Question: Hello OPAL World.  I am a manager with 9 employees.  Unfortunately, I need to get rid of one of them.  This person is always late for work, usually misses deadlines, and people don’t want to work with him.  I have talked to him but he says that I am not being fair because I am singling him out.  HR is no help because the HR person only really focuses on benefits and not employee relations.  I don’t know what to do.  Do you have any suggestions?

A.S.
Bay Area, CA

Answer: Hello A.S. – There are so many questions:
How long has this employee been exhibiting this behavior? If it has been longer than 6 months your problem is huge because it may be considered “acceptable behavior” and the employee becomes harder to seperate.
Is there an official counseling process? This is usually a verbal warning, then written warnings and if no changes are evident a counceling program is developed and initated all under guidance, support and witness of your HR professional.
Are there other employees who exhibit the same behavior? Again – if yes, “acceptable behavior”.
This isn’t something that you should undertake if you don’t have clear guidance. If you don’t trust you HR representative I suggest that you get legal advice if you need to go further because you don’t want to risk losing a possible law suit. And remember, there is usually a law suit, the objective is to minimize the company’s contributory factors. There’s so much more that you need to know but I don’t have enough information. Contact us at http://www.opalqsm.com and we can get you going in the right direction if you have the support of upper management.

Good Luck –
DM @ The Opal

What if HR held the appropriate meetings at the appropriate times?

What if managers didn’t ‘spill the beans’ before “D” day?

What if security didn’t let anyone know that they purchased 2000 boxes over the last 2 weeks?

If everyone did what they were supposed to do then you didn’t know that your supervisor and a security guard were on their way to your office with 3 boxes and a separation package at 3:30 p.m. on the day that you were laid off.  And when he knocked on your office door and asked “Hey, Uh…you got a minute?” you thought he wanted to talk about that great proposal you submitted 5 weeks ago.

Even if you were expecting this precious event, it still feels like a sticky, pointy object is lodged in your back.  And the humiliation of being walked out of the building, waving goodbye to the people that you’ve been working with for 5, 12, 20 years, can take a toll on a human being.  Unfortunately, some of them may be getting the “Got a minute?” speech sometime in the near future.

Here’s a list of things that you might want to start thinking about if you suddenly find that you have a minute or two.

• Update your resume.  This suggestion is really for those who believe that they are safe.  Don’t be so smug that you find yourself unprepared when you get the knock on your door or cubicle wall.
• This is not the time to put on airs.  Tell everyone you know that you are looking for a new opportunity.  You never know who can help you if you don’t let anyone know that you need help.
• Take a look at your budget right away.  You do have a budget, don’t you?  Well – if you don’t, create one – - fast.  Organize your finances so that you know, at a glance, what you have to pay vs. what you have to spend over the next 6 months. This will alleviate some of the stress because you will see where you need to reduce or stop spending.
• Join Facebook and/or LinkedIn.  These are two of the top internet networking tools.

Do you remember when you woke up in the morning, got ready for work, greeted your family in the kitchen and you laughed and talked and teased each other until it was time to go your separate ways?  It didn’t matter if the morning event lasted 10 minutes or 45 minutes, it was a special time and there was always the feeling that you didn’t want it to end.

Today – the picture is a little different.   People wake up, get ready for work and leave so fast that their neighbors aren’t sure if anyone even lives in the house at all.   When they get to work – rather, “on campus” they go the café for breakfast fresh from the grill, fresh fruit and dairy, fresh squeezed juice and a plethora of other delights.  Of course, they have to eat in a hurry because there’s a 7:30 daily meeting that they don’t contribute anything to, but being in attendance is politically correct.  For lunch they get to go right back to the café (…remember when it was just a cafeteria?) and decide between the sandwich board, the soup area, the salad arena and let’s not forget the entrée section with no less than 3 dishes to choose from.

At any time of the day employees can go to the gym which is fully equipped with yoga mats, swimming pool, sauna, and basketball, volleyball and racquetball courts.   After work there are working dinners where people play and plan, Pilates and kickboxing classes, diet clubs, dancing lessons, Toastmasters, softball and basketball teams.  There are weekend retreats and holiday festivities, gift exchanges and book clubs…everything that people used to do outside of their job can and is now done within the parameters of one’s workplace.   With all of these perks, benefits and fun-fare, is it surprising that a person might start to feel more comfortable at work than they do at home?

I believe that it all started when Boards of Directors decided to created an environment where people found it more convenient to stay within the boundaries of the work site so that they would not take long lunches.  Over the years this concept spread to breakfast, dinner, exercise and holidays.   Employees started to spend more time at work than at home.  In some cases, employees started to build relationships with co-workers that were more meaningful than those with their family members.   Or do they nurture these workplace relationships because they aren’t happy at home in the first place.   Please stay tuned and we’ll explore this more in Part II of this series.

OPAL provides quality systems management and business management services that support  operational excellence and continual improvement throughout your organization.

• Driving Process & System Effectiveness – Opal coordinates with your team members as we drive group involvement and ensure that critical issues are addressed.
• Focusing on Results – Opal maintains a focus on the organizational goals and the buy-in required to meet or exceed supporting objectives and targets.
• Facilitating Active Engagement – Opal facilitates and stimulates productive interaction by actively engaging participants, challenging assumptions, identifying conflicting views and building consensus.
• Building and Expanding Solutions – Opal uses specific techniques to present uncharted solutions and teach your team members how to implement the best resolution given the environment and culture of the organization.  We provide multiple solutions to ineffective processes giving management teams extensive opportunities for improvement.

Today, more than ever, it’s important to match your services and products to the needs of your customers.  Your customers demand consistent, quality results delivered on time. It’s important that you show your customers that you are responsible and accountable.

• You have to show your customers that you care about their needs
• Your processes should be user friendly
• You  your team members must communicate effectively and in a timely manner

If you can achieve these objectives, your customers will be more confident in your capabilities and your business will be more successful.

That’s what Quality Systems Management is all about – SUCCESS!