The inventory at work is really high and we are trying just about anything to get it out. Yesterday in a staff meeting one of my employees jokingly made the suggestion that I should spend an hour doing basic level work in our office to help out. Everyone found this highly amusing as I was never trained on how to do that kind of work and the couple times I did it turned into a disaster. Everyone had a chuckle at this and let it go.

Then today I was talking to my employees. The inventory was bad, their moods were gloomy because of the snow and there was just some overall moral issues. So I thought, hey why the hell not. I jumped in and for an hour I worked alongside them. Of course they found this highly amusing. They were telling everyone what I was doing and they where coming over to see me in action. I wasn't the best at it... far from it. In fact I only ranked about 25% production. It's not like I was helping out a lot. Yet at the same time I was.

Because I was willing to jump in and do the work, it showed the lot of them that I was taking them serious and that I'd do just about anything to accomplish the goal. Plus it improved moral. After I finished my hour they all sat down and worked even harder to help out. Now of course my peers all think I'm daft. Hell I had one try to talk me out of doing it because she thought it would set a bad precedent.

Well that might be the case, but for an hour my employees were laughing and enjoying work and all it cost me was a little public humiliation. I think it was worth the trade.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One of my employees received a promotion last month. That means I had to replace her. Yesterday and today I spent most of my time at work conducting interviews. I enjoy interviewing people. It gives you a look inside their head, it lets you see how they tick a little more.

As this is an internal promotion position only, I don't think some of the people applying for the job even really tried. Some of them came across as assuming that they felt the job was already theirs and this was just a formality. They didn't answer the questions or to be honest even try to answer the questions. I don't know if they just assumed that since they have been with the company 10+ years that I would just know how awesome they think they are. Well, if that was the case it kicked them in the butt.

I have two really close candidates right now for the job. I can't make an offer until Tuesday until I finished the high level review with upper management. That gives me three days to mull over my decision. It's so close I'm not sure if I should have them draw straws or if I should do like that commercial and make them fight in the parking lot for it.

Yea, I know... but I don't think management would approve of me bringing swords to work.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Today I had to finish what was started yesterday. Again more terminations and more sever write ups. Yea, it involved that many people. By the time the dust settled, I couldn't walk through the office and make eye contact with any of the employees. Not that I wouldn't look at them, but they wouldn't look at me.

Every time I walked down an aisle, everyone would just shut up and start focusing on something else or walk away. One of my employees came up to me and asked me to just get it over with, and this person wasn't even on my list of offenders. I ended up having to have a talk with her, because she obviously did something wrong, but since the audit didn't catch it, no official talking to took place.

Later in the day two of my employees came up and asked if it was safe to talk to me again. I had to ask one of my peers people a question. When I walked up to them they were sweating and jumped when I said their name. The rumor on the floor is that this whole thing was my crusade. That someone narked them out and I ran with the investigation and termination. No matter how much I tried to explain that I was just the messenger, I don't think anyone believed me.

This afternoon before I left I had to take a conference call. When I asked one of the employees to join in the room because I wanted their expertise, they brought with their purse, coat and some personal effects. I looked them in the eye and rather frustrated said, "For the love of Pete, I'm not going to fire you!" I think they almost broke down in tears... of joy.

Great, I think this little reputation is going to stick with me for years.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:04 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Since IÂ’ve had direct reports with my company, IÂ’ve never had to terminate someone. DonÂ’t get me wrong, two of my people have been fired, but someone else did that when I wasnÂ’t even in the office. Hell, I didnÂ’t know it was happening until I got back and found out. Well, thatÂ’s no longer true. In fact IÂ’m making up for lost time.

Back on Valentines Day, (again I wasnÂ’t in the office) there was an incident involving the misuse of company assets that involved A LOT of people. This was big enough that it went up the chain of management all the way to the executive level to determine what kind of action was going to happen. We ended up scouring through disciplinary records of the staff involved. Based on past disciplinary action, upper management made a determination on the type of disciplinary action was going to be taking place this time. They did this to make sure there was consistency as it involved employees working for different supervisors in multiple departments and units.

When the dust cleared it came down to everything from a warning for first time offenses to termination for repeat offenders. The only person I had involved received a verbal warning before so they were given a permanent written warning this time that could lead to termination if they do it again. Thus none of my people were getting terminated. Yet, I ended up doing all the other terminations.

One of the individuals terminated asked me to assist, just because I’m a guy and she thought there might be trouble. The others didn’t have supervisors in the office that day and the terminations had to be done. Because the other supervisors, even the ones that worked in the same unit, didn’t directly supervise these people, they didn’t want to do it. In fact they felt I should do it. They were scared of what these individuals were going to do, they were repeated disciplinary problems. Their logic was that they wouldn’t get upset if I was doing it because, “Contagion, you’ll kick their ass if they start anything.” Yea, that’s right.

So I spent most of the day terminating or handing out punishments to people. And IÂ’m not done yet. Nope, we ran out of time before we could get to everyone. IÂ’m mentally exhausted from doing this. I feel bad for the people that were terminated. DonÂ’t get me wrong, they brought this upon themselves, but really it should have been their supervisor or one they worked with that handed out the punishment. Not the guy in the office they deal with rarely. And contrary to some peopleÂ’s belief, I took no pleasure from doing it.

The worse part is that word spread quickly. You donÂ’t start firing people left and right on the same day with out people not only noticing, but also noticing who is escorting them out of the office. Some of the people I terminated were friends with or relatives of employees of mine. When I returned to my unit for stuff, my own employees wouldnÂ’t look or talk to me. They kept they eyes diverted. At one point they were gathered and talking and when they saw me, they all scattered to the wind like roaches when a light comes on.

Needless to say, tonight IÂ’m mentally and emotionally drained. IÂ’d like to have a drink, but the only think I have is that nasty Bud Light Chelada.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:51 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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