Employee Relations case study: Handling a social secretary

Jenny has been a secretary in your office for seven years. The atmosphere in the office is relaxed and
friendly, and staff often refer to it as one big family. Everyone gets along and seems to like each other.
Over the last year, though, you have noticed that Jenny spends a lot of time taking personal calls on her
cell phone, and chatting with clientele and the other secretary about non-work subjects. The other two
managers have both complained to you that they think its beginning to interfere with the productivity of
the office.

Jenny has received an overall performance rating of Exceeds Expectations over the past three years.
Jenny is sometimes overly sensitive, so you are not sure how she will react to your addressing the
situation.

As Jennys manager, how should you handle this situation?

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Meet with the other managers to get specifics on the effect Jennys talkative behavior is having on
the office needs. Evaluate the specifics to determine expectations to be discussed with Jenny.

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Meet with Jenny and begin the discussion about her behavior:

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Remind Jenny that she is a valued member of the team.

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Point out that you dont want to be a micromanager and that you trust employees to balance
personal and work time.

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State that when personal time at work begins to interfere with productivity of the office, it must be
addressed.
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Provide specific examples of how Jennys behavior has impacted productivity.

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Establish performance expectations.

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Discuss any underlying issues as to why the behavior is occurring, such as too little workload, not
enough challenges, etc.

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Let Jenny know that you will trust her to use her judgment to correct the situation on her own at this
point, and reiterate your confidence in her performance. Reinforce that Jenny has always been an
above-average performer and that you are certain this recent issue will be corrected.

- Kathy VanPaemel

Employee Relations consultant

Employment Relations Case Studies
The letter to the newspaper:

James is a project management at TL Consulting Limited. James is a very principled guy he

has high standards and sticks to them, he is always ready to defend someone who has been
unfairly maligned and believes in fairness and equity in the workplace. However, sometimes this
philosophy gets him in to trouble. A couple of months ago, James believed his manager was
bullying another staff member called Ruth who is 20 years old. James came to her aid, helped
her to seek assistance from the union and informed management of this bullying situation. It
seems that management were aware that this manager had in the past bullied her staff but had
chosen to take no action. Although most employees were pleased that James had become
involved in Ruths situation, some were not. These staff preferred not to rock the boat and tried
to avoid involvement in any potentially confrontational situations. Some members of
management were also unhappy with James involvement in what they viewed was a staff
issue. They saw James as a troublemaker and believed that in the past James had been
overtly critical of management decisions. This management dissatisfaction with James
involvement in the Ruth issue led to many emails being sent back and forth between
management and James. Of course, James wanted everyone in the company to know what
management were up to and always provided a copy of the emails to all employees. This further
upset management, but things eventually settled down and work carried on as usual. However,
last week James heard about another bullying incident between the same manager and
another young new employee. He confronted management about it and they told him to mind
his own business. James decided to write to the local newspaperoutlining the situation. The
letter James sent to the local newspaper was published last Thursday. When management
became aware of the letter, James was told that this was a serious misconduct matter.
Management want to have a meeting with James to discuss the letter. James has agreed
tosuch a meeting provided that the actions of the manager who bullies staff and the actions of
management in allowing this to happen are also on the agenda.

Questions:
1. Why do you think management considered Jamess actions serious misconduct?
2. If you were management, would you agree to meeting with James on the conditions he has
outlined? Give reasons for your answer.
3. Assume Jamess position was terminated as a result of the allegation of serious misconduct.
He then files a personal grievance claim on the basis of unjustified dismissal. You are a
mediator for the Employment Service, discuss how you would moderate this case