You don’t have to look hard to find workplace horror stories—many of you doubtless have a few in your own work history you could share.
I’m currently reading “Ghost Stories of New York State” by Susan Smitten. Some of the hauntings the book details occur in places of work, where an unfortunate person happened to be an employee in a haunted building. I don’t have experience with ghosts in any of the places where I worked, but I did witness some horror stories.
The Supervisor Who Doesn’t Wish You Well
My understanding was that a manager would want you to do well. After all, if you do well in your job, it’s good for the department and business overall. This is not always the case.
I know of at least one instance where the manager felt threatened by a junior employee’s steller work performance and began undercutting her to their shared boss.
When the employee tried to do the right thing and speak directly to the manager and boss, both denied there was a problem. The employee, a top performer for the company in her job role, left after a couple years. Only when she was at her exit interview did the Human Resources manager express regret or concern. “The squeaky mouse gets the cheese,” she said, noting that the employee should have known to not only go directly to the supervisor and boss but also escalated the matter to the Human Resources department.
The fix: a Human Resources manager who is an active participant in the lines of business they are responsible for, rather than only interacting with employees when there is a problem. There is value to a Human Resources or Learning professional who becomes a familiar presence to a work group, sometimes sitting in on meetings to observe team dynamics and a few times a year to conduct group activities. A Human Resources or Learning professional who is good at their job should be able to detect interpersonal problems in the lines of business they oversee—if they have enough time with those people.
The Succession Plan that Becomes a Nightmare
The retirement of a respected department head after 20 years or so of service probably will cause anxiety. If the department head cares about the people they will leave behind, they may draw up their own idea for a success plan. That plan likely will include internal promotions. They will tip off trusted and valued employees to the plan before submitting it to the executive suite for review and approval. Such was the case I witnessed.
The problem occurs when one of the employees who is affected by the succession feels her concern rising when she observes that a long-time co-equal colleague will be her new boss. She likes this person as a colleague but suspects their work styles may not be compatible as boss and employee. The retiring department head assures the employee they have faith that that she and her new boss are both “reasonable enough” that they will be able to work out any differences.
The employee leaves the meeting with her outgoing boss and over the coming weekend broods over the succession plan. She has a very bad feeling about the succession plan’s recommendation for her incoming boss, who has micromanaging and workaholic tendencies. She then expresses those concerns in an e-mail to the executives who will decide the succession plan, copying her retiring boss. She is ignored.
Fast-forward a few months later, and she finds herself working for what feels like an in-house competitor, who is eager to be rid of her.
The fix: Take your valued employees’ concerns seriously when formulating a succession plan. Letting them know the plan in advance of its approval is only useful if you then get their feedback and take that feedback seriously. Just because two people get along as colleagues doesn’t mean they will work well together as boss and employee.
The Company that Chooses the Next Big Thing Over Employees
Taking care of and developing the employees you already have seems like a common-sense principle to me. However, as many of you know, it often doesn’t work this way in organizations. Sometimes top executives would rather focus on the next big acquisition. They will do whatever they must do to their current employees to achieve the next big acquisition or get the next big round of funding, including making profitability promises that will be impossible to achieve without creating something akin to a white-collar sweatshop, along with making severe budget cuts.
Companies like this can turn a happy work environment with comfy perks and a prime location into a place of drudgery. The company might, for example, move from a safe and pleasant city center to an inconvenient location outside the city limits in an area that has a much higher crime rate. It also might move from a modern office space to one built in the 1970s—which, despite renovations, still has the 1970s vibe.
The fix: Value the employees and lines of business you currently have. Don’t throw them under the bus or treat them like toys you’ve lost interest in when the next shiny new investment comes your way.