Supervisor Insubornation

Bullion · May 2010

We have a supervisor who has been employed with our non-profit organization for 5 years. There was a situation that occurred on a Friday and this supervisor did not tell her manager about this issue for over a week. This superior is very passive and did not see the importance of letting her manager know. Do to the lack of communication she had with her manager, the manager is wanting to terminate her for insubornation. Do you see any red flags we should be aware of if we terminate?

davids · May 2010

It's difficult to respond without knowing more. What was the impact of the supervisor failing to communicate with her manager? Has the supervisor received prior discipline/warning regarding the lack of communication? On the surface, lack of communication is not really "insubordination." If there is a history or major impact of the non-communication, it may have been wrong; but I wouldn't call it insubordination.

Sharon McKnight SPHR · May 2010

[quote=Bullion;719916]We have a supervisor who has been employed with our non-profit organization for 5 years. There was a situation that occurred on a Friday and this supervisor did not tell her manager about this issue for over a week. This superior is very passive and did not see the importance of letting her manager know. Do to the lack of communication she had with her manager, the manager is wanting to terminate her for insubornation. Do you see any red flags we should be aware of if we terminate?[/quote]

I'm not sure that insubordination would be the driver for termination in this instance. Poor work performance might be more justified.

If this instance, however, is the only reason for termination I'd think long and hard before taking that action. Employees are going to make mistakes and judgment errors. If you terminate for the first error each one makes, then your workforce is going to dwindle pretty rapidly and the remaining employees will live in fear of making an error. That's not a productive environment.

If you haven't already, dig deeper into what's happened. Unless the supervisor has made a string of errors, why would the manager want to terminate a supervisor that's been with the company for 5 years?

I think you need more information and whatever the decision turns out to be, document, document, document.

Sharon

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Dasher · May 2010

Insubordination would be more like not following a (specific) directive or doing something in direct opposition to what you have been asked by your supervisor to do. There would also be an awareness by the insubordinate person as well of the contrary behavior. It does not sound like that was the case in this instance. You say the supervisor is normally "passive" and did not recognize that they should have informed their boss. As the others have said -- that is more a performance issue -- and depending on the severity of the end result, would not come close to a valid reason for firing a 5-year manager.

Is one taking this too personally and the other not recognizing that the boss needs to be kept in the loop? Perhaps some coaching of both supervisors is warranted.

sonny · May 2010

Agree with the others. .need more information, history and there are other options as they suggest.

I am wondering what the supervisor neglected to tell her manager? If it was ie an allegation of client abuse it sits differently than two employees arguing. .

Paul in Cannon Beach · May 2010

As others have said, I think the greater risk to your company (based on the limited information you have provided) is the manager who wants to fire a five year employee over something that appears to be fairly minor.

Supervisor Insubornation

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