What is a bad attitude? Is it the staffer who is simply negative? Is it the staffer who snarls at you every time you walk by the desk? Is it someone who does the minimum to get by? Is it the individual who smiles to your face only to backstab you every chance they get? Is it the staff member who packs a .357 Magnum just to go to the restroom? Well, yes to all the above. However, this is a focus on the person who actually is good at their job but who simply is poison to be around.
Ferd’s office had the perfect example of this. Let’s call her Cathy Cobra. This assistant really did know her job and the guys she supported were quite happy with her performance. She knew their clients pretty well, responded to service requests professionally if not in a friendly manner. But Cathy could turn a sweet and innocent Sallie Field type into a Clint Eastwood curmudgeon.
She was very tough on her immediate boss the OPS manager and openly disdainful of her peers in the office. In her regular reviews, this was brought to her attention and for brief periods she seemed to learn how to smile but would soon revert back to her normal attitude of turning lemonade into lemons. She had no friends in the office and would come in, do her job, and go home. No amount of coaching, no amount of suggestion was going to turn this around.
But Cathy had her producers happy (and maybe a bit intimidated.) But the OPS manager and Ferd were both unhappy. This went on for a couple of years until the firm hit a pothole in earnings and as usual the field had to take a disproportionate hit on expenses. That meant layoffs.
Ferd’s office had to cut two staff. One cut was easy in that she had recently been arrested as was already in the process of being terminated. But in thinking about who the second cut had to be, Cathy became the obvious target.
In one of the rare circumstances where human resources was actually helpful, a very well organized process, including severance, was put together. All cuts were done on the same day with full backing by legal and paperwork prepared in advance. In Ferd’s office, cut number one was easy. She knew it was coming and frankly was delighted to be paid to go away.
The Cathy termination could not have been more different. Ferd and his OPS manager pulled Cathy into an office as soon as she arrived and calmly delivered the message that she was being terminated. Because she had been with the firm for several years she was given a pretty decent severance offer and paperwork to take with her to review and sign if she wanted the deal. But Cathy was not going away until she extracted her pound of flesh. She spewed venom more deadly than a cobra. She threw things. She called Ferd and his female OPS manager every name she could conger up with the sort of language that is usually heard in the Marines. Or a locker room. Or a branch manager’s meeting.
The truth is, Ferd was expecting a bit of a scene but this exceeded even his worst fears. Later in the day when HR followed up with Cathy by phone (a miserable job they did well), the regional HR person was subjected to the same abuse which she simply had to take. Eventually Cathy signed the paperwork and got paid and was never seen again.
At first her producers were unhappy that they were being reassigned to another overworked staffer. But then a curious thing happened. After about two weeks when everyone had to adjust to higher workloads and skinnier customer service, office morale actually went up. The black cloud that surrounded Cathy on a daily basis was no longer to be found. Staff meetings became fun again. Producers realized how they had been seduced into the trap of the familiar vs. the fear of the unknown. Oh by the way, the office was more profitable and Ferd’s bonus pool went up.
Was this easy? No. Were customers better off? No but they weren’t any worse off after a short while. Did the branch’s management team feel good? No in the sense that they knew they were hurting Cathy’s life in the short run, but actually in the intermediate/long term yes. A job had to be done and it was done professionally and in the long term an employee whose performance was otherwise fine but flawed in attitude, went away. This time, it was a person that probably could not be fired just for negativity. It was a win in the end.
There are 10 commandments in doing terminations (assuming HR is fully engaged in your situation).
- Do the termination in a private office – never in an open area
- Do it first thing in the day. Get it over and done with and even before a number of employees are in the office to watch the “perp walk.”
- Be prepared. Orchestrate every word to be said.
- Have two people in the room preferably one male and one female. This provides some moral support and provides a witness to everything that is said.
- Do not waiver. Do not become emotional. Let the person spew if they are going to spew.
- If you anticipate serious trouble have paid security standing by but not in sight.
- Require the person to leave immediately carrying only what they can carry in a single box. Ship the rest of their stuff later. Inspect anything they take with them.
- Be sure to confiscate any keys and turn off their electronic access right away.
- Communicate to all employees in a neutral way the departure of the person. Email might feel cold and heartless but it gets the word out to all at the same time and kills at least some of the rumor mill. If you know of any special friendships or relationships take the time to talk to those folks one on one.
- Be visible. Walk around. You can be sure that there are others around who are wondering if they are next. Assure everyone that the deed is done and there are no others (assuming that is true.) Some will doubt this and you can expect their job performance to improve immediately.
- Don’t apologize for doing what you have to do.
- At the end of the day find some way to blow off steam. Get a drink or six. Hit the gym. Call a trusted peer to compare notes and get some sympathy – and you will get it.
(OK so there’s 12 commandments. Sue me.)
Have a Cathy Cobra story too? How did you deal with it? Got a support staff story others could learn from or get a chuckle from? Email it confidentially to the Editor: manageia2@gmail.com
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