Fadingpain Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 So a buddy of mine called me today all stressed out. He works in finance at a large, multi-national corporation. He's always talking about numbers, budgets, fiscal forecasting, etc. All the fun stuff. LOL. Today he had to give a presentation over the phone to like 30 people in several countries. When he finished, he asked his underling (we'll call her Linda) to start her part of the presentation. No answer. My buddy thought she was over on her side of the building in her office quietly waiting for her turn to speak. I guess this was a fairly important matter and she certainly knew she had to participate today. So someone gets up and physically goes to Linda's office only to find it dark and unattended. Turns out Linda had some type of food poisoning incident at work earlier in the morning and went home feeling ill. The only thing she did to notify anyone of this was send an instant message in MS Office to my buddy, once the meeting had already started, which of course he never saw b/c the computer knew he was in a meeting and so it blocked the IM part of the program. She didn't tell anyone else or send an email. So now he needs to yell at Linda, basically, but he is unsure how to proceed. Keep in mind Linda is a good worker, was hired by my buddy, and overall I think my buddy has a good relationship with her which he doesn't want to ruin. Yet Linda's actions today were unprofessional, out of line, and ended up embarrassing my buddy in front of all these people in fairly high up positions particularly at world corporate HQ in a foreign country. He's afraid they are all going to be like "who is this loser you hired!?" Anyone here have managerial experience? How do you handle the little chat my buddy has to have tomorrow with Linda?
GoBills808 Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 If Linda really was a 'good worker' she wouldn't have hung your buddy out to dry like that. Me, I'd make it crystal clear that another such incident will be grounds for termination. And I'd think hard before giving her any responsibilities that impacted my ability to do my job. 1
Augie Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 (edited) It is NEVER a yelling moment. If he believes in her it is definitely a SERIOUS teaching moment. You MUST remain calm and make expectations clear. FIRM, but calm. (That can be more frightening than yelling, anyway!) Edited August 17, 2018 by Augie 3
Fadingpain Posted August 17, 2018 Author Posted August 17, 2018 7 minutes ago, Augie said: It is NEVER a yelling moment. If he believes in her it is definitely a SERIOUS teaching moment. You MUST remain calm and make expectations clear. FIRM, but calm. (That can be more frightening than yelling, anyway!) 7 minutes ago, Augie said: It is NEVER a yelling moment. If he believes in her it is definitely a SERIOUS teaching moment. You MUST remain calm and make expectations clear. FIRM, but calm. (That can be more frightening than yelling, anyway!) Thanks Augie. I use the word "yell" colloquially. Highly doubt my buddy is going to "yell" per se. He is just uneasy about how to best lay down the law and let Linda know this was unacceptable and can't happen again. 9 minutes ago, GoBills808 said: If Linda really was a 'good worker' she wouldn't have hung your buddy out to dry like that. Me, I'd make it crystal clear that another such incident will be grounds for termination. And I'd think hard before giving her any responsibilities that impacted my ability to do my job. Everything in life isn't broad black and white distinctions. I think (as I understand it) Linda is a good worker and I know my buddy has been pleased with the hire overall, b/c a lot of his other underlings are kind of incompetent. Obviously in this instance, though, Linda's performance wasn't great. I guess we all make mistakes.
Augie Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 I get it about “yell”, but quiet and firm is more effective. They realize how serious that is. 1
Fadingpain Posted August 17, 2018 Author Posted August 17, 2018 He's on the west coast and I'm a night owl, so I told him I would run this past the brain trust at TBD and call him around midnight to report the findings. LOL. 3
Just Jack Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 Food poisoning sucks. If she left after the meeting started, I can understand why she did what she did. No one wants to hear someone throwing up in the middle of a presentation. If she left before the meeting started, but did not send the IM till later, then yes, that's unprofessional. My opinion hinges on the timing of her departure.
Augie Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 I have more questions than answers. What are we dealing with in terms of employment level, age, experience, etc. You would expect more “awareness”. But young and stupid is....just that.
WhoTom Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 Keeping in mind that she's a good employee and that someone who's suffering from food poisoning may not be thinking at 100%, I'd go a little easy on her. Ask how she's feeling, say he's glad to see her back at work, and then let her know what happened at the conference call. Point out that IM was blocked, and why, so if a similar situation occurs in the future, she should use more than one method of communication. Teachable moment. 1
Fadingpain Posted August 17, 2018 Author Posted August 17, 2018 1 minute ago, Just Jack said: Food poisoning sucks. If she left after the meeting started, I can understand why she did what she did. No one wants to hear someone throwing up in the middle of a presentation. If she left before the meeting started, but did not send the IM till later, then yes, that's unprofessional. My opinion hinges on the timing of her departure. Well keep in mind the "meeting" took place over the telephone with everyone hooked into my buddy's computer as well, so they could all see what was on his screen. But they weren't all in 1 big room in a traditional sense. Linda was in her own office earlier that day, but as I understand, she did decide to go home during the meeting. My buddy's complaint was that she basically should have texted him on his cell phone or somehow contacted him in a way that would have worked, as the IM feature is shut off I guess during a teleconference. 1
Augie Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 I’ve had food poisining a couple times. It’s serious S$%&, literally and figuratively. I’d hope I could have gotten word of my absence in time, but it can be quite....debilitating. 1
Fadingpain Posted August 17, 2018 Author Posted August 17, 2018 2 minutes ago, Augie said: I have more questions than answers. What are we dealing with in terms of employment level, age, experience, etc. You would expect more “awareness”. But young and stupid is....just that. She's like a 53 year old lesbian who used to be the personal accountant of the guy who started Nike shoes apparently! 2 minutes ago, WhoTom said: Keeping in mind that she's a good employee and that someone who's suffering from food poisoning may not be thinking at 100%, I'd go a little easy on her. Ask how she's feeling, say he's glad to see her back at work, and then let her know what happened at the conference call. Point out that IM was blocked, and why, so if a similar situation occurs in the future, she should use more than one method of communication. Teachable moment. I think this makes sense and is basically about all my buddy can do; jibes with what Augie is saying as well.
Augie Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 1 minute ago, Fadingpain said: She's like a 53 year old lesbian who used to be the personal accountant of the guy who started Nike shoes apparently! She should know better and find a way to pass on the news. If I’m a Nike billionaire I might not try as hard to alert everyone to my double ended squirts, but it’s irresponsible to hang him out to dry.
stuvian Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 For me it would comedown to Linda's track record. At face value, it appears that she bailed at a critical time. However, if she has performed well in similar circumstances in the past I would see this as a one off incident without culpability. I wouldn't be concerned about what happened. I would be concerned about the lack of communication leading up to the presentation. As for sick leave, did she seek medical treatment for her food poisoning and was a medical note provided ? If she did not, I might start to doubt her. What is her attendance record? 1
Fadingpain Posted August 17, 2018 Author Posted August 17, 2018 2 minutes ago, stuvian said: For me it would comedown to Linda's track record. At face value, it appears that she bailed at a critical time. However, if she has performed well in similar circumstances in the past I would see this as a one off incident without culpability. I wouldn't be concerned about what happened. I would be concerned about the lack of communication leading up to the presentation. As for sick leave, did she seek medical treatment for her food poisoning and was a medical note provided ? If she did not, I might start to doubt her. What is her attendance record? It's not a situation where she's faking it and doing something weird. Apparently there were some witness to the scene in the ladies bathroom and it wasn't good. It wasn't a vomiting problem. It involved the other end of things. I think her track record is quite good, which is why my buddy likes her so much. A lot of the other people he works with are not quite good.
Augie Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 (edited) I had food poisoning in Boston one time. My wife’s co-worker took us to what he called the best restaurant in town (on him). I got through a ginger ale, then the maitre’d called a cab for me after I spent 30 minutes on the floor in the men’s room. The cabbie tried to drop me at the wrong hotel lest I foul his cab. I got back to MY hotel by refusing to get out. I listened to UNLV and Duke play the NCAA championship game from the cold tile floor of that bathroom. I have some sympathy for real food poisining. Alcohol induced poisining is a different universe. But MY WIFE KNEW I WAS LEAVING! Edited August 17, 2018 by Augie 1
GoBills808 Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 25 minutes ago, Fadingpain said: Everything in life isn't broad black and white distinctions. I think (as I understand it) Linda is a good worker and I know my buddy has been pleased with the hire overall, b/c a lot of his other underlings are kind of incompetent. Obviously in this instance, though, Linda's performance wasn't great. I guess we all make mistakes. I've actually found that in terms of setting employee standards and expectations, black/white is the only way to go. Clear and concise direction allows your employees to function at their best. Anything less tends to create confusion which hurts productivity. 1
RaoulDuke79 Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 Unless she was throwing up or shitting on the floor she should have been there if she knew she had a responsibility to be on the call.
WhoTom Posted August 17, 2018 Posted August 17, 2018 2 minutes ago, GoBills808 said: I've actually found that in terms of setting employee standards and expectations, black/white is the only way to go. Clear and concise direction allows your employees to function at their best. Anything less tends to create confusion which hurts productivity. Good leadership is somewhat flexible when the situation calls for it. Rigid bosses create bad morale, and that's not good for productivity. People are not machines - treating workers with dignity is good for the business in the long run ... and it's simply the right thing to do. 2
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