Mini Case Analysis 1000 words

Volume 6, Issue 2 (Spring 2010)

Andra Gumbus, Ed.D., Sacred Heart University Christopher C. York, MA, JD, Sacred Heart University Carolyn A. Shea, JD, Sacred Heart University______________________________

JUDY’S STORY

My Brilliant Boss Judy walked into her first counseling session with Sarah, the Employee Relations Specialist from

Human Resources, and the flood gates opened. Sarah decided to let Judy vent about her boss

Dennis without interruption.

“Dennis is a brilliant man. Intellectually, he far exceeds most people I‟ve met.

While he is brilliant, he is the most negative, condescending person I‟ve ever met.

He‟s the Senior VP of everything but sales, marketing and finance so he‟s gotten

more power over the years because Frank doesn‟t want to deal with the details

and thinks he needs a guy like Dennis. He treats almost everyone with the same

negative management style. He nitpicks and belittles people in order to undermine

their confidence. To make matters worse he does this publicly in meetings. He

told me I am his subordinate and that I have to do whatever he says. In a staff

meeting he said the only way to motivate underachieving developers is to create a

competition and put their names on a board with how many items each has fixed

each day. He felt this would push them to see where they are lagging and make

them work harder. As if that would motivate professionals.”

Sarah thought about interrupting Judy but realized that venting helped Judy cope and

contributed to her comfort level by sharing her story.

“I suggested that he might consider dealing individually with people who

weren‟t producing because studies have shown that competitions don‟t

necessarily motivate people. It might cause unmotivated people to remain

unmotivated and let the shining stars shine brighter. I told him it might be more

effective to show the individual developers where they fall on the productivity

graph compared to the rest of the team and try individual coaching. Rather than

simply responding that he liked his approach better, he became irate and insulted

______________________________________________________________________________ * The names of the individuals in this case have been changed to protect their privacy. Events occurred as described.

©2010 by the author and The CASE Journal. Contact the author at [email protected].

Judy’s Defense: One Workplace Bully Is One Too Many

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me in front of my peers. His face grew angry, somewhat evil looking with fire in

his eyes, and he said: “You need to stop talking because you don‟t know what the

hell you‟re talking about”. He then asked whether I had ever managed a

development organization, and, when I answered “no,” he said: “then don‟t offer

solutions in areas where you have no experience.” I‟ve worked in the industry for

15 years and I‟ve been at a senior level in the company for the past 6 years. I‟m

even older than he is so I think I do know what I‟m talking about.”

Sarah again tried to stop Judy‟s emotional tirade but she knew that part of the therapy Judy

needed was a silent ear to listen to her story.

“Another time he asked us if we heard any feedback from the staff about the new

insurance plans offered during open enrollment. We all spoke up about comments

we‟d heard. He became more and more annoyed. The VP Development, John,

brought up a final comment that one employee was confused and annoyed with

the presentation of the insurance information by our insurance representative.

The insurance representative presented some information incorrectly, that in

reality, was quite trivial. To this person it wasn‟t, so it caused a lot of negative

discussion among the employees. John wasn‟t taking sides or justifying the

employee‟s reaction, he was simply providing the requested feedback. Dennis

blew up at him in the meeting and said: “This conversation is over. I want you to

stop talking because you aren‟t adding any value here. You need to learn how to

deal with your employees and reign in all of this non-productive chatter.” John

got up and left the meeting stating that, if he wasn‟t providing any value, then he

should leave and go do something where he could provide value. Dennis felt the

need to fill the awkwardness with justification for his behavior by criticizing John

to the rest of the management team remaining in the meeting saying: “Like I said,

John needs to learn how to stop the non-productive chatter among his staff. Am I

the only one in this organization who knows how to communicate and control

their behavior?”

In yet another meeting, he was going over some things he wanted to do. I raised a

concern over an item. He didn‟t like being questioned so he snapped at me very

angrily asking if I knew what my goals were and shouted, “If you don‟t I can pull

them up on my computer right now and make sure you understand them and know

exactly what you should be focusing on so you don‟t waste my time with your

stupid questions.” He then proceeded to send me a curt email with my goals

listed. It said “let me repeat… here are your priorities.” There was no chance for

dialog or discussion of the goals, just here they are. I am a professional and I

know my goals and priorities, I‟m not a child. His email was insulting and

demeaning. Publicly humiliating me in a meeting was mean and belittling.”

Sarah told Judy she would begin her official investigation and scheduled a meeting with Judy a

week later. In the meantime Sarah read Judy‟s job description to familiarize herself with Judy‟s

responsibilities as a manager under Dennis. It stated that Judy‟s main job responsibilities were to

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manage customer retention and manage software implementation consultants. This involved

coordinating, scheduling, and serving as a backup consultant when needed. She was the

escalation point for customer issues and was accountable for customer satisfaction. Judy also had

to generate new project opportunities with customers and was responsible for revenue generation

for her department. She had a role in account management and worked with sales support to

assist with new customers and provide information during the sales process. Judy also scheduled

and planned enhancements for new software releases based on knowledge of customer needs. As

a senior manager she hired, trained, and fired her staff and was a subject matter expert in all

software applications.

Judy arrived for the meeting and began with,

“You should see what he did this week. He regularly publicly yells at or otherwise

humiliates employees. In a weekly product meeting with several staff members

assigned to the product, he questioned the status of an item. The person

responsible gave an update that was not pleasing to Dennis. He was shaking his

head and rolling his eyes. You could see his mind churning as he sat there, and

we waited wondering what was coming. After a few moments, he began his

attack. He started with the calm, angry questioning first. “Didn‟t I talk to you the

other day?” “Didn‟t I tell you specifically what I wanted you to do and how I

wanted you to do it?” The staff member said that he started doing it but

discovered an issue, so he started looking into it. Dennis got angry and said, “I

didn‟t tell you to look into anything and I didn‟t tell you to do that. I told you

specifically what I wanted you to do, and I didn‟t give you permission to do

anything else.” The staff member (a grown man in his 50s) was visibly shaken,

embarrassed, and on the verge of tears. It was uncomfortable for everyone in the

meeting.

Our office is pretty much an open cubicle area where the majority of the

employees sit so everyone can see and hear what is going on. His office is at the

end of the open area so he can see what everyone is doing. He actually moved his

desk so he can see everyone better and make sure people aren‟t goofing off.

He went out to Tom who he feels hasn‟t been producing. He marched out to

Tom‟s desk, which is in a quad cubicle format with four people sitting in the same

area, and announced that he needed to come out and physically sit with him to

watch Tom work to make sure he actually did what he was supposed to do. He

did this in order to see where Tom was on a task. Tom finally exploded stating

that he couldn‟t work under such pressure and they had a screaming match in the

open. Dennis finally went back to his office and hollered out, “Don‟t make me

have to come out and have to check up on you again like a child.”

Sarah knew Dennis well and knew that his job responsibilities included many important aspects

of the business as Chief Technical Officer and Senior VP. He focused on technology advances

and moving the direction of the company's product and development to position the company for

the future. Development, Support, QA, Product Design, System Architecture, Services, IT, and

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Documentation reported to him. Each area had its own manager to run the day to day operations,

however, he infused himself into the detail of each department by reviewing everyone's work.

Dennis had knowledge of everything technical and was proficient with business scenarios. He

went into any business industry, understood their business needs, and told them how they needed

to modify their practices with a financial system, reporting, and integration software package.

Considering the volume of software issues that he dealt with; the number of customers with their

particular implementation requirements and needs; and the number of sales prospects he dealt

with, Dennis was very valuable to the company. He presented new technology to the customer

with ease and understood competing technologies.

Sarah met with the CEO, Frank Johnstone, and together they met with each of the managers who

worked under Dennis. Frank candidly asked what was going on and they told him very specific

and clear details of Dennis‟s behavior. They didn‟t hold back anything. Frank announced a

reorganization and had all managers report directly to the CEO, removing Dennis from the day to

day management. They were all relieved that something was finally being done. Morale was at

an all time low; productivity was suffering; quality was suffering; and the company was losing

good people. Unfortunately, the reorganization only lasted a year. Frank didn‟t want to deal with

the daily details. He wasn‟t technical and he felt that someone who could provide technical

guidance was needed. His desire to get out of the daily details was greater than his concern for

morale.

Frank explained that “Dennis is Dennis and won‟t change.” Frank knew Dennis‟s style was

rough, and employees needed to learn to adjust. Obviously Dennis was filling a job and his

reports had to deal with it. In other words it was shape up or ship out.

Shape Up Or Ship Out? A year later Judy was back in Sarah‟s office even more mentally and physically stressed. When

Sarah asked how it was going Judy replied,

“Dennis never has a positive thing to say to or about anyone. He pushes and

picks and finds every opportunity to make everyone feel incompetent and useless.

I have been so frustrated that he has brought me to tears. I know it sounds absurd,

but I actually think he‟s like someone who brainwashes people, like in cults, so he

can manipulate and control them. I‟ve become depressed at times and

completely unmotivated, which is totally out of character for me. I‟m lethargic

and moping around when I get home from work. I‟ve always been a confident,

positive, and a happy person and I now feel like I can‟t do anything right. I

question myself constantly. I dread going to work because I never know what I‟m

going to have to deal with and it‟s just wearing me down. I try to ignore him, not

let him get to me, control my emotions, and not take it personally. I know this

isn‟t the right approach. I need to name it. I need to tell him he‟s a bully, and I

need to let him know that I‟m not going to put up with it.”

Judy admitted to Sarah that she started searching for another job and started her MBA to have

some positive influences in her life.

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When They Can’t Get To You – It Gets To Them Sarah had to determine if some of the problem belonged to Judy. Sarah asked Judy a critical

question about whether she was the only person bullied by Dennis. Judy replied,

“I was thinking about the situation some more, and I realized that there are a few

people in the office that Dennis doesn't bully and I had to ask myself why. There

are 3 individuals - 2 women and 1 man. Mary is the type who doesn't put up with

anything from anyone. She's in her early 30's and she's very vocal about what she

will and won‟t tolerate. She does her job, but she's not someone who cares if she

climbs the corporate ladder. Mary's quite happy just coming in 9 - 5, doing her

job, leaving, and having her life outside of work. Diane is in her 40's, very quiet,

and works part time so she can do things with her two girls. She too is not

someone interested in power or climbing the ladder. Bob is also in his early 30's.

He's very talented, but not a real go getter. He's very humble about his talents. If

Bob had more drive, he could do well. Dennis tried to start on Bob, but Bob just

made a comment and Dennis backed down. Bob doesn't get angry, or react.

Maybe that's the key; Dennis knows he can't ruffle their feathers, so he doesn't

bother.”

Ruffle Their Feathers? The situation with Dennis worsened as the days and weeks passed. He became more harassing

in his dealings with Judy. One of Judy‟s peers, Eileen, came to Sarah to report that Dennis and

Judy had a heated discussion in a staff meeting. A new client had an issue with software. There

were other issues that had already come up with the client so this one just added to an already

negative situation. Dennis wanted to conceal the fact we found the issue and were fixing it. He

wanted to gain remote access to the client‟s environment and install the fix without telling them.

Judy told him it was unethical. He became enraged that she disagreed with him and wouldn‟t go

along with what he said. He questioned why it was unethical since developers did it all the time.

His tone was very angry and attacking. He said to Judy, “If you‟re so smart, then how would

you handle it?” Judy told him it would be better to be honest with the customer and let them

know what was found and fixed and that she believed we needed to give them the fix so they

didn‟t run into the problem. Dennis responded with, “I think your ideas are simplistic and stupid

and won‟t waste my time explaining to you why mine are better.”

Sarah called Judy to hear her side of the story and Judy replied,

“He seems to have an even greater desire to put me down. He‟s looking for any

mistake I make to capitalize on it. I can‟t do anything right. He is sending me

nasty emails or coming into my office to complain daily. He didn‟t like the way

something was done at a customer because it wasn‟t the way he would have done

it. There was nothing wrong with the work, and the customer was happy with the

results, but Dennis wasn‟t happy. He sent an email, which read: „Do you have

any clue what your people are doing? Do you even supervise them at all? The

only way to ensure things are done right around here is if I review everything

your people do because you can‟t be trusted. As a matter of fact, I think I need to

start reviewing all of your work too.‟”

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He humiliated me in front of the CEO. We were discussing the clients to

understand why they were having problems. He jumped in and presented things

in a way that blamed me for all of it. He put me on the defensive. When I tried to

present my side, he cut me off. When I tried to correct him, he just got worse.

The CEO didn‟t see anything wrong with it. He fully supports Dennis. He feels

that Dennis is the one who keeps people from slacking off. To make matters

worse, I had to sit in a two hour one-on-one meeting with Dennis and he spent the

entire time telling me how terrible I am at everything I do. I want to quit, but I‟m

not a quitter.”

Sarah asked Judy to consider a transfer or another job. Judy contemplated taking a job that was

a part time, temporary, basic accounting job. It was well below her experience level and pay

scale. Unfortunately, her husband was less than enthusiastic about the idea. His business was

struggling with the recession; their son needed a car and college tuition in a few years. Judy

described a turning point after hitting rock bottom.

“We were sitting at a restaurant for dinner and I had tears rolling down my face.

I didn‟t want my kids to know I was crying. Luckily, I had a cold so when they

questioned why my eyes were watery, I told them it was my cold. I spent that

weekend feeling sorry for myself and completely defeated. By the time Sunday

arrived I realized I had given up. I had quit, and I‟m not a quitter. This time, I

quit on myself. I decided I was not going to take his bullying anymore. I wasn‟t

willing to be a victim. I decided I was going to take control of my life and my

future and do something. Something was better than nothing. It was actually a

liberating moment.

I realized that it isn‟t me. He isn‟t capable of anything else. He will never change

and he will never succeed as a manager. The weight of the world was off my

shoulders, I felt liberated. I‟m not sure exactly why. I was able to take the

emotion out of it and just stand on the outside and look in objectively. It wasn‟t

me personally in the middle of this any longer.”

The Confrontation Sarah decided to confront Dennis with total honesty and candor. Dennis listened and said he

wouldn‟t change; he needed to be tough to get people to do things; and if people took more

responsibility and did what they were supposed to, he wouldn‟t have to ride them. Sarah tried to

make points about effective management techniques – what works and what doesn‟t. He wasn‟t

receptive. He justified all his behavior. He said Judy had to put forth more effort. Sarah asked

him about his responsibility to do something. He said, “I am a Senior Manager, and Judy is a

subordinate. I don‟t have to change. Judy has to do what I say.”

Sarah did not know how to advise Judy.

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