Question

This week involves a case scenario that is loosely based on real events that I'm aware of occurring. I've changed a good bit for privacy reasons but the basic conflict presented here for the leader is the same. You are not being assessed on your understanding of all aspects related to the discipline process but rather how you process through the competing elements of the situation to make a fair decision that accomplishes the short term objective while maintaining a long term view for successful outcomes later.

Allan is on your staff and has been for the last 6 years. He is very likeable and does a great job working with clients but his documentation is weak and organization as a whole is a challenge. He's mentioned some issues with emotional problems and attention deficit disorder.  He's confided that he's under doctor's care for these things but has never provided any documentation asking for accommodations in the workplace.

In the past two years you've seen more examples of Allan's disorganization and documentation issues causing problems within your department. At times it has affected his capacity to serve his clients.  You've talked with him periodically about it and had he's expressed understanding of the need to improve, making promises to do so.  Things didn't improve though and you had to start making more formal steps, such as doing special audits of the files.  You attempted to set incremental benchmarks to get them into good shape but progress was always uneven. There are often good excuses for not being able to get it done - some kind of indisputable family emergency or other distraction - but progress has been tepid at best and often met by regression in performance.

After one such instance where Allan did not meet your expectations for documentation and you issued a written reprimand. This was about 5 months ago. He accepted responsibility and said he'd improve.

About two months ago you did an audit and found that the files were still a mess - not anywhere near even minimum expectations. At that point you issued clear expectations for improvement and gave a month to accomplish them. The expectations were achievable but did not happen.

Simultaneously, elsewhere in your company, another employee was involved in an investigation after their lack of documentation was discovered in a bad situation that caused some significant embarrassment to the CEO. That investigation involved documentation deficits much like the ones seen in Allan's case only there had been no prior discipline / written reprimand. It resulted in a 7 day suspension without pay.

Though in this situation there isn't a union involved there is pressure to be consistent and fair, and employees do talk. You will have major dissention and other fall out if you don't handle this correctly.

After concluding your investigation into Allan's documentation problems you really want to do a lesser suspension but you don't think your CEO will go for it. One of his VP's go as far as to tell you not to even ask for less, that it won't end well - the implication being you might lose some favor with the CEO if you appear too soft on the topic. You do see the merits of being consistent and that it would create some major issues and possibly allegations of favoritism, etc. if you did less than the other person's suspension, but you think that sanction, which has already been levied, was too much.

1. Pretend you are sitting down for the meeting with the CEO to discuss the sanction. The facts proving Allan's guilt are rock solid so the punishment is the only lingering point of discussion. Given the above, what is the recommendation you are going to make for the sanction, and how are you going to justify it?

2. Now you are at the point of sharing the outcome with your staff member. How do you present it to them? How do you explain the rationale for the sanction to your employee in a way that motivates them to change and preserves the working relationship you've had thus far?

Answer 1

1.

The recommendation for Allan’s shortcomings need to adhere to the company standard. If some employee in another department has been suspended for 7 days then Allan needs to undergo the same punishment at least. However, the actual recommendation should be to reassign some other duty to Allan.

However, the only justification we can give for not punishing him till now is that he as claimed to be physically ill and thus we will make a small exception by showing patience. Nonetheless, if he is unable to discharge his duties effectively then he becomes a liability for the organization.

2.

I will arrange a one-to-one meeting with Allan. In the meeting, I will begin by commending him about his effort. However, I need to tell him about the impact of his incapability to the company and the possible risks it poses. Once he agrees to these points, we will need to review the situations and then will inform him about his job reassignment. I will explain to him that it is best for all the parties involved and he should take this new assignment as a challenge and improve his other shortcomings.