I knew it was going to be a unique day when I arrived at the office and the newly hired marketing vice president was fired. This was a few years ago, and I was operations director for a venture capital backed corporation. I never got the whole story, but there were some rumblings that the latest victim of the whims of leadership was spending too much time traveling to other offices to party with the single ladies who would be under him (no pun intended).
People getting fired was pretty typical there, and every day I drove into the parking lot with a knot in my stomach, wondering when my turn to get fired would arrive... but that's a topic for another post. Another memorable day for me, was finding that the two person art department was let go. I went to HR, and asked who would finish the work they were doing for our clients. It didn't surprise me that they looked startled, and said they didn't know this group did work for us. So we outsourced the art work by hiring one of the people they fired as an independent contractor. He received better pay, and was able to work from home. I envied him many days as I witnessed the "bad" venture capital carnage.
Back to the unique day. My boss came by my office, and explained that the just fired marketing guru had a new hire starting that day, and this new person would report to me. I asked if I was taking over the marketing function, and found that no, I was to utilize New Hire as a project manager. I asked if anyone had talked to New Hire about this yet, and no one had. She was still in HR doing paperwork.
My frustration was evident. I had been trying to have my budget increased for months so I could hire another project manager. This money was given to marketing, and now I ended up with a person who I had not interviewed, had no experience that I needed, and was about to find out they just had an instantaneousness career change. My boss told me that if the new person didn't work out, I could just get rid of her. Like she was an unwanted potted plant, or an empty pen.
About an hour later, New Hire was brought to my office. She had been told about the changes, and she was not happy. She had left a job she loved, working for a good boss, thinking that this new position was a great career opportunity. Instead, she was being told that she would now be a project manager, and she had no choice but do it, since if she refused, she'd not have a job. If she didn't have a job, she would lose her apartment.
Once I heard her disappointment, I realized that my initial concerns were self-centered. This was her life that was being toyed with. We had to come up with a plan. So I outlined what I thought we should do. She had experience in project management, because every marketing campaign she worked on was a project. I would help her learn the skills she needed, and our team would support her. If she found another job in the meantime, I wouldn't be upset if she left. But while she was with us, she could learn new skills, and help our project management team deliver great projects. Who knows? She may actually like project management! She grudgingly accepted the plan.
A few weeks later, she was doing fine, managing projects, and making connections on the team. She was still disappointed, and sometimes it would come across in her tone. I didn't blame her, and tried to help her see the positive side of the situation.
On one of my regular calls with my boss (who worked in a different city) Boss told me that New Hire had made a face at Boss (really, a face). This showed New Hire had a bad attitude, and she should be happy she has a job. If this keeps up, we'd have to fire New Hire.
A few days later, I had my regular meeting with the boss's boss. In the meeting, Big Boss told me I should find some reason to put new hire on a performance improvement plan (this was the first step to fire someone, and there was never a focus on performance improvement, it was on firing), and get the clock started to fire her. I leaned back in my chair, looked across the table at his grinning face (I still don't know how one can grin after firing people by the handful), and asked a simple question. "Am I in this position to do the right thing, or am I in this position to do the easy thing? I'd like to think I'm here to do the right thing."
I went on to explain the many successes New Hire had since joining our team, and reminded Big Boss of how New Hire had transitioned from marketing to project management, and was part of the team now. I had no problem with New Hire's performance, and wouldn't put her on track to be fired. I acknowledged that New Hire pulled attitude on occasion, and I'd deal with that. He dropped the subject.
In our next department meeting, I reminded everyone of the importance of attitudes, and how we should be role models for positive energy. I admitted that the organizational environment was sub-par, and that at times I also had disappointment, but that we must be careful of how we are perceived, especially among People Who Fired. The message was understood.
I thought of this story recently when I received one of the occasional e-mails from New Hire. She is now leading a project management team for an advertising agency in NYC, and had contacted me to say how much she enjoyed working on our team back in the time. She was hiring more staff. She had applied many of the methods we had used in our old department for keeping the workload tracked and managed. I thought of how a person who was handed a very bad situation, learned from it, embraced the changes, and turned the bad situation into a new career path. I'm proud of her, and am thankful I had the presence of mind to not follow the leaders on that job.
We both learned from the experience. New Hire learned to adapt, and I learned that as tempting as the easy solution may be, we must make sure it's the right solution. If we must choose between what's easy, and what's right, we must choose what's right. Easy and wrong is what will haunt us later.
People getting fired was pretty typical there, and every day I drove into the parking lot with a knot in my stomach, wondering when my turn to get fired would arrive... but that's a topic for another post. Another memorable day for me, was finding that the two person art department was let go. I went to HR, and asked who would finish the work they were doing for our clients. It didn't surprise me that they looked startled, and said they didn't know this group did work for us. So we outsourced the art work by hiring one of the people they fired as an independent contractor. He received better pay, and was able to work from home. I envied him many days as I witnessed the "bad" venture capital carnage.
Back to the unique day. My boss came by my office, and explained that the just fired marketing guru had a new hire starting that day, and this new person would report to me. I asked if I was taking over the marketing function, and found that no, I was to utilize New Hire as a project manager. I asked if anyone had talked to New Hire about this yet, and no one had. She was still in HR doing paperwork.
My frustration was evident. I had been trying to have my budget increased for months so I could hire another project manager. This money was given to marketing, and now I ended up with a person who I had not interviewed, had no experience that I needed, and was about to find out they just had an instantaneousness career change. My boss told me that if the new person didn't work out, I could just get rid of her. Like she was an unwanted potted plant, or an empty pen.
About an hour later, New Hire was brought to my office. She had been told about the changes, and she was not happy. She had left a job she loved, working for a good boss, thinking that this new position was a great career opportunity. Instead, she was being told that she would now be a project manager, and she had no choice but do it, since if she refused, she'd not have a job. If she didn't have a job, she would lose her apartment.
Once I heard her disappointment, I realized that my initial concerns were self-centered. This was her life that was being toyed with. We had to come up with a plan. So I outlined what I thought we should do. She had experience in project management, because every marketing campaign she worked on was a project. I would help her learn the skills she needed, and our team would support her. If she found another job in the meantime, I wouldn't be upset if she left. But while she was with us, she could learn new skills, and help our project management team deliver great projects. Who knows? She may actually like project management! She grudgingly accepted the plan.
A few weeks later, she was doing fine, managing projects, and making connections on the team. She was still disappointed, and sometimes it would come across in her tone. I didn't blame her, and tried to help her see the positive side of the situation.
On one of my regular calls with my boss (who worked in a different city) Boss told me that New Hire had made a face at Boss (really, a face). This showed New Hire had a bad attitude, and she should be happy she has a job. If this keeps up, we'd have to fire New Hire.
A few days later, I had my regular meeting with the boss's boss. In the meeting, Big Boss told me I should find some reason to put new hire on a performance improvement plan (this was the first step to fire someone, and there was never a focus on performance improvement, it was on firing), and get the clock started to fire her. I leaned back in my chair, looked across the table at his grinning face (I still don't know how one can grin after firing people by the handful), and asked a simple question. "Am I in this position to do the right thing, or am I in this position to do the easy thing? I'd like to think I'm here to do the right thing."
I went on to explain the many successes New Hire had since joining our team, and reminded Big Boss of how New Hire had transitioned from marketing to project management, and was part of the team now. I had no problem with New Hire's performance, and wouldn't put her on track to be fired. I acknowledged that New Hire pulled attitude on occasion, and I'd deal with that. He dropped the subject.
In our next department meeting, I reminded everyone of the importance of attitudes, and how we should be role models for positive energy. I admitted that the organizational environment was sub-par, and that at times I also had disappointment, but that we must be careful of how we are perceived, especially among People Who Fired. The message was understood.
I thought of this story recently when I received one of the occasional e-mails from New Hire. She is now leading a project management team for an advertising agency in NYC, and had contacted me to say how much she enjoyed working on our team back in the time. She was hiring more staff. She had applied many of the methods we had used in our old department for keeping the workload tracked and managed. I thought of how a person who was handed a very bad situation, learned from it, embraced the changes, and turned the bad situation into a new career path. I'm proud of her, and am thankful I had the presence of mind to not follow the leaders on that job.
We both learned from the experience. New Hire learned to adapt, and I learned that as tempting as the easy solution may be, we must make sure it's the right solution. If we must choose between what's easy, and what's right, we must choose what's right. Easy and wrong is what will haunt us later.
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