Attention all human resources people – this chapter is not for you. Attention all fans of political correctness – this will be incorrect. Attention all diversity officers – you won’t be happy with this chapter either.
To be clear, this is very tough business for producers to be successful in – white or otherwise, male or otherwise. But the reality is that the success rate for trainees in general is not great. It is especially tough for minorities.
Pick your own theory as to why. Is it society? Is it latent racism or sexism by clients? We don’t know and really don’t care about an explanation. Success is what good managers insist on. No favoritism.
So when firms tie portions of bonuses or some fraction of manager pay to hiring minority candidates, the firm does a gross disservice to the manager and to candidates that would otherwise not get hired. You can spare all the noise about public relations or potential litigation. If firms are worried about those things, fine. Address it some way other than manager pay. It is too easy and convenient for firms to try to fix the firm’s issues by nicking pay.
Smedley hired Elaine an African American woman who was already licensed. She was very sharp and even had a strong reference from a well respected minority producer at another firm. She was brought in as a trainee and subject to the trainee contract as her experience at the other firm did not include anything resembling training. The mistake that Smedley should not have made was that in the rush to help his bonus that year, he didn’t make the one call he should have made: to her prior manager.
Fast forward a year or so and she was at or near the bottom of her training class in just about every category. She started blowing off required training meetings in the branch. She started missing one on one coaching meetings with Smedley. She even was partnered up with a mid-level producer trying to do some seminars to build business. When her explanation for a mysterious check from her former firm was some deferred compensation, Smedley should have dug deeper.
But fortunately, Smedley meticulously documented every single one of her transgressions. Human resources was in the loop. The firm was shockingly consistent about holding trainees to certain minimum standards. She had requested an extension on deadlines and a relaxation of standards. Request denied. She was on a verbal warning that her performance was not cutting it. So when she excitedly described a road trip where she had booked several appointments with professional athletes that she had contact with through an agent, it looked like there might have been a breakthrough although the meetings were a day’s drive or more from the branch.
That was the high water mark. When she then didn’t show up for work and didn’t check in, Smedley called her to find out what was going on. She said she was having car trouble and didn’t have the money to get it fixed. She somehow made it to her mom’s house a long day’s drive away from the branch and was staying there. With HR’s involvement she was informed in writing that she was going to be terminated for job abandonment and violation of her training contract.
What Elaine then alleged to the firm and to a local civil rights organization was Smedley (and the firm) were racist. Smedley was then investigated and to his surprise, the firm and even the Regional, stood behind him. The firm counterclaimed for the balance on her training contract. Eventually, both sides agreed to drop their claims. Case closed. After several months of a terrible cloud hanging over him, Smedley could finally uncurl his toes. Other than the management team, the branch was unaware of all the drama.
Oh and remember her so called deferred compensation? It turned out to be her former firm paying her to go away under a very similar set of facts and dubious claims. Thousands of dollars in go away money. Smedley paid her zero. Yea, he got the bump in his bonus, but once the branch took the hit on Elaine’s training expenses and salary, there really wasn’t any net money in Smedley’s pocket. Not his favorite hire to say the least.
High quality hires don’t just add revenue. They add to the fabric of the office and can advance managers’ careers. But when the requests start flowing for special treatment or a general sense that the rules don’t apply because a producer is female or a member of a minority group, that sense of entitlement is a giant problem. Simply put, there can be no difference in the way a producer is treated regardless of gender or race. The minute you make an exception, you are dead meat. Don’t do it. Never ever. Seriously. Are you listening?
What can you do to protect yourself?
> Document everything. Conversations and meeting attendance included.
> Never make a hire to make a bonus. Don’t do it. Never ever. Not even once. It’s not worth it.
> Treat everyone, particularly trainees, fairly and honestly. Hold people to the letter of the firm’s standards. Note this does not necessarily mean identically. That is impossible. But any sort of performance standard from the firm should be non-negotiable. If your firm doesn’t have any, make your own and apply them to all.
> Don’t own this kind of problem by yourself. Have your assistant in the room taking notes of conversations. If not, take your own notes and timestamp them contemporaneously.
> You must tell your Regional and HR what is going on at the beginning of the time when you think you may have an issue. If the first they hear is when they hear from a lawyer, you will look bad.
> If you are subject to an outside party’s investigation, you must assess whether the firm’s lawyer is representing you or the firm. This is not a foregone conclusion. And your status with the firm’s lawyer can change. You can always get your own representation, and be aware that in these kinds of cases the firm may decide to throw you under the bus in which case the lawyer they pay will most assuredly not represent you. Assume nothing!
> If you carry some sort of personal liability insurance (which you should), and if you really have screwed up, the insurance company may want to support you in arbitration. But if you do carry this coverage, be sure the carrier will pay on judgments in this kind of case. They might or might not. You have to ask.
> Don’t be hopelessly naïve. Just because the Regional says she’ll stand behind you, it doesn’t mean that HR, legal, and/or the firm will. Regionals get overruled too. Shit flows down hill baby and you are at the very bottom of the bottom of the hill.
Know any stories that ended better or (ugh) worse than this one? Email manageia2@gmail.com your good, bad, or somewhere in between story. Others will learn from you!
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