Defamation of charachter/Gossip
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12 Posts
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-04-02 AT 01:25PM (CST)[/font][p]I have two managers in our company who report directly to the CEO/President as I do. I will call these Managers A and B. Manager A is a "by the book" and y beleives in "an honest days work for an honest days pay". Howevever; Mgr A is not well liked or respected because of his direct, head strong approach. He does not promote or agree with employees in the office talking, laughing or visiting even if it is not disrupting the flow of work or the workplace. Manager B is talking about Mgr. A to Mrgs. A's employees and trying to help them to cope with Mgr. A. Mrg. B is making derrogatory comments about Mgr. A which have been disclosed to A. Both Mgrs. are competetive, have goals to become CEO's right hand. They share en equal amount of responsibility and are considered at the same level. Mgr. A is also known to punish, retaliate using his employees who enjoy having lunch with Mgr. B and in fact good friends. This has been a 2 to 3 year war between the two but now a formal complaint has been filed Mrg A alledging "Defamation of character and Gossip". Can Mgr. B be charged with Harassment and/or is gossip defined as defamation of character? How would you handle this situation?
Comments
While I don't have all the facts about this charge, I'm assuming that it is an internal one. It seems to me that the CEO needs to tell Manager B that part of being a top-level executive is not speaking badly about your peers - that it is unprofessional and unacceptable behavior that will effect his/her ability to be promoted in the future. Manager A needs to be counseled about being less rigid and not retaliating against his/her employees - that true leadership requires this. Manager A should be told that his/her behavior is giving Manager B the stick to beat him/her with. These conversations should be reduced to writing (You should probably ghost-write this for the CEO) and put it in each manager's file. These behaviors should also be addressed in their performance reviews so both managers know that this conduct cannot continue.
You might also think about hiring an executive coach (a certified, trained one) to work with both individuals about changing these behavior patterns. If you don't know one, I can recommend a good one, who can do all this work by telephone to keep the cost down. Hope this helps.
Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]
Yes, thank you so much for your help. I will let you know if we are in need
of an executive coach. For now, I want to be sure that we approach this matter
as you suggested. Apparently the CEO has had this conversation with both before. I will now need to be invovled as the H.R. mediator. Thanks for your help.
Seriously, neither has acted professionally and both should be talked to.
Good Luck!
I had a problem a few months ago with a group of employees speculating about the parentage of the child of an employee. This caused great personal and professional difficulty for two individuals. I called the "speculating group" together and told them that I did not know who was starting the vicious rumors, but I had advised the two employees if they found out to seek legal action against whoever was doing this and I would support it 100%.
Amazingly this stopped the problem. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Depends on how hard the heads are.