Writing on the wall

Posted by The CEO on Tue, 16/02/2010 - 16:27 in Blogs 1581 4 comments | report

February 16 - #1 came to see me before the meeting planned for this morning.

Her request of me was simple: she asked how much I was willing to pay for her to go. She said she was quite sure that was the objective of the review. We could go about it the long way or cut a deal now. How much to make her redundant was the question she asked.

I was a little taken aback: this was sooner than I expected to have to deal with this issue. I made clear that it was not the outcome of any discussion. Nor was it clear she would not be made FD if such a post were created. These factors had to be taken into account. She was not being made redundant. That made the request an odd one, I said.

She was not in much mood to debate it. It was obvious she’d decided it was time to go, and deep down I’ve probably known that since soon after she arrived. There’s a moral in that – when a person causes a crisis during their trial period, as she did, get rid of them. But I didn’t, and now I had to pay the price.

I stuck to my guns: there was no redundancy, but on the other hand if she wanted to leave I may be able to settle for a payment in excess of contractual payment for a signature on a compromise agreement. We haggled. She hasn’t been here that long and is only due two months notice. She agreed on five if declared redundant. I suspect she'll get six when she sees a lawyer.

I asked if I could go to the management team to agree this and rapidly called lawyers and the Chair as well.

I expect the deal will be done and dusted tomorrow morning.

Talk about reading the writing on the wall.

Now I just hope I can save her assistants.

Comments

Hmmmmmmmmm

jstuckey | Tue, 16/02/2010 - 16:58 | Permalink

Reading of #1's grasp of the situation and proposal to you, it makes me wonder if she has been there before at previous positions.

Or maybe she reads AW?

Anonymous | Tue, 16/02/2010 - 18:16 | Permalink

Probems flowing like a...

alistair_king | Wed, 17/02/2010 - 04:15 | Permalink

Be careful that your solution of past problems does not create future problems.

#1 may have mishandled #2 and #3. But are you sure you have a full and objective picture of what has happened? Staff bullying can be upward as well as downward. And you are dependent on #2 and #3 for your view of what happened. Also, when you penalized #1 for the bank reconciliation, she may then have been reflecting this within the department.

Regardless of who is at fault, you have undermined her position by conducting the review of finance over her head. It will be hard to undo that so she is right to seek to go. The only other way to undo it would be to promote her to FD. And you don't have the confidence in her to do that.

The problems you may create for the future are that:

1. Even if they are entirely innocent, in removing #1 you may encourage #2 and #3 to misbehave in future. What do they do when someone asks them to do something they don't like? Or challenges them because what they are doing at the moment doesn't go far enough. Or...

2. Others outside the finance department will observe what has happened and gossip. They will make guesses and draw conclusions. 2 or #3 may respond to questions (or even flaunt what has happened) and talk outside the department. What do you do if other staff decide that #2 and #3 have misbehaved? Or worse, what do you do if they conclude that #2 and #3 were right to react against their boss and that this behaviour can be emulated?

3. How will this impact on conduct of managers if they have problems in their departments. Will they be afraid you will undermine them?

All resolvable with care. Good luck.

Or maybe

Anonymous | Wed, 17/02/2010 - 14:16 | Permalink

she did what I did in a similar position and took legal advice before deciding what she was going to do.

If you feel your position is untenable, then a sensible person plans for the worst to happen.

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