HR managers/supervisors/business owners, what would you do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did the department seem troubled before he took on that role? Was he sent on a mission to "fix" something, or did this come up after he started?

Yep. This is exactly what happens when a new manager is sent in to "fix" something then stuck behind bureaucratic roadblocks that prevent any action to get rid of dead wood.

[Anonymous]

There have previously been complaints from employees about culture and harassment prior to the new administrator starting. He was brought on to help fix the environment and identify who may be contributing to the problem, likely resulting in their termination. So essentially he was doing a reorganization. A lot of the methods utilized by staff were archaic and not working, especially in communication.

However, I don't see any just cause for discrimination or hostile environment. The previous employees actions are documented clearly. Will talk to the legal team regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There have previously been complaints from employees about culture and harassment prior to the new administrator starting. He was brought on to help fix the environment and identify who may be contributing to the problem, likely resulting in their termination. So essentially he was doing a reorganization. A lot of the methods utilized by staff were archaic and not working, especially in communication.

However, I don't see any just cause for discrimination or hostile environment. The previous employees actions are documented clearly. Will talk to the legal team regardless.

Why aren't you doing 360 degree reviews or asking the lower level employees what they think should be done to improve the area? I'm always skeptical when companies bring in a new person and think that will fix anything.

[Anonymous]

This is why when you leave never tell the employer anything. They(management/owners) already knows and they don't really care(it's easier to just hire new employees vs a manager).

[Anonymous]

We had a similar situation in our workplace and for every single complaint of a terminated employee, there were 2 current employees who were ecstatic that the troublemakers and dead weight were let go. Sometimes bad employees get entrenched and it takes someone with balls to get them out.

[Anonymous]

OP, you are a manager who isn't doing your complete job. As several people have pointed out, you need to take the time to implement 360 degree reviews either now or at the next annual review period (hopefully you didn't just complete this in December as this needs to be done sooner rather than later and not wait another 10 months). You need to have input from the supervisor's direct report staff on him, his evaluations on them, his evaluations of you and any other management team he works with, and them of him. You need to have a more complete picture of the management structure than just his input to you. Essentially, you are basing your entire evaluation of this situation on what this one supervisor says of his staff and that type of one-sided picture will not serve you well.

Your evaluation of this employee and the current situation may well be correct, but you have no way to verify this without getting more information from all parties including his remaining direct reports and his management. So, you need to actually step in and manage the situation. Once you have a better picture of what his staff thinks and what his management thinks, then you can determine whether you are justified in taking his one perspective on the current staffing situation. You'll get a better picture of whether you have disgruntled employees venting about the messenger or whether you have an actual supervisory issue to address. Either can be true, but neither your supervisor's single POV or crowdsourcing on DCUM is going to give you a better perspective on which situation you have without actually doing the research with those currently and actively involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You receive multiple written complaints from recently resigned/terminated employees complaining about their former boss who is under your supervision. Each employee had received disciplinary action and or the supervisor was not satisfied with their job performance over the last few months. Each employee cites hostile work environment, bullying, inadequate supervision and or micromanaging as reasons that impacted their work and well-being while at work. All former employees accuse the supervisor of responsible for creating the poor environment and lacking leadership skills. Many employees had been with the company long-term, ranging from 2-15 years.

What would you do?

Where there is smoke there is fire. You need a third party to conduct a thorough investigation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You receive multiple written complaints from recently resigned/terminated employees complaining about their former boss who is under your supervision. Each employee had received disciplinary action and or the supervisor was not satisfied with their job performance over the last few months. Each employee cites hostile work environment, bullying, inadequate supervision and or micromanaging as reasons that impacted their work and well-being while at work. All former employees accuse the supervisor of responsible for creating the poor environment and lacking leadership skills. Many employees had been with the company long-term, ranging from 2-15 years.

What would you do?

Where there is smoke there is fire. You need a third party to conduct a thorough investigation.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You receive multiple written complaints from recently resigned/terminated employees complaining about their former boss who is under your supervision. Each employee had received disciplinary action and or the supervisor was not satisfied with their job performance over the last few months. Each employee cites hostile work environment, bullying, inadequate supervision and or micromanaging as reasons that impacted their work and well-being while at work. All former employees accuse the supervisor of responsible for creating the poor environment and lacking leadership skills. Many employees had been with the company long-term, ranging from 2-15 years.

What would you do?

Where there is smoke there is fire. You need a third party to conduct a thorough investigation.

Long term employees is what makes this scary. Someone who has been around 5+ years doesn't leave unless something is proper fucked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd schedule one-on-ones with other current team members.

Is this a gossipy place? Did all the "bad apples" collide to throw the manager under the bus?
Also, is gender at play?
Ppl getting terminated usually need a lot of documentation. That said, legacy hires are sometimes not up to the task of executing their tasks well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You receive multiple written complaints from recently resigned/terminated employees complaining about their former boss who is under your supervision. Each employee had received disciplinary action and or the supervisor was not satisfied with their job performance over the last few months. Each employee cites hostile work environment, bullying, inadequate supervision and or micromanaging as reasons that impacted their work and well-being while at work. All former employees accuse the supervisor of responsible for creating the poor environment and lacking leadership skills. Many employees had been with the company long-term, ranging from 2-15 years.

What would you do?

Where there is smoke there is fire. You need a third party to conduct a thorough investigation.

Long term employees is what makes this scary. Someone who has been around 5+ years doesn't leave unless something is proper fucked.

Or they've finally been smoked out as incompetent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You receive multiple written complaints from recently resigned/terminated employees complaining about their former boss who is under your supervision. Each employee had received disciplinary action and or the supervisor was not satisfied with their job performance over the last few months. Each employee cites hostile work environment, bullying, inadequate supervision and or micromanaging as reasons that impacted their work and well-being while at work. All former employees accuse the supervisor of responsible for creating the poor environment and lacking leadership skills. Many employees had been with the company long-term, ranging from 2-15 years.

What would you do?

Where there is smoke there is fire. You need a third party to conduct a thorough investigation.

Long term employees is what makes this scary. Someone who has been around 5+ years doesn't leave unless something is proper fucked.

Or they've finally been smoked out as incompetent.

Yes! Incompetent workers who aren't forced to work are happy marking time until someone new comes in and has expectations & accountability. Then it's all, "she's a micromanager!" but never, "because I don't follow through with assignments."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd schedule one-on-ones with other current team members.

Is this a gossipy place? Did all the "bad apples" collide to throw the manager under the bus?
Also, is gender at play?
Ppl getting terminated usually need a lot of documentation. That said, legacy hires are sometimes not up to the task of executing their tasks well.

+1,000,000

I took my last job partly because I was so impressed by how long everyone had been there. I didn't realize it was actually a hiding place for gossips, malcontents, and incompetents. Tenure alone means nothing.