A column in an HRD magazine on the lead indicators of an employee about to resign brought back some memories. The author presents a common sequence of events indicative of an employee about to fly. Managers typically ignore these leads and make Quixotic statements during a face-off with the employee who's just resigned.
I had a good friend called Sonova Rockstar, who got a really bad increment. This guy was a conscientious fresher, hard-working and committed. He'd give his best irrespective of whether he was on a crappy project or a good one. At the time he was a shadow, non-billable resource (an unacknowledged phantom), doing the work of a senior resource who was being billed to the client. He was so to speak, wearing shoes a size bigger than his own.
Yet when he expressed his disappointment with the increment he was told to his shock that his performance did not quite cut it. Naturally he was in shock - literally in tears! His manager, Sadanus, who never hinted at any shortcoming, told him in an escalation meeting that his performance was the reason.
Now I knew this guy Sonuva well and was fond of him like a younger brother. I may not have been his manager but I'm sure of his commitment and enthusiasm for his work - notwithstanding the quality of the assignment itself.
Even if one were to give the benefit of doubt to his manager, I'd say the manager should be the one getting the poor appraisal. It was his job to develop and grow his direct. His job to provide coaching 'feedforward' as Dr Marshall Goldsmith would call it -- on what the kid could do looking at future potential for action, rather than past mistakes. Instead, both Queenbee from HR, and Sadanus the manager brought the poor chap to tears.
I thought this particularly reprehensible as the truth was far from it, and evident to anyone familiar with the situation.
The truth was the organization was not candid enough to be transparent and would unfortunately withhold vital bits of information that put the rubber on the road as far as transparency goes. Transparency is an unhindered -- and more importantly, unfiltered -- flow of information and facts that affect an issue.
If as the management you're thinking, 'this is the big picture, but the shop floor only needs to know aspects X, Y & Z (which in most cases is the bad news that hit the grapevine a month ago) -- well then sorry, but that's not transparency. Anyway, long detour, but the truth in this case was the kid got a premonition of what everyone else was going to get a couple of months down the line. And the reason was they'd begun to feel the tremors -- the early impact -- of the impending meltdown in the American economy. God Bless America! ... and Leichenstein too, although I'm not sure if it even exists ;)
The sad thing was, the organization did not have --as Jack Welch would put it-- the candour, to empathize with and to lay out the true reason for their actions. They could not get themselves to acknowledge that given the business scenario, their hands were tied in terms of increments. A month later, when the larger appraisal cycle took place, there was widespread consternation at the dole-outs and the cat was out of the bag anyway. Had Queenbee and Sadanus not acted Quixotically, the organization would at least still have had a goodwill ambassador in Sonova.
Back to the article, Mohan talks of dissatisfaction with appraisal rating, increment, missed promotion, conflicts in reporting relationships, sa the first signs of discontent. Leading to clandestine rants to trusted teammates and peers. Further onto signs like late coming, absenteeism, negative tone and language, followed by the latestage availing of entitlements such as leaves, etc.
Rings a bell I'd say, what say you tink-a-bell? :)
What's funny is how often I've witnessed manager make those stupefying, last-ditch Quixotic attempts to --at least that's what they might think-- stop an employee from leaving!
Biblio:
* Prasad, Mohan, 'Employee Retention - Taking the Lead by Reading Well the Lead Indicator', in HRD Newsletter, Vol. 25, Issue 12, March 2010, Pgs. 36-37 [National HRD Network, Hyderabad]
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