Bad Morale
System
5,885 Posts
Ok here's the situation. I work for a company who has a small amount of office personnel. We have one employee who has only been with the company 4 months. He comes late every day, leaves work early on a regular basis. If the boss leaves you can watch the clock and within 3 minutes he leaves.
All of the executives have been off this week on a Hunting Trip. Needless to say this guy has come up with every excuse and maybe worked 3 hours per day.
My question is how would you approach the owner and let him know the situation. I am the Dir HR and this guy is the Dir Strategic Planning and reports directly to the owner. I do not like to tattle however, it has really pulled the morale of the other staff member down with his lack of respect for business ethics.
Our boss is really good about rewarding staff for hard work like this hunting trip and then beach trips for the female employees. But it is an unwritten we earn these trips for hard work and dedication not by sneaking out when the boss is not looking.
All of the executives have been off this week on a Hunting Trip. Needless to say this guy has come up with every excuse and maybe worked 3 hours per day.
My question is how would you approach the owner and let him know the situation. I am the Dir HR and this guy is the Dir Strategic Planning and reports directly to the owner. I do not like to tattle however, it has really pulled the morale of the other staff member down with his lack of respect for business ethics.
Our boss is really good about rewarding staff for hard work like this hunting trip and then beach trips for the female employees. But it is an unwritten we earn these trips for hard work and dedication not by sneaking out when the boss is not looking.
Comments
You might ask your boss "I feel I need to make you aware of something that I believe is affecting the morale of the company but it concerns another employee and I am a bit uncomfortable about this. Do you want to hear it?"
If he says no, then you have your answer.
If he says yes, tell him just what you have observed. No editorializing. No speculation. Say as little as possible beyond what you have observed and cannot be disputed.
Good luck!
>for hard work like this hunting trip and then
>beach trips for the female employees. But it is
>an unwritten we earn these trips for hard work
>and dedication not by sneaking out when the boss
>is not looking.
This doesn't address your question, but I'm curious about the "beach trips for the female employees." Are male employees allowed to participate in the beach trips? Are female employees invited to participate in the hunting trip?
How does this director get any work done?
What would you think about approaching this person directly in the interest of "checking in" and ask how he is doing. From there you might bring up what you have witnessed and ask "are you ok?" This should trigger a response that will help you determine your best next step, while preserving the relationship. You can always take it up a notch and go to your boss, this just feels like the lowest level to start at.
Best of luck.
Tracy
Plus, if you end up going to the boss your situation with the employee will be worse as they will be in no doubt about who told, and may even think you were retaliating because they didn't respond the way you expected. It will be an excellent reason to blame you, rather than their own behavior.
I am normally one who says be direct. In this case, however, I see no point in directness. This person's actions are fully deliberate. Pointing out that you have noticed, when you have no authority to stop it, will not be constructive. It should come from the boss in the form of 'people have noticed' or 'people have complained.' This makes it less about the other employees and all about the employee who thinks he should be paid because he showed up.
Good luck!
BTW, welcome to the forum Tracy! I hope my disagreeing with your first post doesn't put you off.
Nae
I agree with Nae's perspective. The director is pushing the envelope and approaching him about it will only antagonize him.
The owner sounds like he deserves a days work for a days pay.
My first instinct is to understand what I want to get out of this and check my intention. If I feel this behavior is having an adverse impact on morale, then my intention is to address that impact. That might mean correcting the indiviual, but it also might mean correcting my understanding of what I see. My suggested approach allows for something I might be missing. I will look for the lowest level of intervention, either directly or indirectly, knowing I can always escalate. We have only heard a thin slice of information here and I caution jumping up that ladder of inference too quickly and unnecessarily.
Plus, Friends; I must admit my deep bias about HR filling the role of the "police."
Tracy
If maintaining deacorum and ensuring that employees follow the rules is policing, so be it.
If maintaining decorum and ensuring that employees follow the rules is policing, so be it.
Thats my one problem with Toby from "The Office". He is way too passive. Of course, if he wasn't they couldnt have such a funny show.
I think where you have to be careful is telling other managers how to run their departments. That kind of input is something that has to be requested or you have to "earn".
You dont want to be seen as a busybody shoving your nose into every departments business but I do consider HR to be a kind of "Internal Affairs" division.
You just have to walk a fine line.
I am all for macho HR.
Addressing the trips, this is an old school company, privately owned and I guess if the women wanted to hunt they could go but it has never been addressed. All of us would rather spend a few winter days in Florida as opposed to South Dakota! I think the same reverses for the guys.
I too was trying to get the point across with as little information as possible. I have not posted many times, read all time but did not want to expand where you were all thinking TMI. I think this guy definitely needs lots of improvement.
Paul I appreciate your comment and believe this is the approach that I am going to take in the situation. However, I must add that when given enough rope anyone can hang them self and I see this quickly approaching with this guy. He is much to arrogate to take any coaching from the HR department.
That being said I like your point of view. You don't want to jump to conclusions, and you are concerned with making sure you have your facts straight and start intervention in the best possible place.
On this site I always assume the little things are taken care of or the member would not be bringing up the problem in the first place. When I post a problem I try to be as brief as possible while giving all the important facts.
On this post the employee is painted as a slacker. I find I can't get past the part about the EE leaving 3 minutes after the boss is gone (which I assume is on a regular basis). That is the 'lowest level' to me and should be addressed immediately. The employee may have all kinds of reasons and things going on in his job or his life, but leaving 3 minutes after the boss is gone on a regular basis speaks for itself. It says loud and clear that this employee feels no sense of obligation to do the job he was hired to do. He only to performs when he is at risk if he doesn't perform (when the boss is there). A talk with the boss will let him/her know what is going on, and probably help them be more alert to other 'slacking' issues going on with this employee (tardiness, etc). It is possible this employee has never had any other training and if nipped in the bud will become an exemplary employee. (We can always hope.) It is also possible they will never be anything but a slacker. Either way, the sooner the boss knows about it the better for both parties. The boss will have a good employee or get another. The employee will improve, or find better opportunities for his preferred type of work elsewhere.
Nae
I always talk to them privately and not in front of the rest of the staff so it is not a big issue with the rest of the staff.
I like to give the employee a chance before I go behind his/her back and get them in trouble with their boss.
If I were causing a problem I would much rather someone came to me and talked to me about it before they went behind my back and talked to my boss and I wish to extend that same courtesy to my employees.
Shirley
I would call the employee into my office (so I am on my turf) and I would say to him " It appears you have been leaving a little earlier this week."
Is there a reason for this or do you just run out of work before the day is done? Perhaps your job should be part time instead of full time, or maybe we could find some extra work to keep you busy the full day. If you have a medical problem than we need to know so we can clock the time as FMLA time.
When (the boss's name) comes back we can get together and discuss this if you wish, he may have some ideas.
Shirley
I had several employees come to me asking (1) what does she do exactly and (2) why is she allowed to come and go as she pleases and everyone else has to "toe the line".
I did tell the CEO (who I report to as well) that she was routinely leaving the office when he was out and not letting anyone know where she was and (2) it was causing morale issues for other employees who worked many more hours than she did and made less money.
I also had an issue with this diva working the hours she did and I (as do all other sr. managers) routinely work 50 hours a week.
She was spoken to and told that her personal business should be conducted on her day off.
But if the air is cleared privately positive change is at least given a chance.
Humbly submitted for your thrashing pleasure.
Jim