and leave immediately. She wants to also give notice, but is fearful that she'll be booted out the door immediately, costing her two weeks of pay. Unfortuately, I think she's leaning towards resigning on the spot at the end of the "would-be" notice period, but I can't say that I blame her for playing it safe.

Ironically, our HR position has been vacant for several months so I'm not sure what to tell her as her supervisor. I feel like this is a no-win situation for anyone. From an HR perspective, are there any ideas on how to maneuver a less hostile situation? Thanks!

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  • [quote user="flyingsolo228"]

    I work as a Department Head within a small nonprofit organization. To give you some background, the majority of the staff have left due to an unprofessional executive director who seems to thrive in an environment of conflict, chaos, and lack of planning. There is no morale and most people (including myself) are looking for a way out.

    With that said, I have an employee who has confided in me that she been offered a wonderful position with another company. She has encountered numerous conflicts with the ED, all of which were unsolicited. The past three employees who have resigned have attempted to give appropriate notice on good terms, but have all been told to clean out their desks and leave immediately. She wants to also give notice, but is fearful that she'll be booted out the door immediately, costing her two weeks of pay. Unfortuately, I think she's leaning towards resigning on the spot at the end of the "would-be" notice period, but I can't say that I blame her for playing it safe.

    Ironically, our HR position has been vacant for several months so I'm not sure what to tell her as her supervisor. I feel like this is a no-win situation for anyone. From an HR perspective, are there any ideas on how to maneuver a less hostile situation? Thanks!

    [/quote]

    As a management employee, your first concern is for the good of the Company and how to deal with the coming prospect of an opening.  Does the position that will be left open matter?  How will whatever it is that your non profit does be impacted?  Can you meet your mission?  Of course, there's the reality part of this in which you do not support the ED and are yourself looking for another job.  If you were an officer of a for-profit company, I'd say you had a fiduciary responsibility and you need to reveal this to someone.  Since you are not an officer that I can tell, you have no fiduciary responsibility but if anybody finds out later in life, it's a black eye on your managerial credentials because you didn't take steps within your power to avert a problem for the Company.  You might consider never having had the conversation with your subordinate, if that's how you feel.

    With respect to this ED, where's the board?  How can you have this landslide of resignations unless either the board is absent or the people leaving have really loused things up and the ED is directed to clear house by the board?

     

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