Delivering Bad News

Delivering Bad News: A Case Study

In a management position, you often have to deal with employee disciplinary action. In these situations (such as letting an employee know that they have substandard performance and continuing as they currently are would result in dismissal), I would first request a face-to-face meeting with them the employee. Once in a neutral and “non-threatening” environment (perhaps a conference room, removed from other employees. I would, first and foremost, adhere to the levels of disciplinary action as laid out by the company to approach the employee regarding their behavior. Given that the case study referenced notes that the next level of discipline for the employee is dismissal, one could reasonably assume that this behavior is either very severe or has been going on for quite some time and other disciplinary measures have not helped.

 I would start the meeting by thanking them for their work and let them know that I appreciate them. I would then move on to asking them if there was something wrong either personally or professionally because coworkers, customers and myself had all noticed a change. I would let them know that I am concerned for what could be causing the decline in performance. As such, I would be happy to collaborate with them to come up with a way to help them. After offering my willingness to reach a resolution with them, I would let them know that to continue at their current level of performance would result in dismissal.

Usually, when an employee begins to perform in a substandard matter, there is something going on with the employee in their life. They may be having difficulties at home; they could be stressed out over a personal matter and having difficulty giving their job proper attention. They could be unhappy with their pay, hours or even be trying to change jobs. By letting the employee know that I care about what is going on with them that may be causing this change, hopefully, a line of honest communication could be opened and they would share some of what the problem may be. I would also hope they would respect the necessity of their job performance and make an earnest effort to improve, rather than continuing as they are and being dismissed.

By being open and willing to communicate about what is happening in the employee’s life, I could hopefully create a better professional relationship with the employee and lead to collaborating on further issues instead of the employee being unhappy and resorting to lashing out at coworkers and developing a substandard job performance. Being willing to work with employees and collaborate and compromise (as far as is fair to the company and the coworkers) with them shows that you respect the employee as a person and respect their previous work. It also shows that you care enough to give them the “benefit of the doubt” so to speak before simply delivering an ultimatum in a harsh and uncaring manner. I would still be asserting myself as the authority figure in requiring that their job performance improve. They would not be getting a free pass or any special treatment, but they would be dealt with respectfully and fairly.