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2 JuLY 2008
NO 1316
Supervision
"Are you really gonna fire John?" asked Susan
as she handed me John's final payroll check.
"Probably," I say, looking at the forms I have with me wanting to make
sure I have them all: COBRA, paycheck, final agreement of
termination, etc.
"You're gonna fire him after all these years he's been here?" Susan
replies glaring at me.
"If need be, yes."
"Why?"
I respond with a look back at her, a look that she reads correctly by
stating, "OK, I know you can't tell me why, but have you run this by Dan
and Melanie?"
Getting annoyed I respond, "No, I never thought about talking to my
supervisor and HR director about this. In fact I decided to fire a
twenty-year employee on a whim just this morning."
"Well no need to get snippy. I just wanted to make sure you have done
everything you need to do."
As I leave the room, Susan's last statement blares in my head and I feel my insides boiling: If other people, including Susan, Dan and Melanie had done what they needed to do, I wouldn't be in this predicament. At one point or another they all supervised John and so why didn't they solve this problem long before I came on board?
As I drive to Prospect House I review our
pending dialogue in my head in order to ensure that I
don't forget anything:
Well, John, today is the day, do you have
the client files ready?
Kinda, but since I was out last week I need a few more days to get the
forms all signed.
John, we've reviewed this already. You were given plenty of chances to
get all the forms signed by the caseworkers. I let you know before you
asked for last week off that it in no way excused you from the looming
due date when everything needed to be done. I even asked if you had all
the work finished; remember what you said?
Yes, I said that it was almost all done and that I could do both.
By doing both you meant take the week off and get the work done?
Yes.
Our State review is in two months, we all agreed as a team that client
files would be done by now and that then we could focus on the staff HR
files and our policies and procedure manual. This is the third due date
you have had and this is not the first time the issue of timeliness with
paperwork has come up.
That's just it; I always get things done eventually. I also know when
and what is important to get done. No one is actually gonna review the
entire client files. The HR ones are the ones they pay more attention
to.
Nevertheless, John, you had agreed to complete them on time. And
when that time came and went we met with Melanie and placed you on
supervisory probation. You signed the agreement stating that if the
files were not completed by today that you knew you would loose your
job. As they are not completed, by your own admission, I have no choice
but to terminate your employment effective immediately.
But...
No buts, John. We have been talking about this issue of paperwork
timeliness for over a year now and the program can no longer tolerate
your complete lack of follow-through with these demands. I am sorry, but
here is your final check and some employment transition forms we can
review.
As I pull up to the house I see John's car in
the driveway. The house van is gone which is good; I don't want kids in
the house as I do this. I don't want any other staff in the house
either, but can see that a few staff are there.
"John, let's go downstairs and meet for a few minutes."
After we settle in the basement supervisory office I ask him directly,
"John do you have the completed client files with you?"
"Yes I do, here they are," he states as he hands me the twelve files. I
take a quick look and they all seem complete, signatures and all. "I am
sorry it took so long for me to get them to you. It won't happen again."
"I have heard that from you before John, it had better not. John, as a
follow up to the meetings we have been having, I am going to set up
another meeting for us with Melanie, as I need assistance in assuring
that this type of behavior does not occur again."
"That's cool. Again, I'm sorry about this."
"Now let's go upstairs and get started on the staff HR files."
Before the actual review, I get transferred to another part of the agency. The management team within Prospect House is solid and they can finish the review prep on a course that I laid out before I left. Jill becomes the new supervisor. The staff and program does very well in the review; with one exception that is: the staff HR files that John oversaw were horrendous. In fact, they were barely touched. Jill calls me afterward to fill me in on the good news about the review and to express concerns over John.
"Peter, didn't you and John work on the issue
of his reluctance to do paperwork?"
"Yes we did, it's all in his file – the evaluations, supervision notes,
letters of disciplinary actions, everything. In fact, the last agreement
was that John would complete the paperwork on time or else be
terminated. So it seems to me that you have grounds to do so"
"Nope. I met with Melanie today and since the letter you all wrote
focused on client related paperwork and as I am John's new supervisor,
we can't terminate him based on the staff related paperwork. Plus I have
to see if I can assist him along with the issue using my values based
management approach."
No wonder John's been here 20 years!
PETER
TOMPKINS-ROSENBLATT
Tomkins-Rosenblatt, Peter. (2004). Planning ahead:
Relationships and power. Relational Child and Youth Care Practice,
17, 2. pp. 36-37.
