by Marcy J. Maslov
(This article was published in the wwWebevents newsletter.)
Big Boss promotes you to supervisor. He hands you the employee files and then tells you to fire your one and only employee for poor performance.
Instead of firing her, you decide to redefine this employee’s performance goals without telling Big Boss. Is this effective leadership? Why or why not?
This is a true story. And my first experience with being a manager. How could the boss so nonchalantly promote me to manager and then order me to fire my only employee??? With no guarantees of being allowed to replace this employee, I had to find some other way to deal with this situation and earn my manager stripes….
What is the difference between management and leadership? That is the core issue here, as well as accountability and teamwork. Obviously, there was a problem with this employee that had not been dealt with. Or was there? Maybe it was just a matter of the boss not wanting to do the “dirty work” and fire someone they didn’t like, or maybe expectations were not clearly stated to ensure the employee could be successful. We don’t have enough information here.
Let’s look at the motivation behind this action. Is it fair to ask someone to fire an employee when we’ve never worked together? Or is it better to give an opportunity to the employee to earn the right to stay? In this case, it does not appear that we’ve had experience with this employee before, so firing her on Big Boss orders would be complying with the boss rather than making a decision based on first-hand experience (or regulations). Here’s where accountability enters the picture. You were the one who followed the orders and acted on them without real facts. You may have to justify your actions should the employee come back and complain.
From the employee’s perspective getting a new boss is challenging. Being fired as a first action by the new boss without having the chance work with the boss is a negative event, possibly even viewed as a betrayal of trust. You’ve just increased the risk that this employee could disengage or even cause the company harm.
From the company’s perspective, we do not have enough information to know if all compliance procedures were followed. The positive aspect of this decision to redefine performance goals and give the employee a chance is that now the manager does have first-hand experience. If set clearly the goals could be documented evidence to support any decision made. The issue that causes concern is that we did this without informing the big boss. We broke the “rules” of teamwork.
Is it better to protect the company first or follow the boss’ orders?
This is a deeper ethics issue of this scenario, and there are no “best” answers here. The reality is that it depends – on the situation, on the boss, on the individuals involved, and on company written and unwritten policies. Each of us interprets the situation in different ways, weighs the risks and rewards of each option and makes a decision from our own experience. If, for example, the boss is a territorial individual who insists on doing things his/her own way advance communication may be impossible. On the other hand, if the request is to perform some illegal activity there’s a larger responsibility to not only the individual but also to protect the company.
So would you fire this employee or find some other way to meet both company and manager obligations? Write in your comments and share your perspectives on this situation.
Marcy J Maslov earned her ethics stripes over 25 years working in Fortune 500 companies including Pepsi, Motorola, and 20th Century Fox. In 2003 Marcy started her coaching business and offers workshops on building trust, business ethics, and finance for non-accountants. Marcy invented e-Factor!®, a business ethics educational board game, to help people solve ethics dilemmas in a fun, creative and engaging manner. Marcy has an MBA, BS (Accountancy) and CPA registered in Illinois. Marcy can be reached at Marcy@e-factorgame.com or via the website www.e-factorgame.com
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