Delivering Bad News to a Problem Employee
Case Study
“You are a department manager in a mid-sized company that provides technology support services. You have ten employees who are required to maintain a high level of technical expertise and deliver excellent customer service. One of your employees, who has been with the company for two years, is performing at a substandard level and you have received numerous complaints from customers and coworkers. In addition, this employee has displayed confrontational behavior which has created a hostile environment. You must now meet with this employee and deliver an ultimatum regarding the need for immediate improvement or dismissal.”
My Response to the Employee
Before meeting with this employee, I would review all the facts. I keep an employee log and whenever I see behavior that is inconsistent with the goals and objectives of the company, I make note of it. When other employees or clients tell me something good or bad about an employee, I make note of that in the employee log. In this instance, I would review my log and check for consistencies among all the reports. I would also review the complaints themselves. When I receive a complaint from clients, it is always in writing.
I would schedule a time to meet with the employee privately in a conference room, not in my office. When s/he arrives, I would close the door to ensure privacy and invite the person to sit either next to me or at the head of the table. I want to ensure the employee feels comfortable.
I would open the conversation with the usual how is it going, etc. I would particularly ask the employee’s impression of how things are going on the job. The intent of my strategy is collaboration, hoping for a win-win solution to the problem. “Collaboration calls for understanding the other as well as one’s own position and respecting one another” (Cahn & Abigail, 2007, p. 87). After hearing the employee’s perspective, I would then discuss my perspective.
I would show the employee the written complaints about him/her from customers. I would also show the employee the notations made in his/her employee log. I would advise the employee that whatever tactics s/he is using on the job is not working and that s/he needs to engage other strategies that will be more productive. I would explain how important customer service is to the organization and also explain how the employee’s actions have resulted in a hostile environment.
Assuming the employee begins to berate other employees, I would simply tell him/her that my goal for this meeting is to help him/her to improve in his/her performance. I would explain that if the performance does not improve, it will lead to dismissal.
I would then lead the employee through the steps of outlining his/her plan for improvement. We would set specific target dates for each of these steps. This employee may need to attend an anger management, customer service, or communicating in the workplace seminar. I would task the employee with identifying and signing up for the seminar. I may also suggest the employee go through a mentoring process and would make suggestions for possible mentors. I would offer to set that up (since I would need to get the mentor’s approval). We would set a date for a follow up meeting that is no more than three months out. I would explain to the employee that I should not receive any more complaints about him/her during this time period.
My hope is that this collaborative strategy and these tactics would lead to improved performance. We would seal the deal with a written contract that specifically outlines the steps the employee plans to take to improve his/her performance along with the agreed-upon timelines. If the performance does improve, then our next meeting will be a positive one. If not, the employee will be terminated.
References
Cahn, D.D. and Abigail, R.A. (2007). Managing conflict through communication. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
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