The employee delivered newspapers full-time. He tried to organize the other adult employee carriers into a union. I managed the region the man worked in and spearheaded the effort to defeat the union. We won at great cost to the company.
After the vote, I continued to document the man’s chronically poor performance. I knew the company would not fire him absent extreme provocation. The lawyers feared he would claim retaliation—as if attacking our motives was evidence–and sue the company if they held him accountable with documented facts. I continued to document his performance issues because it was the right thing to do.
Can we do what is right and win cases too? I believe we can. Disciplined employees can challenge our facts and attack our motives but evidence and documentation speak for themselves. I was never sued or lost an arbitration because I did professional work correctly.
I was promoted and encouraged the employee’s direct supervisor to continue to document the man’s performance issues. I told him the company would not let him fire the man but if he got a massive amount of documentation, I would go with him and empty the box of memos and letters on the desk of the company general counsel.
About two years later, we did exactly that. We walked into the general counsel’s office with a cardboard box filled with written warnings. I turned the box over on his desk and dumped out a hundred or more written reprimands. We embarrassed him. The general counsel allowed us to fire the man, which was done with no repercussions.
I believe many of the best employees, at all levels, burn-out and leave organizations because they can’t use their values and power to effect right changes, including discipline. And the bad employees stay forever–a cancer on the organization.
Organizations are mostly mediocre; leaders and employees often middling or less. But some of us try to lead from our values and be excellent in what we do. We believe in holding people accountable for their performance via a fair process that gives employees a chance to change. Too often our efforts and good work get frustrated by higher-ups and attorneys terrified of being sued or complained about.
Whatever happened to standing up for ideals—win or lose? At least once in a while in especially egregious cases.
I left the newspaper and spent 13 years as a consultant. I tried to teach leaders how to lead transformation of their organizations. I focused on employee engagement, empowerment and involvement as key strategies. I also believed in a tough-love approach and taught managers how to hold people accountable. Many began–few followed through. They feared conflict and they feared they would not be supported by higher-management.
In a workshop I led on giving feedback, a manager asked what patterns I saw that cut across all organizations. That was easy: “the lack of accountability,” I said. I saw but one organization over those years that routinely held people accountable for their behavior and performance.
I retired from consulting after 13 years. I had tried every day with every client to influence leaders, managers and supervisors to use their power to bring about changes good for employees, executives, customers and the organization and changes that had huge positive impacts on the bottom-line. Accountability was one of many core issues I asked them to deal with.
Leaders professed to want “great organizations” but most lacked the right stuff needed to lead organizations from mediocrity to greatness—including accountability. They wanted quick-fixes—easy, quick, cheap and painless–and imagined magical changes in people. With rare exception, after realizing that real transformation required hard work, most stuck with mediocrity.
I still encourage people with power to do what they can to hold the mediocre, dishonest, immature and those who drain the life from others accountable. It’s the right thing to do. Just don’t expect any certain outcome for your efforts from timid decision-makers. What you do matters even if it doesn’t seem that way. Who knows, maybe someday you can dump your own box of documentation on the desk of an anxious lawyer or executives and embarrass them into action.
Tom's Thoughts 
It really is astounding how much damage leaders can inflict when they’re unwilling to do their jobs and TAKE ACTION. When poor performance is left unchecked for months or years, it becomes like an acid that corrodes everyone’s morale and erodes the strength of an organization.
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It really is astounding. Mostly because people let fear control them. People need to ask themselves, “What is the right thing to do” not “what is the safe thing to do.”
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I never thought I would disagree with you, but the way I read this is that only the employee’s in a business or organization should be held accountable for their actions, but not the company or organization? These days of anti-union sentiment we’re seeing a declining middle class who’s demise tracks that of the unions. The Unions are what helped create the largest middle class ever for all of 40-50 years until the corporations started pushing back, greed taking over. While there are good employers who do right by their workers, not all can claim that. Take Walmart for example, their profit trumps all else. In their minds they never have enough. I worked for them temporarily after retiring from full time employment just for some extra money and something to do, so I know first hand how they treat workers. Did I read this correctly? Judy From: Tom’s Thoughts To: spiritwalker63@sbcglobal.net Sent: Wednesday, December 2, 2015 10:06 AM Subject: [New post] Accountability: Rare in Organizations #yiv5637926356 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv5637926356 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv5637926356 a.yiv5637926356primaryactionlink:link, #yiv5637926356 a.yiv5637926356primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv5637926356 a.yiv5637926356primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv5637926356 a.yiv5637926356primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv5637926356 WordPress.com | Tom Heuerman posted: “The employee delivered newspapers full-time. He tried to organize the other adult employee carriers into a union. I managed the region the man worked in and spearheaded the effort to defeat the union. We won at great cost to the company.After the vote” | |
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No, you didn’t read me correctly. I am for accountability and responsibility and I value the ideals that are supposed to guide how we live in America–for everyone and for corporations.
This particular piece is about employees–top to bottom–but I have the same values for CEO’s and enterprises in general. They just weren’t the topic of this specific piece.
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I’ll continue your accountability theme (as you and Judy have both mentioned) from corporations/organizations/employers and employees to each of us as we live our individual lives.
I live in a small group of “cohousers” and we continually face challenges when members of our little community do not appear to be living up to our aspired shared values (before entering the group individuals need to sign on to a set of stated values).
We realize these are aspirations and that not all of us can live by all of them every day, but it is up to each of us to have the courage to address (and hold each other accountable) when violations repeat and affect the smooth operation of the way we live together.
It is a challenge, and more than one member of the community (in our ten years of existence) has had to leave because they either could not handle being held accountable or we didn’t handle the whole situation with wisdom beyond what we had at the time!
Thus we have each grown and become more mature, as individuals and as a group. And at a meeting on Saturday we will have another chance to see if we can successfully address a current accountability issue!!
In loving spirit, Eleanor
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Eleanor, your community is a role-model for how a group can hold themselves and each other accountable–difficult as it is–and grow as people and as a community along the way.
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I appreciated it when the company required me (as the manager) to meet certain criteria before recommending a termination. Often I was able to work with the non-performer and eventually correct the issues. But it was frustrating when all the criteria (plus some) was met and they still wouldn’t let me proceed with termination. Usually this was due to their fear of repercussions. I agree with you 100% that the bad employees are a cancer to the organization. The good performers are required to work harder to make up for the bad performers. The good performers often leave the job because they feel they are treated unfairly. This article brings back many memories.
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Thanks for commenting Meg.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
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No good deed, or good worker, goes unpunished… Anyway, Happy New Year to you and yours.
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