Q: As the HR manager for my former company, I was responsible for enforcing all policies. Although our CEO and the three other principals signed the policy against making cellphone calls or texting when driving, it was an open secret they did. In fact, both the CEO and a principal spoke at an all-managers' teleconference while driving to Wasilla. I reminded the principals many times of the no cellphone usage while driving policies, and they all nodded, but broke the policy.
Just before I left the company, our sales manager had an accident while on the phone when driving to a customer's site. Our CEO urged me to testify this manager acted against company policy by talking on the phone when driving, lessening our liability.
Even though I've resigned, I know I'll get pulled in to this legal problem should things turn ugly. I've hired an attorney who tells me I'll need to tell the truth and that I have exposure because I didn't enforce the policy, which is listed in my job description as one of my responsibilities. How exactly do other HR managers get those who rank above them to obey policies?
A: In your next company, you may be able to get senior management compliance by proving the risk they take on if they openly violate policies. Because their managerial positions define them as company role models, they render their company's policies worthless paper when they violate them. Further, many owners and managers falsely believe their company's insurance covers any judgment or settlement against their company should they be sued for an employee's negligence. That's not necessarily true.
Here's the reality. Although the company may have a commercial general liability policy, it may not cover accidents for employees driving their own vehicles. The accident victim can hold the driver's employer liable for the employee's negligence if the employee is acting within the scope of employment, as for example, when the employee has an accident when running a business errand. If the employee doesn't have insurance and the employer gets sued, the company has to pay attorney's fees and any settlement or finding of liability out of pocket.
Q: I've been a model employee all my life, but because I'm a military wife, my resume looks spotty. When I first started at this company, I had a great supervisor. He gave me assignments and the freedom to do them. Unfortunately, he didn't give me a job review or compliment me by email, so I have no proof he thought I was a good employee.
When he left, I got a new supervisor who's a passive-aggressive micromanager. He bad-mouths me to others and nitpicks everything I do. When crucial tasks aren't completed because he didn't even give them to me, he denies it's his fault and tells others I can't keep up with my workload. If he asks me to write a simple letter for him, he critiques my sentence structure so many times that by the last draft, I want to scream.
I tried to talk to him, but he said I was the worst employee he'd ever supervised, and I left the meeting feeling shattered. I went to HR, not realizing HR is there for the managers and not the employees, but that only made things more tense. I don't know what to do. I've worked in my new company for only nine months and don't want to quit, because my husband and I will be moving before the end of 2016. If I quit now, I'll have two more short-term jobs on my resume.
A: I rarely suggest employees leave jobs; however, you're working for an ego-crippler. Given what you've said, you've tried the normal routes to make things better. Before you resign, give HR another chance. HR often gets a bad rap, sometimes deserved, but most HR officers work on behalf of employees as well as managers.
Present your officer with a solution -- transferring you to a better supervisor. If that fails, get reference letters from your prior supervisors, and use them and your sense of who you truly are to get a new job, and put this supervisor and situation in your rearview mirror. You owe it to yourself.
Lynne Curry writes a weekly column on workplace issues. She is author of "Solutions" and owner of the management/HR consulting/training firm The Growth Company Inc. Send your questions to her at lynne@thegrowthcompany.com. Follow her on Twitter @lynnecury10, at www.workplacecoachblog.com or at her new site www.bullywhisperer.com.