Tell us about your corporate b.s. / dumb bosses

[rennigade]

If the employee is someone in a protected class, your documentation better have the i's dotted and the t's crossed.

My FIL's best friend was an EVP at a major company. He said this all the time. If they ever fired someone in the "protected class" you better have a massive paper trail backing it up because if they decided to sue and you dont...they'll be getting a payout.

[disneysteve]

a company needs justification to further someone along to the point of termination.

Very true. I've dealt with this at our synagogue when I was on the executive board and we had problem employees. The first question when the topic of firing someone was raised was, "Have they had a formal review? Have the issues been documented?" If the answer was no, they weren't fired. They got a written review with an improvement plan. Then a couple months later when nothing had gotten any better, they were finally let go.

[StormRichards]

My FIL's best friend was an EVP at a major company. He said this all the time. If they ever fired someone in the "protected class" you better have a massive paper trail backing it up because if they decided to sue and you dont...they'll be getting a payout.

Sadly you hear this everywhere. I had peers in a particular protected class that would make the same statement about bad employees in that protected class.

[StormRichards]

Very true. I've dealt with this at our synagogue when I was on the executive board and we had problem employees. The first question when the topic of firing someone was raised was, "Have they had a formal review? Have the issues been documented?" If the answer was no, they weren't fired. They got a written review with an improvement plan. Then a couple months later when nothing had gotten any better, they were finally let go.

I am one of the probably rare success stories that was moved along the process to a Final Warning but managed to get off corrective action entirely.

Much to the dismay of one of my managers

[Outdoorsygal]

I don't work in Corporate but last go around, a shift came open and though I told my Boss I wanted it during a staff meeting, they hired for it instead.

This time, the same shift is filled but the person wants to trade shifts. I emailed two days ago and my Boss just ignored that email.
It would be working 16 hrs less but only loosing about $260 month.
Why this employee wants to trade because it requires just one weekend of work, is beyond me. It pays more.
I am praying it will work out and my boss reply back any day.
Funny that if I threaten to quit because I have another job which gives me a decent schedule, then she might renig
That's how I got 36 hrs per wk in 3 days (though after filling in, it's about 10 more hrs per week)

[StormRichards]

Another thing about the corrective action process, a company can't try to move you a couple of steps in the process in a single action.

A call off on Monday puts an employee beyond the limit and is subject to corrective action.

Comes to work on Tuesday and works a full day without the manager taking the time to address your attendance problem.

Call off on Wednesday. The manager is in the office kicking him/herself for not addressing the problem.

Thursday's meeting you end up on corrective action. Had they met with you and put you on corrective action on Tuesday, they could escalate it further today. Since they didn't, they can't.

I have witnessed this type of scenario occur dozens of times.

[Mjenn]

I've worked in corporate for a long time, both as an employee and as a consultant.

I have been very lucky in always having bosses and a team I enjoy working with both when I have been an employee and when I was my own boss but working as a consultant to international companies.

The real issues I have seen involve companies growing and expanding and how to handle the mix of communication when things go global. Either everything is super slow going and it takes ages to make any kind of decisions or everything is moving super fast and people are doing the same thing and making conflicting decisions in different offices around the world that don't impact until 6 months later when you are presenting your project and someone goes 'didn't they already do that in Asia?' and no one ever bothered to tell you.

I've seen that happen in pretty much every company I have worked with.

I go back and forth about being an employee or being on my own. I like the protections of being an employee --- but I also like as a consultant being able to pick and choose the projects I work on. I am back as an employee currently as I was offered a huge bump up in salary, and thus far it has been well worth it.

[JBinKC]

Every boss in both government and corporate world that I have encountered took full credit of the good work of their underlings and in the process in the case in the corporate world would nickel and dime employees on a constant basis at the expense of upper management gains. After about 5 years of this you start to grow weary of the crap dished out.

[Smallsteps]

It has become ridiculous that getting rid of bad/ ineffective / lazy employees has become a huge hurdle for so many managers/ companies.
The most insulting thing that so many companies do is send out what I refer to as "dummy memos". These are the memos sent to everyone pointing out behaviors that violate policy because one or two people are continually doing it. There is also "dummy meetings " saying things like be on time/ and constant reminders of expectations.

I say go to the employees that are the problem and set them straight but instead they build tons of proof so in the event of them eventually finding a backbone and firing someone, they have a paper trail.
I worked for a company that actually had people sign a paper saying you would not steal twice a year for as long as you worked there ( people whom worked there decades proven record of never stealing still had to sign )
Honestly, if you need to remind employees every 6 months your need better people period.
Many end up with BAD managers because good managers get frustrated at incompetence and move along ..........only those who are often incompetent themselves are left and then promoted.

[james.hendrickson]

To give this conversation some perspective...

Okay, so I'm divorced (long story). My ex was working in Afghanistan and the outfit she was working had a country manager who looked the other way when a lot of corporate malfeasance was happening. The manager hired his girlfriend to "write a report". She ended up coming out to their location and sleeping with him for a week. In that place, the HR manager was also making employees kick back part of their salary to her and the supply guy was over-ordering at inflated prices and selling the proceeds on the black market.

We got it good here in the USA, at least naked corruption is frowned upon.

[Thrif-t]

Ugh, I could go on and on in this thread, but alas, I'm afraid my anonymity would be compromised. We've had turnover in our higher management of our company and these people in charge now just have NO BUSINESS sense. Area's they should be putting money into, IT, COMPUTER SYSTEMS, they don't because we don't have the money. We are slinking further and further behind. The amount of manual entry work we have to do because of our antiquated computer systems is ridiculous.

I make good money for the part time hours I work so I feel stuck. I hate not being happy but I tell myself just go in do your 8 hours and leave.

I feel I am on a sinking ship and riding it down, but because of my pay and other perks its a ride I feel I have to take.