When a decades-long employee with a strong performance record has a new boss who is dissatisfied with their performance, what is the best way to balance the new manager’s evaluation with the longer-term organizational memory? The two don’t always align.
Trained to Wonder Why
An employee thought to be a strong and valuable contributor getting washed out by a new boss is an old story. The question is what approach managers and Human Resources should take when a new perspective on a long-time employee is offered.
In many cases, unfortunately, the first step in the process doesn’t happen: a conscientious executive, whom the new boss reports to, asking why. Is this a genuine performance issue or is this more about interpersonal friction?
Executives should be trained to wonder why, and, in fact, should be required by company protocol to do so. If possible, an organization policy could require a different, more intensive process for termination when an employee has been with the organization for longer than five years and has had, up to that point, a good record. You don’t want to make it impossible for the organization to get rid of an unproductive employee, or one who is doing low-quality work, but you also don’t want essential questions to go unasked.
When Learning Should Enter the Process
Involvement from Learning and Development (L&D) should be triggered when an executive managing a department head is informed of the desire to eliminate a longtime employee.
The L&D professional would meet with the overseeing executive and department head. The level of understanding the department head has of how to handle this kind of situation would be gauged, and if necessary, Learning would provide training on how to better evaluate the situation and better communicate with the employee the department head seeks to terminate.
“Brenda, you’ve only been in this new role as leader of the department for two months. Have you considered that you’re in a transitional period right now, where things may be a little bumpy with employees who have had another manager for more than five years? It sounds like you do things very differently from your predecessor. I want to help you craft a plan for the transition period, including how best to encourage this employee to align with your approach. If necessary, we can even mediate a series of conversations between the two of you. Terminating an employee who has been with the organization for more than a decade and has a had a great track record until now is not something to be rushed through or taken lightly.”
Give the Employee the Opportunity to Respond and Participate
When there is a long, positive track record to consider, a rushed attempt by a new boss to oust the employee should require giving the employee an opportunity to respond. It starts with cross-checking to ensure the boss actually did try to talk to the employee one-on-one already.
“Sara, Brenda has noted some areas of concern that she said she has spoken to you about. Could you tell me about that conversation?”
The L&D and HR teams might be surprised to learn that Brenda’s definition of a conversation is not the same as Sara’s, or that no such conversation took place at all.
“Brenda expressed annoyance and anger that I did some things differently from her way. I also was annoyed and angry, but she never provided an outline of the new expectations for my role, things she wanted me to do differently from the way I had been doing them and told that I had been doing them well.”
Time Recalibrate Rather than Release
The drive of a new boss to release a longtime employee, who is, in reality, highly valuable to an organization, should be treated with skepticism.
It often has more to do with a personality mismatch and can even be tied to dark motivations executives don’t like to believe their managers capable of, such as envy and the desire to remove a potential competitor.
The solution in these situations often can be as simple as bringing a Human Resources or Learning and Development professional into a conversation that includes the employee. Job-role expectations may need to be recalibrated in clear terms for the employee. Be sure they know that the rules of the game have changed and give them a chance to play by the new rules.
How do you approach a request by a new manager to remove a longtime, high-performing employee?