Chronicles of a Mean Boss: Not Supporting Underperforming Personnel
July 26th 2008 21:54
Somehow I felt this title was fitting for this posting since I had an employee leave recently and blame it on me. Now don’t get me wrong, if you have been following along with my regular postings, this is someone I was glad to see go because she did not do her job well. Her department caused bottlenecks that were so problematic that we lost customers because of it.
She had never been held accountable for her job. Instead she was praised because a previous manager was her friend and did not want to hurt her feelings. So I came in as the bad guy. During her exit interview she claimed that I was targeting her department. Well actually she was right there. I did target her department because there were a lot of problems that needed to be fixed. It wasn’t personal, but if someone is underperforming, you have to either help them correct the performance and move them out.
I know this sounds cold and heartless, but what company can afford to pay someone a salary to sit around and gossip? The little work that was happening was focused on duplicating the efforts of another department. They were so busy trying to make others look bad that they did not get their own jobs down. It is sad really. Had this department been given achievable goals earlier, they may have never had these problems. Instead they are in a deep hole and I am not sure whether or not they will get it out of it.
I am glad she left because it will make it easier for me to fix the problems. In fact, there are a couple of other people in that department that I want to encourage to leave as well. They are known for their bad attitudes and poor service. Why would anyone want to protect that? It just does not make sense to me.
When this particular employee went in to her exit interview with these comments, it was all the HR person could do to keep from bursting out in laughter. She knew that I was having significant performance problems with this person and her department. While she thought she was making me look bad, all she did was make herself look petty and foolish. It also made it quite apparent that she was not professional and did not have the knowledge to do her job. All I can say to anyone that wants to try and stick it to the boss in the exit interview is this…make sure it really was the boss that was at fault. I have had poor bosses in the past and I would make comments about that in my exit interview. However, I always try to avoid the pettiness because I don’t want to burn a bridge and I don’t want to come out looking foolish.
She had never been held accountable for her job. Instead she was praised because a previous manager was her friend and did not want to hurt her feelings. So I came in as the bad guy. During her exit interview she claimed that I was targeting her department. Well actually she was right there. I did target her department because there were a lot of problems that needed to be fixed. It wasn’t personal, but if someone is underperforming, you have to either help them correct the performance and move them out.
I know this sounds cold and heartless, but what company can afford to pay someone a salary to sit around and gossip? The little work that was happening was focused on duplicating the efforts of another department. They were so busy trying to make others look bad that they did not get their own jobs down. It is sad really. Had this department been given achievable goals earlier, they may have never had these problems. Instead they are in a deep hole and I am not sure whether or not they will get it out of it.
I am glad she left because it will make it easier for me to fix the problems. In fact, there are a couple of other people in that department that I want to encourage to leave as well. They are known for their bad attitudes and poor service. Why would anyone want to protect that? It just does not make sense to me.
When this particular employee went in to her exit interview with these comments, it was all the HR person could do to keep from bursting out in laughter. She knew that I was having significant performance problems with this person and her department. While she thought she was making me look bad, all she did was make herself look petty and foolish. It also made it quite apparent that she was not professional and did not have the knowledge to do her job. All I can say to anyone that wants to try and stick it to the boss in the exit interview is this…make sure it really was the boss that was at fault. I have had poor bosses in the past and I would make comments about that in my exit interview. However, I always try to avoid the pettiness because I don’t want to burn a bridge and I don’t want to come out looking foolish.
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