Question

Should He Stay, Or Should He Go?

Case Overview: You are a department supervisor for an adjustments department at an insurance company overseeing a team of 5 people. You have been with the company nearly 5 years and were recently promoted when your former supervisor retired. You are eager to demonstrate to upper management that you were the right choice for this role and aspire to continue moving up within the company. There is some tension among the team because one of your coworkers, Shelly, who has been with the company a year longer than you and is substantially older than you, also interviewed for the job that you got. You are struggling to navigate these relationships because you were once friends with all of the team members, but now that you are the supervisor, interactions are awkward at best. Shelly and two of her allies seem to enjoy challenging your authority and undermining your decisions. Two other team members claim to be on your side, but lately one of them has been spending a lot of time with Shelly. Your current biggest dilemma is with the last individual on the team, Tom. Tom was hired by your previous manager 6 months ago. He had a difficult on-boarding and at his 90-day probation review, you advocated for him to stay on board, even though he has made several mistakes which have cost the insurance company to pay out higher amounts than needed. These mistakes hurt the entire team, because as a department you can earn bonuses based on keeping payouts low. You have a vested interest to have Tom succeed not only because you spent a lot of time training him during his first 6 months, but also because he is your ally and without him on your side, Shelly’s influence will get stronger. As you were leaving the office last night, Tom shared with you that he really loves his job. He tells you that he thinks he really has gotten the “hang of things”. He also confides that he just bought a new car because his wife is pregnant. You leave the office feeling hopeful that Tom will finally start to be able to hold his fair share of the work, which is critical because you know that your department will be getting really busy over the next few weeks. The next morning, shortly after walking into the office, you learn from your supervisor that Tom made another costly mistake that was discovered overnight. Your supervisor tells you that you have to, "step-up and deal" with this. You are filled with mixed emotions, should you cut your losses and fire Tom and hire someone new? Recruiting and hiring someone new will take time, once hired it will take more time to train them, and they won’t be ready for this busy spurt coming up. Should you give Tom one more try and invest further in him by signing him up for a more comprehensive online training program in hopes that it is what he needs to finally gain full understanding of the job duties (even though it will be yet another cost to the company)?

Assignment:

A) Describe the process that you would go through to make your decision. Summarize the key facts of the case that you are weighing.

B) What are the motivational and emotional influences on you as you make your decision?

C) What are the ethical factors of fairness and ethics that you are evaluating in your decision?

D) Summarize your decision. Explain how and why you made this decision. Is your decision in line with the examination above, or did you rely on personal “gut” instincts, affective/emotions, personal relationships, or personal values?

Answer 1

A) It is better that we understand the issue objectively, for this we have to lay down all the facts and weigh out all the options before making a decision. The facts to be weighed before decision making are

• It is the time that you have to prove to the company that you are the right choice for the job
• Tom is a new employee and it takes time to understand the work and work efficiently
• There are co workers who are looking for opportunities to point a finger
• Tom has made personal financial commitments that will be affected if he loses his job
• Tom has already been given opportunities before when he made mistakes
• The team has already taken a suffering many times on their bonuses because of Tom's mistakes
• It takes time to hire and train a new employee
• There is a cost involved if Tom has to be given additional training
• There is a spurt in business and its going to be a busy time

B) There is definitely an emotional element when making the decision because you have trained him for 6 months are more than that you are facing difficulties in your team where you have people against you and Tom is one of the people who will stand by you. This is the very same reason which motivates you as well to keep him.

C) Ethical factors to be considered in keeping Tom are:

• Performance of the employee, there is no issue of that as there is sufficient proof that Tom has not been an efficient employee and many errors have been made that has resulted higher pay outs for the company
• There would not be any legal issues as well, because there is proof that Tom is an under performer in the organisation
• If a reasonable severance package is offered it will soften the blow of termination and will hel Tom tide through till he gets another job
• In the event it is decided that Tom will be terminated then make sure you do the talking as he respects you a lot and don't pass on the task to someone else

D) There are a lot of factors to be considered and weighed before making this decision. There is emotion, personal feelings and values also being thrown in the mix to make decision. when you work in an organisation the goal must be that the organisation must come first and nothing to harm the company must be done. The decision that is taken here is to keep Tom and not terminate him. Tom will be given one last chance because it takes time to hire and train a new employee and there is no guarantee that the new employee is going to perform well from the beginning itself. All the other team members can be briefed about the decision and request them to help Tom as well. Tom can be given a buddy to help him and guide him. The additional training also can be given to Tom. The management can be convinced to bear the training cost or if not Tom can be asked to bear the cost or the company and Tom can share the costs of the training. All the factors mentioned above have been weighed and considered and emotions have been kept aside while taking the decision