From the mailbag:
I know that I’m about to be fired. My boss has started the paper trail. I’m being written up and “counseled” for every tiny thing. For example, I forgot to sign one form out of 30 that I complete each day and was written up for not following procedure.
My question is: How do I handle this and what steps should I take to combat the manager from hell?
My first piece of advice: get started on revising and updating your resume. Even if you do weather it, you may not wish to stay that much longer.
Here is what I am guessing happened:
Your manager decided, fairly or unfairly, that it was time to let you go. This could be for a variety of logical and illogical reasons. Your HR lead said “Have you documented anything?” Your boss said “No.” And your HR lead said “Okay, bye bye!”
I do this at times with managers that don’t ever document anything to make a point: I don’t fire without documentation. And you can’t make documentation up after the fact.
Now this probably pissed your boss off enough to where they decided to document everything with you. The problem with that? It is likely you are the only one being documented.
Now what should happen is that your boss is going to get all of these flaky write ups to your HR lead and they will call them out. They have to apply the same level of standards and documentation to all employees. If there are instances of them not writing up someone for doing something that you got wrote up for, bam. That’s it.
I would not bank on that though. Even though I am in HR, I wouldn’t bank on them saving your ass, even when appropriate.
What I would try to do is talk to the boss from hell and figure out what happened initially that got them on the documentation trip from nowhere. You need to ask them in a way that won’t make them immediately defensive (i.e. “Why are you trying to get me fired?”). Here is what I would suggest:
“I noticed that since (beginning date of extra documentation) you have started documenting me repeatedly for small mistakes that have happened in the past without issue and that happen with co-workers that aren’t being documented consistently. I am just wondering if there is a bigger issue here and what we can do to solve it.”
Obviously not an easy conversation to have but it is better to try this route first than to go to HR first and complain and completely blindside him or her. Go to HR if you don’t resolve it and drop some words that you are suspicious of being treated as a non-equal in order to have your employment terminated and that you have tried speaking with your boss and that it went nowhere.
Obviously, my issue answering this is that I don’t know the other side. I am assuming that you deserve the job and that you didn’t do anything to permanently mar your position there. So this advice is going to be very pro employee.
May 5, 2008 at 4:59 am
My husband is going through a similar situation… with a twist.
My husband has been at a company for a little over a year, and has had 5 different managers during this time. It is widely rumored that his new manager (male) is sleeping with the woman above him (a director). This same woman director originally hired my husband. My husband has an advanced degree and several years more experience than his new manager. His manager has been at the company longer, but I suspect he is not as well paid as my husband.
During my husband’s performance review last month, he earned “on target” or “above target” ratings and a 5% merit increase. This was his manager’s first week on the job. He received some feedback on one or two areas to improve, such as delegation (he has no direct reports), but nothing extraordinary that made my husband believe his performance was declining.
Three weeks later, my husband found himself in the new HR woman’s office listening to the second step of progressive discipline. The previous HR woman was allegedly “let go” because she didn’t “side with management.” Some of the feedback was repeated from his original performance review.
I am a Performance Improvement / HR Consultant with an advanced degree myself. I see my husband working 60+ hours a week – often nights and weekends. He discusses many work scenarios with me, and I often play devil’s advocate with him and agree with how he approaches certain situations. I know he is a strong performer. He was told, on the side, that he was taking “a hit” for another individual’s mistake in another department because he is the low man on the totem pole, so to speak. The individual who really made the mistake is a golfing buddy of another director. This mistake was not noted on his performance review or in his performance feedback.
From where I’m sitting, he is being targeted by his boss because of his higher compensation, jealousy, and because he is an easy target working remotely in another city. I fully understand that this is a toxic workplace, and he needs to find another employment situation. On the other hand, decently paid positions for attorneys are difficult to find, especially in this economy. I find it extremely hard to imagine a Fortune 200 company would let this occur and not have any repercussions. I’m at a loss at how to counsel my husband in this situation, especially because I hear only one side of the story. Your advice does help – is there anything else I need to consider?
May 18, 2008 at 2:26 am
Lance –
After 20 years of management and HR experience, I’m still torn on these “my boss is a jerk and trying to fire me†requests for advice. My gut always tells me to advise the person to GET OUT. It’s a no win situation, and going to HR won’t help.
However, the last time I told a friend this, he ignored my advice, went to HR, his boss got fired and humiliated, and he ended up being promoted into his ideal job.
Btw, hope all is well with you. I haven’t been over to your blog in a while; I’ll try not to be such a stranger. I’ve subscribed, and of course, still feature you on my esteemed blogroll. Hope to see you over at mine now and then too.
June 11, 2008 at 5:49 am
Well, it happened. My husband’s company let him go on Friday. They said it was not performance related, but it was a RIF and “the client requested to elminate their on-site contractor.” My husband spoke with the client (stakeholder) to ask for a personal reference, and they said they didn’t even know he was leaving and would definitely help him out. And secondly, he wasn’t an on-site contractor. He was a home-based client manager that went to the client site at random times 3-4 times per week. He was the only person let go in this RIF, and his 2 Fortune 50 clients have increased their business over 200% while he was there, making his company even more profitable. My husband wasn’t billed out at a higher rate than other client managers, despite the fact that he is an attorney, but as I mentioned in a previous post, I believe he was paid more salary than other client managers.
Yesterday, my husband went to a professional association meeting which happened to be at a law firm located in the same building as one of his 2 previous clients. He ran into a ex co-worker while he was there. Last night, my husband received a phone call from HR asking him not to visit the client sites anymore or he will forego his 2 weeks salary continuance pay. Again, he was at a professional meeting. He was seen in a completely different area of the building than the area his previous client is located in.
I know that we live in an employment “at will” state. I find it difficult to believe that a large company can get away with lying about why they let someone go. The phone call from HR further demonstrated some paranoia on their part – asking my husbad not to talk to the client when his one conversation with them was to ask for a personal reference. Can they interfere with his right to network and find gainful employment? Where is the integrity of this company? Better yet, where is the professionalism? Any advice would be appreciated.
July 25, 2008 at 9:39 am
I got pushed out of my company as well. In my case, the company is a small 70-person startup. The way it happened was my most recent boss had a one of his previous understudy that he had a long-term working relationship. He was always supportive of this person, even if he was incompetent and under-achiever. Increasingly, more and more of my work was transfered to this person, and I eventually had nothing left in terms of responsibilities. One day, he just said “we don’t need you anymore, since you have contributed little, and your heart is not in the job” and let me go. There was no documentation, no HR person to go to, no one to complain to. All my former collegues are told that “I was incompetent” and a “burden on the company”. My boss’s boss is the CEO of course siding with my boss. I just hate that companies can do this and just get away with it. Can I bring some sort of wrongful termination lawsuit?
July 25, 2008 at 11:51 am
Joe – I have no idea whether or not you have a case but obviously that is just a shitty situation. It is a good reason why HR departments were created.
Good luck in the job search.
June 11, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Really, my daughter’s boss is a number one ASS.
She has gone to HR (twice) and there is no help there. It is a big company and the pay is not horrible. The company just layed off 300 people last week. So, times are scarey for employees. She is already looking for a new job, but you know how that is. (And no — this is not just a guy having a PMS day, he is an ASS)
How do we find an attorney in California that makes these corporate bullies quake in their boots?
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