Discussion Board Human Resources

Manager’s Hot Seat

Case 4: Privacy: Burned by the Firewall?

The Meeting

L: Hi Janet.

J: Hello.

L: How are you?

J: I’m good. One second.

L: Sure. We are here to talk about the situation with Willy Cushing. I need to understand what happened and why I wasn’t informed about it.

J: I know, I know. I’m sorry that it happened when you were away, it was not intentional and I apologize for that because I know it must have been a shock for you.

L: Yes. Why wasn’t I informed? I left my emergency contact number.

J: I thought about it, the decision was mine and I decided against it. You were on vacation, informing you I don’t think would have changed anything. And so I decided not to.

L: But this has left a huge hole in my organization, without Willy there we need to come up with a plan. And first I need to understand what happened.

J: OK. We will come up with a plan and everything will be ok in that direction. What happened was very simple. As you know we have the technology and right to review everyone’s telephone and internet use records. And a big red flag came up on William Cushing. He had multiple irregular use of the telephone, everything was outside of the Bank Street use business, and his use of the internet was abusive.

L: Willy has been such a great employee. Is this something that has just happened, or did the red flag come up before I was gone?

J: No we have been reviewing records for a long time. HR and other departments have talked about the punitive action, we have decided on it, and coincidently and unfortunately, we decided to put it into action while you were away.

L: I was never informed of this prior to my leaving.

J: Prior to your leaving, there was nothing to inform you about.

L: What about the warnings? You said that it has been happening, that you have been looking at the records.

J: I have been looking at records for everybody, everyone in your department and for everyone in everybody else’s department. When it hits a certain level of misuse, that’s when we sat down and decided what to do. So right now, William Cushing is on administrative leave.

L: OK, so you’re saying that he made personal calls…?

J: He made a lot of personal calls, long distance calls, to Iowa, somewhere in New York, Massachusetts.

L: Look, everybody makes personal calls. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that. He’s always done a great job.

J: Personal calls, especially multiple personal calls are improper use of company property frankly. And it must work into someone’s productivity. And if you couple that with the amount of time that he’s spending on the internet.

L: Well whatever he has done has not impacted his performance. And I should be part of that decision; I should be part of the decision over whether he leaves for this.

J: That doesn’t change the records, it’s not going to change his records, it’s not going to change the policy here as to what is proper and what is improper.

L: Well it just doesn’t sound right to me, and we need to get him back, that’s the bottom line. And if we need to go higher in the organization to change that decision…

J: Lynn, I am not going to change my decision that is not a good precedent. And it’s not a good precedent to look at someone’s record and say well maybe not him but maybe someone else.

L: Well if he had performance problems then maybe. But he doesn’t have performance problems; he doesn’t need to be on leave.

J: Let’s talk about that after his leave.

L: This is wrong, this is simply wrong. And I was not informed about this.

J: Lynn, he’s not the only person whose records have been looked over.

L: Somebody else in my organization?

J: Yes, you.

L: Who? Oh my records?

J: Yes, your records have also been reviewed.

L: And what are you saying?

J: I’m saying that I have records of long distance phone calls that are outside of business, and use of websites, and time on the internet that seems inappropriate.

L: This is crazy because obviously these policies have not been clearly defined.

J: I think that they have been made very clear in all of our employee information, and employee brochures, and employee workbooks.

L: I need to seem the records, I need to see how they exceed the thresholds for myself and for Willy and for anyone else in my organization that this is happening to.

J: I didn’t say that it had exceeded the thresholds for you.

L: What did you say?

J: I am saying that there is improper use on it I’m not saying that it exceeded the threshold.

L: OK, so you’re saying that I need to?

J: Listen Lynn, we are going around in circles, we are going around in circles. I am sorry that this happened while you were away, it was unintentional but it did happen. And the punitive action that we took was our right to do. And I did make the final decision, it was not my decision alone but I did pick the final decision. And I understand why you are upset, because you are missing an employee.

L: Yeah, a key employee.

J: And this is where I come in. And I will help you with that. This is not a problem.

L: Well you haven’t helped me because you got rid of him without telling me, and we need to get him back. We need to get him back. And obviously we are not agreeing here you and I

J: No obviously we are not agreeing. So let’s have another meeting and find out how we are going to help your team.

L: No, we need to take this to your manager. We need to take this to somebody else that can get him back because I am not buying this.

Afterthoughts

L: I feel that the meeting didn’t go very well with Janet. She was very adamant about her view point and she didn’t understand the organizational impact that Willy’s absence had. She was not trying to resolve it in a timely manner. My strategy in approaching the HR director was to understand that the problem was with Willy, why he was put on leave and my goal was to get him back because we need him. So I wanted the HR director to understand where I was coming from and I wanted her to understand that he has no performance issues. And I wanted her to understand the urgency of getting him back quickly. I definitely think the HR director was trying to intimidate me by saying that my records were in question as well. I do not think that intimidation is a successful tactic. I don’t think that the company’s policy is justified because there was no performance issue here. I can understand if there was excessive phone use for budgetary reasons. I can see sitting sown with the employee and explaining that to him but certainly not making him leave. I don’t think that I should have managed Willy differently because I don’t think it’s really a problem. I think that there is something else going on. My next step is to go to Janet’s manager, because I need to resolve this very quickly. I would hope that he would understand the impact that it is having on the organization. I am also upset that I was not contacted when this happened. That is a huge issue and I don’t understand why that happened. And he needs to understand that. I will adjust this policy with the rest of my team because I don’t want this to happen with anyone else. And if HR is going to continue to look at people’s records without consulting me, I need to be prepared for that. I feel comfortable asking my team to not make personal calls and not suing the internet if it’s within a reasonable threshold. I agree with that policy to some degree. I believe that excessive use can definitely impact performance, but if it doesn’t impact performance, and it doesn’t impact any budgets then I don’t see a problem with it. I don’t feel differently about the company now after having had this situation happen. I do feel differently about HR and the way that they administer their policies without consulting or without warning the managers involved. That leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth but I don’t have a bad taste for the company as a hole.