IBossWell Client HighlightFrom time to time we highlight the humane actions of one of our clients. This is a true story (names changed) told to one of our coaches who thought this truly embodied the principles of humane leadership.Bob had been a manager with his company for over ten years. He was known for being a good leader and supportive of his people. He was occasionally accused of being “too nice” by his more traditional colleagues. This is the story of one of his most trying times as a manager and a time when he felt that the weight of all of upper management was on his shoulders.Sandra was a veteran sales woman in a very challenging territory in his sales unit. She was one of the few people who could manage the difficult customers she called on and could produce solid growth results year after year. Sandra had taken some time off at the beginning of the year to have her second baby and was just getting back into the swing of her work plan when the finance department called her manager and said that one of the vendors Sandra worked with called them and reported that they thought Sandra was cheating the company. Bob, her manager, was floored. He had hired Sandra and worked with her for years. She had been somewhat demanding and outspoken from time to time but never had he known her to be dishonest. His boss was also informed of the situation and his comments were that, “She must have just gone over the edge, Bob. The evidence is overwhelming against her. We are sending out our finance representative to interview her, but you will have to be the one to let her go. We just can’t have a thief in our company.” Bob was heartsick. He called her into his office and asked about the situation. Sandra was very surprised and gave him a full account of what she had done that alarmed the vendor. Apparently she was trying to juggle budgets in order to get the most value for her customers and had in fact charged some items, mixed up the receipts and then submitted the expenses to the wrong budgets. “Bob, you know me. I would never steal from the company or let you down.” Bob was put in a real dilemma. Sandra admitted mishandling documents, but he believed that she would never steal from her employer. He thought long and hard about the situation and the next morning he called his boss and said, “I have found out the details of the incident and Sandra has violated some of our policies but she is not a thief. I believe there should be consequences here, but not to the extent of firing her. She may have been too zealous in her actions to try to catch up for time lost while she was out on maternity leave but we can put her on probation and withhold her bonus until we are sure she knows the seriousness of this.” The boss said he would think this over and would need to have considerable conversation with the legal and HR departments. Bob was grilled repeatedly about Sandra’s track record and even the president of the company told Bob that he thought she should be fired. Bob hung in there and she was ultimately kept on in her job with the disciplinary action Bob had recommended. Sandra went on to work productively for many more years and was a tremendously valuable employee to the company, mainly because her manager had the courage to put himself on the line for someone he trusted. Note: Additionally, we want to acknowledge the humane leadership and trust that upper management must have had in Bob to finally support his judgment and keep this valuable employee.
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