US
In recent blogs I have told you about starting a new career and about changes in office environments. One thing that has struck me recently is the absence of human resources support when sticky situations arise.
When I started my first career back in my early twenties – an era in which sexual harassment and discrimination were an employer’s worst nightmare – I was the only female in a group of men who held old-fashioned views. They knew they needed a woman in the office but struggled with how to act around one.
I was okay with that. If something off colour was said, it wasn’t due to deliberate maliciousness, it was just that they didn’t know how to deal with women at work. I had to be tough. I acted like a man and the boundaries were set. Moreover, we constantly had human resources visit our office, drilling into us what was “appropriate workplace behaviour”. Back then, in pre-GFC times, in a bull market, discrimination was considered a big issue.
All talk, not much action?
Fast forward ten years, and the spotlight is again shining on women’s place in the workforce. We all talk about females in banking, and how to have a work-life balance, but when it comes to tackling the day-to-day issues facing professional women, is human resources actually doing a good job?
A few weeks back I was called to my manager’s office. The firm had a “little problem” that needed sorting out: there was a young woman disrupting the office because she was chatting too much with colleagues to cure her loneliness, rather than doing her job.
She had been spoken to about time management but had taken this as an intrusion into her privacy and believed she had been picked on. Management felt they couldn’t get rid of her because there was now a severe shortage of women in our office. This was because management had been content to lose two amazing female staff and were too stubborn or myopic to recognise the great work they had been doing. In summary: too indifferent to lose women who excelled; too scared to lose the less competent ones.
This is not my problem: it is management’s problem
So I was asked to take time out and stay back late in order to help this young woman, giving her the attention that she wanted to make her feel good about herself. As she told me about her private life, I realised something: my manager had no training in managing human resources, nor did he know how to deal with women in the workplace. What was even worse, he didn’t want to deal with the problem: he just palmed it off onto me.
When I told my manager that that I didn’t feel comfortable talking to the woman – I didn’t want to be reprimanded later should she misinterpret my advice – he replied that, given my age, I should just deal with it in a “mature manner”.
So as I stay back every night catching up on the work I didn’t complete due to my chats with her, I can’t help but wonder: is it me who is being discriminated against and directed to take on something that no one else wanted to touch, “given my age”? I also wonder, given my successful ‘masculine’ approach to work in my early career, if men in financial services prefer dealing with women who put on a tough front. What do you think?
Hmmn it seems more like this problem has been brought on by the very existence of this new type of PC “appropriate workplace behaviour”.
a) The junior female in this article is the one who is not doing her job adequately… her bringing excess baggage to work is her fault not her ‘male’ colleagues
b) Things such as appropriate work place behaviour have now created an environment where you can no longer call a spade a spade and fire her, instead she is now pandered to and is wasting another resource!
If an employee is not doing their job, give them feedback on what doing their job looks like and where exactly they are failing to meet these requirements. Offer them help and tools to close the gap. If they do not meet the requirments of the role in a reasonable timeframe, fire them.
This is performance management.
Engage HR only to make sure you follow the rules and meet your legal obligations in this process.
Male or female is irrelevant, job performance is all that matters.
When all else fails, give them a promotion to a role they want (but will certainly fail in) and then manage them out.
Manage up or out, simple really.
I dont know what to say, i am little confused here. I mean I was thinking if a colleague irrespective of her being new & old (not her age but her being in the organisation) has a problem which has been ascertained to be her loneliness. Is it only the HR person’s responsibility to resolve it.
Here another question pops up, do we expect humans in workplace or computers with set work mode, limited chatting ability & more productivity & “team goal or organisation gol achievement skills”.
If humans work in workplace these human emotional issues will prop up. No matter how much we try we cant segregate the emotional & professional self to 2 complete pigeon holes of brain.
I feel if I was in the role of the person assigned to handle her by my so called inept manager I would take it as any other workplace challenge & try to approach it with an open mind.
I had an issue 30 years back & I manned up but i would have wished if someone was there to assist me better. Now that I am in a giving role why not help the lady out after office hours after finishing my assigned work & targets, then go for a 20 min cup of coffee with the lady & try to talk to her & give her my experience as example or any xyz experience that fits the bill.
How about that.
Well or the other approach is, hire & fire & pass on the buck coz it’s not written in my contract of responsibilities when I signed it say 20 years back. There are many fishes in the sea & more accomplished & emotionally sound people. Well even if there are no new fishes now coz if everyone has this attitude where will all these troubled souls land well no worries Australia has people coming in boat loads & plane loads & ship loads everyday so plenty of new fishes coming everyday. They are desperate enough to mould in any mould these corporate organisations wish to mould them in to suit there ” Corporate Goal Achievemnts schedule”.