Delivering Bad News Tactfully and Effectively (Week 3 Assignment)

The following is a hypothetical situation (in bold) and how I would deal with it:

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.         

            Dealing with multiple employees requires a manager to take special care that he or she addresses each person's individual needs.  Some managers only care about the numbers and will come down hard on their employees and some will try too hard to be friends which will lead to their employees walking all over them.  The key is to find a balance between hardness and fairness.

            If I had a situation like the one described above, I would approach it from this employee's perspective and give him the benefit of the doubt.  This employee is already displaying several red flags of a stressed out person. There are several signs of extreme stress that a manager can look out for:

·        Lower quality of work, reduced productivity, lack of concentration

·        Indecisiveness, poor judgment or absentmindedness

·        Loss of sense of humor, irritability, withdrawal

·        Frequent, minor illnesses, fatigue or increased sick leave

·        Consistently staying late, not taking vacations (Madden, 2014)

            This employee is showing two of these signs: irritability and lower quality of work.  So, I would pull this employee aside, away from prying eyes, and level with him.  I would explain the reason he is being pulled aside, keeping careful to let him know that he is not in trouble.  I would then ask how he is doing personally. 

            The employee could respond in several ways.  He could be a closed book and not offer up any personal details.  He might get embarrassed which in turn could lead to an angry outburst.  Or he could let out what is really going on in his life that has made him start acting this way.  Each situation would require a different response, but the last two would definitely show that there was indeed an underlying problem.  If he says he's all good personally, then we would have to address his behavior and performance differently.

            In my experience about 90% of the time there is an underlying cause to dramatic behavior changes. People don't just up and change for no reason.  Maybe he has financial problems or maybe his wife just left him.  The other employees might not have known because they didn't want to approach this confrontational guy. 

            Now let it be said that his personal problems do not condone his behavior, we are just trying to find out if there is an underlying problem that needs to be worked out.  The conflict resolution technique that I have already begun to employ is known as the S-TLC method.  Stop, Think, Listen, Communicate.  I am choosing this because of the all-important step: Listen.  I am not trying to have a one-way conversation with this employee, I am trying to get him back on track and I need him to be involved in working that out.

            So, before I went down and dealt with this employee I stopped myself (Stop!).  This gave me the time to analyze the situation and figure out if there were any underlying factors (Think).  Now it is time for me to hear what he has to say and take the appropriate action (Listen).  After I hear his side, it is then time for me to come up with a decision that not only benefits him but ultimately benefits the company and his fellow employees.  He must know what the situation is exactly and what is intended to be done about it (Communicate). 

            Conflict in the workplace is definitely a hard thing to deal with.  It can be difficult as a manager to fairly address each employee's situation.  Keeping a fair and level head is what I consider to be the key to being a good manager.  You must remember that you are not just there to keep everyone in line, you are there to help and guide people to foster a friendly and productive work environment.

References

Madden, S. (2014). Recognizing stress in your employees. Health Net.  Retrieved from http://healthnetpulse.com/broker/2014/02/05/recognizing-stress-in-your-employees/

Abigail, R.A. & Cahn, D. (2011). Managing conflict through communication. Pearson Education. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com.