What would you do?
Parabeagle
3,085 Posts
Well, I've exhausted my own brain cells over this dilemma so I thought I'd pick on the brain cells of my fellow Forumaniacs. This is a sticky one and I'm trying to turn it into a win/win instead of a win/lose before it gets even uglier than it is. Bear with me here.
A long-term (nearly 7 years) employee with no previous record of disciplinary action explodes and uses profanity toward a guest who is apparently antagonizing her. Not the brightest thing to do in front of the General Manager and Assistant Manager. So we have witnesses to the outburst. Blatant violation of our policy on customer relations (to say the least). She owns up to the profanity and the outburst and acknowledges it was wrong. She then tells me that this guest has been antagonizing her for at least three years (he's a regular business traveler) and she's always just sucked it up and moved on. First I've heard of any of this. The general manager and assistant manager are aware of bad blood between these two individuals and corroborate that they do not seem to be able to get along. If what she says is true, it violates our customer relations policy and our 3rd party harassment policy. Guest makes no secret of the fact that he would like to see this employee terminated and complains to the GM, and the DO.
GM asks me what he should do. I suggest, in light of the employee's long-term service and lack of any previous disciplinary action, a five-day suspension without pay and a caution that any further incidents will result in termination. I also suggest that the GM have a chat with the guest and, if the guest admits to any of the antagonistic conduct, to get him to cease or discontinue staying at our property.
This was all yesterday afternoon. Went home feeling I had fought the good fight and had a win/win on my hands.
Phone call comes in this morning from the GM of the property. He tells me he has been up all night thinking about this situation and while he feels that our suggested approach minimizes the risks and liability for the company he doesn't feel the action is strong enough and he wanted to terminate the employee for her outburst. Since he feels we have foreclosed that option, he is tendering his resignation effective immediately!
x:-o WHAT??
After picking myself up off the floor I asked him to please not act hastily, we can talk about this. He says his mind is made up. I dispatch the Director Ops (the GM's boss) to the property to try to smooth things over. (This GM is an exceptional manager and we would hate to lose him). Neither the Dir Ops or myself are totally closed to the idea of terminating the employee who made the outburst, we just want to make sure we have our ducks in a row and our wagons in a circle.
Fast forward to half an hour ago. Dir Ops is on the road headed to the property. Employee is on suspension for three days effective today. Trying to exercise as much damage control as I can from here. Fax comes in from the suspended employee - 6 pages of allegations of harassment and unreasonable, verbal abuse visited on this employee going back a couple of years by the guest who wants her fired. Now we got a whole new ball game.
Why in the sam hill did I ever get into HR??? Thanks for letting me vent, folks. Any light at the end of this tunnel you can point out to me? And please tell me the light isn't an oncoming train!
A long-term (nearly 7 years) employee with no previous record of disciplinary action explodes and uses profanity toward a guest who is apparently antagonizing her. Not the brightest thing to do in front of the General Manager and Assistant Manager. So we have witnesses to the outburst. Blatant violation of our policy on customer relations (to say the least). She owns up to the profanity and the outburst and acknowledges it was wrong. She then tells me that this guest has been antagonizing her for at least three years (he's a regular business traveler) and she's always just sucked it up and moved on. First I've heard of any of this. The general manager and assistant manager are aware of bad blood between these two individuals and corroborate that they do not seem to be able to get along. If what she says is true, it violates our customer relations policy and our 3rd party harassment policy. Guest makes no secret of the fact that he would like to see this employee terminated and complains to the GM, and the DO.
GM asks me what he should do. I suggest, in light of the employee's long-term service and lack of any previous disciplinary action, a five-day suspension without pay and a caution that any further incidents will result in termination. I also suggest that the GM have a chat with the guest and, if the guest admits to any of the antagonistic conduct, to get him to cease or discontinue staying at our property.
This was all yesterday afternoon. Went home feeling I had fought the good fight and had a win/win on my hands.
Phone call comes in this morning from the GM of the property. He tells me he has been up all night thinking about this situation and while he feels that our suggested approach minimizes the risks and liability for the company he doesn't feel the action is strong enough and he wanted to terminate the employee for her outburst. Since he feels we have foreclosed that option, he is tendering his resignation effective immediately!
x:-o WHAT??
After picking myself up off the floor I asked him to please not act hastily, we can talk about this. He says his mind is made up. I dispatch the Director Ops (the GM's boss) to the property to try to smooth things over. (This GM is an exceptional manager and we would hate to lose him). Neither the Dir Ops or myself are totally closed to the idea of terminating the employee who made the outburst, we just want to make sure we have our ducks in a row and our wagons in a circle.
Fast forward to half an hour ago. Dir Ops is on the road headed to the property. Employee is on suspension for three days effective today. Trying to exercise as much damage control as I can from here. Fax comes in from the suspended employee - 6 pages of allegations of harassment and unreasonable, verbal abuse visited on this employee going back a couple of years by the guest who wants her fired. Now we got a whole new ball game.
Why in the sam hill did I ever get into HR??? Thanks for letting me vent, folks. Any light at the end of this tunnel you can point out to me? And please tell me the light isn't an oncoming train!
Comments
WOW! Is there a State / Federal law with a
statute of limitations on how far back such allegations can go ? Does company Policy have a requirement for immediate reporting of harrassment? Employee says she just sucked it in for two years , said nothing about fear of losing job as reason for not coming forth sooner.
Retaliation lawsuit is very real possibilty since she told the company verbally about the harassment after her outburst, but before the suspension . Bring her back to the job immediately today , pay her for the day missed - that is cheaper than a lawsuit.
Keep us posted.
Chari
If you do not follow through with your original disciplinary action - which I agree is appropriate - then you are basically allowing this GM to hold you and the company hostage. Regardless of how good he is, I would let him leave if your DO cannot reason with him. Why in the world would this GM give up his job over a decision such as this? I really am curious because it does make me wonder about his decision making abilities.
Elizabeth
1. Your suggestion to the GM about how the ee’s profane outburst should be handled was on target. Nevertheless, it was a suggestion that the GM didn’t have to take, and the fact that he decided to quit over it strikes me as a little nutty. He might have been great up to this point, but I don’t see where he was coming from in his thinking that an isolated incident of an ee cussing out a customer was a big risk for the company. Southwest Airlines, as we all know, is thought to be one of the greatest companies to work for, and they have a policy of informing customers who abuse their ees that they don’t want their business anymore. I’m not saying that they condone their ees cussing out customers; just that not every successful business believes that the customer, no matter how obnoxious, is always right.
2. The ee’s account of this customer’s harassment and verbal abuse may be quite truthful, but she’s also probably trying to save her job. Did she indicate whether any of the harassing conduct or comments were based on gender, race, etc.? If not, then the customer’s behavior may help explain her outburst, but it probably doesn’t give her any position from which to take legal action against your company.
I would stick to what you suggested in the first place, let the chips fall where they may with the GM and the guest, and – if you don’t already -- provide training to ees on when they need to let management know about the abusive conduct of guests.
Good luck, and keep us posted.
My thoughts, are I don't see how you could have handled it much differently. The GM is being unreasonable, my take.
Discipline should be on a case by case basis. I would be comfortable with either way, suspension or termination. Talk to the guest though. Make sure you do not let the guest make the decision or believe they can make the decision. Is this a good employee? Sounds like it. Do you want to lose a good employee who has a one time blow up? And she did not lie, owned up to it. TO me that goes a long way. Now to sound heartless. How often does this guest stay at the hotel? How much would you miss the business. If it is a day or two a month, can this employee's schedule be juggled around when he is there? If so, a last chance agreement might be appropriate. It shows to all the other employees that you value what they do for you and one screw up does not get you canned. Conversely, some screw ups should get you canned first time.
If you had been aware of the harassment you could have addressed it. Other than being an ahole, has the guest "harassed" your employee or is he just rude and a jerk?
Sounds like you may be going out to this fine location to follow up and continue damage control. You may need to have a sit down with the employee and discuss the issues. Myself I favor suspended pending investigation as oppossed to suspending them outright. No time limits more flexible, give you time to work it through more. Though I thought you handled it pretty good till the GM over reacted.
PS You got into HR becuase of the challenges.
No the light is not a train, just a semi moving at high speed.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman
Your original post did not include anything that I would classify as harassment. The two didn't get along and he 'antagonized' her. That's not necessarily Illegal harassment by any stretch. So, for that reason, I would let her serve out the suspension.
I would send her a certified letter stating the company's policy on harassment and restating your diligent approach to dealing with it. And also advising her of her responsibility to report such incidents immediately.
Invite her to discuss the entire situation with you immediately but tell her she is still on suspension at this time.
Now, if it turns out the GM and/or others in management knew or should have known of behavior that might rise to a level of illegal harassment, then the thing will take it's own direction, a direction which, at this time, you have no control over. I would not try to buy her off by returning her and paying her for time suspended.
If your investigation reveals that company management was aware of that behavior and she HAD complained or tried to, you will probably remove the suspension from her record and pay her back wages. A reasonable person jury may well conclude that her outburst was warranted under those conditions, regardless of what your policy is.
I would be very curious as to the DO's take on this, after his conversation with the GM.
But Don's suggestion of sending the employee a certified letter on your harassment policy and procedure is an excellent one. Why not send one to the GM too?
Let us know how it goes...
Good luck.
Our DO arrived at the property to find the GM waiting for him, had his desk cleaned out ready to turn over keys, codes, etc. The GM would not even discuss staying on, even if we terminated the suspended EE! Just left the property!
I wonder if it's too late to get into brain surgery school. I'm still young.
Keep you all posted. Thanks for the excellent feedback. I feel better now. You guys are the best.
x0:) He's conscience stricken and is resigning to atone for his sins.
x}> There's more history than he and the ee are sharing between them and he's resigning before he gets fired.
Just speculating......
My thoughts are you did the right thing from the jump start. Interesting!!
Just curious or maybe you already stated and I missed it...what is your writen policy (if you have one about disciplinary actions and ee's lashing out or being rude to customers?)
Better plan on interviewing the employee at length................ something is not right....
look at the computer.............
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman
PS - I remember you disparaging my Miller Lite. If I recall, it's the vodka martini or a micro brew!
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman
Yes, I'm sure something wicked this way comes in this little melodrama and I look forward to getting to the bottom of it. I expect I'll be going up there to check things out within a couple days, but I have tomorrow off so it'll have to wait or be handled by telephone. Nothing standing between me and a cold Coors (and, unfortunately, it's in a can). x;-)
From a risk management standpoint, I think you should poke around and find out more about this guest. If he has acted innapropriately with your staff, let him know he is not welcome back. Tell your employee the suspension stands because her actions were innappropriate but let her know you took measures to investigate the situation and deal with the offensive guest.
Ticking off the guest loses you a customer but ticking off the employee puts you at risk for legal action.
As for the GM, let him quit. My old boss always said "accept every resignation offered. then you hold the cards."
Hey, I'll be passing through Beaverton on Thursday. I'll stop at Krispy Kremes in your honor!