Is There Anything Else I Should Know?

Kyle answered his ringing phone. His colleague, Renee, on the other end of the line sounded desperate.  “I need your advice,” she said, and then described an employee problem she was grappling with.  

It was an attendance problem. The employee was often late arriving for work, or taking time off during the day allegedly, for personal appointments, without notifying anyone.  Some days he was just missing in action -- somewhere in the building, but no one could find him.  His manager had spoken with him about it more than once and documented those conversations.  The last conversation resulted in a formal written warning for the employee. Yet his behavior had not changed.  Now they wanted to terminate his employment.  “What do you think, Kyle,” Renee asked, “Can we terminate him?”

Kyle verified with Renee that the documentation was clear and complete, and he was assured the employee received a copy of the written warning. “From everything you shared, it appears that the policy would support termination,” Kyle said. 

Imagine Kyle’s surprise when Karen London, the General Counsel, called several days later wanting to know why he gave the okay to terminate the employee. “Kyle, didn’t you know this employee had filed a harassment complaint the week before he was terminated?”

“Karen, this is the first I’m hearing about his complaint. Renee never told me when she called for my advice. She only described the attendance issue.” 

“Okay, Kyle,” said Karen. “This didn’t sound like something you’d do if you had all the facts and information.  I’ve got it from here.”

Kyle hung up the phone questioning his own competence, and feeling a bit betrayed by Renee. How was I supposed to know there was more to the situation?  I gave her my opinion based on the facts she provided and my interpretation of the policy. She twisted everything.  

He reached for a piece of and wrote something down. Then he taped the paper onto the message board above his desk and thought next time when anyone asks my advice or opinion, I’m ending the conversation with these words: “Is there anything else I should know?”  

Maryanne Robertson

P. S. Who is Maryanne Robertson and why is she writing this post? Find out more about her at

http://makingpeoplematter.blogspot.com/2020/01/meet-maryanne-robertson.html.

When Love is in the Air at Work

“Oh, Maryanne. It was so awkward. I was so afraid they were going to see me.”

“Calm down, Allison,” I said to my friend, a young professional I’ve been mentoring. She was telling me that while she was on a date last weekend—a nice romantic dinner—she spotted two people from work, and there was nothing casual about the dinner they were having. 

“I spotted them across the room on our way in, and fortunately, the maître d’ escorted us into a smaller, more private room. Dave is so romantic,” she sighed, changing the subject for a moment.  “Anyway, they were holding hands and only had eyes for each other, which I guess was good for me.”

“I hope it didn’t spoil your date,” I said smiling. 

“It didn’t, but I know I’ve got to tell my boss tomorrow when he gets back from his trip. It’s tricky because the woman reports to the man she was with, and he heads up a significant line of business, and she manages one of the important projects. Is it an ethics violation if they’re married to other people and dating? Could we fire them for that?”

I knew this was a challenge for Allison. Her family was a close-knit one. Her grandparents just celebrated their 60^th wedding anniversary. I had to frame this as a business problem for her.

“Allison, look at your policies and the situation. You’ve told me your company has no restriction on dating. And whether or not anyone agrees with their behavior or morality on a personal level, it’s not necessarily a violation of business ethics. It doesn’t sound like there’s been a work-related issue until now. If there’s the perception that she’s receiving preferential treatment from him because of their reporting relationship and personal involvement, that could have a big impact.”

“What if anyone else has seen them?”

“Good point, Allison.  And let me say, they’ve not exercised good judgment by appearing in public while trying to keep this relationship secret. Why don’t you suggest to your boss that they be made a part of the solution?  I’m sure they are aware that their personal relationship was bound to have an effect at work. There may be a solution that you’re not aware of. I’m sure there are a number of options that can be explored.”  That seemed to relieve a little of Allison’s anxiety.

As I ended the call and took off my headset, I took a deep breath to clear my head. It's never black and white when you're dealing with people. There are always shades of grey, and managing in that grey zone is the biggest challenge.

Maryanne Robertson

P. S. Who is Maryanne Robertson and why is she writing this post? If you missed our January newsletter, you can find out more about Maryanne at

http://makingpeoplematter.blogspot.com/2020/01/meet-maryanne-robertson.html.

Commencements and Commitments

It’s June, the month of graduations and weddings — commencements and commitments. 

Graduations.  They occur at the end of an academic phase — the end of high school or college, for example — with a commencement ceremony. A commencement is a beginning or start of something new. So, graduations are about ending one phase and starting a new one. 

We are in a commencement phase ourselves. Since 2011, we’ve been writing and publishing nonfiction business books of a prescriptive nature. Now, however, we’re on the cusp of a new chapter — writing and publishing in a new genre — narrative nonfiction. Narrative nonfiction is like a novel. It tells a story or stories.

We've been on a journey writing this narrative nonfiction book. Recognizing there are many stories to tell about the dynamics of workplace behavior, we set out to gather them from our colleagues. Since we wanted to write a compelling and enticing book, we took many storytelling liberties. The stories we heard were molded, tweaked, and often combined with others to fit the structure of the scenes we created throughout this book.

In order to preserve the privacy and identity of the individuals and organizations involved, we created a fictitious company and cast of characters as a backdrop against which we tell these tales. The characters portrayed are composites of a large number of professionals across a wide variety of industries and throughout multiple careers. 

Weddings. They represent commitments. A couple on a journey is looking forward and making commitments to each other about the future.  Our idea for this work of narrative nonfiction formed in 2011 as we concluded writing The Big Book of HR. Along the journey — gathering stories, countless drafts, rewrites, and edits — we were interrupted with requests from our publisher to write three more books. Then there were other life events that stalled us. 

Now we are rocking it. This year alone the manuscript has been in the hands of four HR colleagues for peer review and now it’s been turned over to three beta readers for their critique.  Once we get all this feedback, more rewrites will be done. Then we can move onward to get the book to market.

We know there’s still a great deal more to do — cover design, editing, formatting — but we’re on a solid path to the next stop on our journey. Publication and book launch are planned for 2020. 

Many of our readers have been along on this journey with us.  Now, we invite all of you to keep up with our progress and hold us to our commitment. We’ll be sharing more information in our weekly blog — makingpeoplematter.blogspot.com — and in this monthly newsletter, so please be on the lookout for them. 

Barbara and Cornelia