My entry into upper management was not the most pleasant one in history. I had changed employers and was going to be a regional
director for a physician billing company. I had great expectations and a great deal of excitement at this type of adventure, as I was
going to be the manager of a fairly large independent office as well as 4 outlying offices.
Day one changed a lot of that enthusiasm. As I was sitting with the vice president of the company, the man who had hired me, in the
first hour, all the supervisors who were going to be reporting to me came into the office. I thought they were there to welcome me;
instead, they were there to complain to the vice president about this one employee. All of them were saying she didn't have the
intellect for the position and was dragging down the entire company, and that she should go. This went on for about 10 minutes, with me
and the vice president just listening. He then thanked them and they left. I looked at him and asked what that was all about. He said
"I don't know, but I guess you're going to have to fire this woman."
Nice introduction, eh? So, my very first day on the job, and the next day I had to bring this woman into my office and fire her. The
night before, I wasn't feeling well at all. I didn't even know her, but she seemed very friendly, and everyone, including these
supervisors, were all talking to her very nicely and sweetly throughout the day. Frankly, it gave me great pause, and made me wonder if
there were other reasons they wanted her fired. It didn't matter, though. New kid on the block, I didn't ask any questions; I just did
as I was told. I called her into the office and told her the bad news. She cried a little, said that she knew it wasn't my fault since
I didn't even know her, and graciously got up, went to her desk, got her stuff and left quietly.
Many of the people throughout the office were shocked, and even those supervisors who had demanded that she be fired cried; I didn't
understand any of that, and it reinforced in me that there was something else going on for it to affect so many people. I vowed that
type of thing would never happen to me again.
Fast forward 8 years, and, would you believe it, the same thing was about to happen again. First day at a new hospital, and the vice
president of the facility was telling me that I needed to fire one of my employees. This time I asked why, and she told me that this
person was a complainer who'd been written up by the previous director a few times, and that she just wasn't any good. The vice president
also didn't like hearing her voice over the intercom.
I felt this wasn't a good enough reason, and told her, and another vice president, that I'd gotten caught in something like this before,
and I didn't want to do it until I had a chance to make an evaluation for myself. One thing I've never done, believe it or not, is
automatically taken anyone else's word for how someone might be. I have often found that I can have quite a different relationship with
many people than the norm, but if someone was going to be a problem, I wanted to determine it for myself.
I first read the reports, then went back to my office, first day mind you, and asked her to come into my office. She came into the office
already upset, probably expecting the worst. I told her that I had heard some things, but I didn't evaluate people based on hearsay, and
I wanted to get her side of the issue. So she told me, and, truthfully, I was of the opinion that she was absolutely correct. She had
been hired before the facility had done a wage adjustment, and there were newer employees that were making more money than she was making,
even though she'd been there up to a year longer than most of them. That had led to her complaining, and of course once someone starts
complaining, sometimes managers stop listening. In this case, my predecessor hadn't had any managerial experience before, and therefore
wasn't sure how to deal with her issue except to label her as a malcontent. I thanked her for talking to me and said I'd get back to her.
I went and did my research, and found that she was telling the truth. There are many companies where the policy is that employees are
not supposed to talk about each other's salaries, but it happens, and, in this case, she was fully justified in her complaint. I did
some paperwork, talked to the vice president about it, and the next morning I called this employee back into my office. She had the same
look on her face as the day before when she came into my office and sat down. I then proceeded to tell her that her salary was being
increased and that she'd see the difference in her next paycheck. I apologized to her for previous bad treatment, and also apologized that
I wasn't able to make the pay retroactive. Her whole demeanor changed in an instant, and from that day on she was one of the best employees
in my department. It was funny that no one had ever questioned her competence, and yet, in not taking the time to address her issue, the
facility could have lost a valuable employee. And she turned out to be quite valuable, as she moved up the ladder within the facility until
she was ready to take a management position at another employer some years later.
The easiest thing to do in many situations is to turn away from employees who have complaints, then label them as troublemakers and
try to get them removed from your employ. It's sometimes harder to do the right thing, investigate the claim, and come to a resolution.
The fear may be that the employee won't like the resolution; that's too bad. If an employee is wrong, they need to know that. If an
employee is right, they need to know that also. There are no free passes for managers and leaders, good or bad. If you're going to accept
the responsibility, you need to live up to it.
Your company will benefit, one way or another, from your diligence.