I am actually an HR professional (PHR & SHRM-CP), but I’m in a scenario I’ve never experienced, there’s a meeting tomorrow, and I am not sure what to do.
1. I’m currently employed through a temp agency on a 16-week contract. I’m halfway through the contract.
2. It is a family owned business. The owner and his wife are the top two individuals. The COO is their son and their daughter in law is the other top person at the organization.
3. I am the eighth HR person in two years. I did not know this prior to my start.
4. My supervisor is a bit of a bully, and when I have attempted to discuss how I might help us communicate better, the conversations have not gone well.
What should I do?
I suppose the right answer isn’t run for the hills. Well, that is the right answer, but since you’re an honorable person, I suppose you’ll stick out the remaining eight weeks. You have a couple of options. Both are legitimate, but one is a lot harder.
Option 1: Survive
You’ve got eight weeks left. You can stand anything for eight weeks. Keep your head down, do your work and think about something else when your supervisor is a jerk. Sure, this doesn’t help the company at all, but any company that’s been through eight HR managers in two years doesn’t sound all that interested in improving their employee engagement or reducing their turnover.
To be honest, I’ve seen so many problems with family owned businesses that my general gut feeling is to never, not in a million years work for one. However, I concede that no one writes me just to say how much they like their current job at a family owned business. But, the problem with a family owned business is that genetics don’t always provide the best employees. And even though there’s also a daughter-in-law who isn’t genetically related, I’m pretty sure the son didn’t marry her for her business skills.
Option 2: Try to change them
Depending on your personality this can either be fun or hell. I admit that I love the idea of someone else doing this, but I’d probably pick option 1–mainly because it’s a temporary job. Maybe you were hoping it would evolve into a permanent position in which case you’d need massive change before your time was up. If I wanted to stay, I’d pick this option because I couldn’t stand to stay with bad management for several years.
Be upfront. Sit down with the CEO and say, “I’m the eighth HR manager you’ve had in two years. That tells me something other than the HR person needs to change to fix the problems in this company. With your support, I can bring about that change. Without you support, I’ll leave at the end of the contract, and the ninth person will be dealing with the same problems.”
That statement alone may cause a super meltdown of the CEO if he’s a really bad CEO. It may also result in a statement of, “I know that your boss is a nightmare to work with, but it’s important to keep the family members happy.” In that case, respond thusly:
“If you want your business to succeed, you can’t placate family at the expense of your employees. My boss is a bully not only to me but to others. If you continue down this path, you’ll have higher turnover, lower performance, lesser engagement, and ultimately a less profitable business. I’m here to work with you to help you make this company great. Do I have your support?”
Note, this meeting is with the CEO, not your boss, because he’s the one that can make the changes. Your boss is a bully, and the chance of him listening to you about his need to change is pretty low.
Now, presuming your scheduled meeting is with a group of people, I’d take the above route except leave out the specific statement, “My boss is a bully,” and replace it with, “We have a communication issue in this company, not only with me but with others.”
Since this is a temporary position, the worst thing that can happen is that they’ll yank your position early. However, an eight-week temporary position doesn’t look any worse than a 16 week one, so it’s not a huge devastation if things go badly. How do you explain it in a subsequent interview? “I was the eighth HR manager in two years.” That statement will clue them in that ou were not the problem.
If you received this from someone, it would be interesting of any followup from that person. Basically, did they choose option 1 or option 2. If option 2, how did it go?
What you’ve given us so far is the smell of bread baking, you’ve told us the receipe but we haven’t had a slice of freshly baked bread.
The meeting did not go well. It was essentially a list of all the things they do not like about me, including the fact that I worry about “little things like checkboxes” (in reference to the fact that over 90% of our I-9s are missing or have substantive errors). I work too quickly (do I make errors? No, but you’re moving too fast), and I mishandled an employee situation (the employee rudely stormed out of my office and wouldn’t respond to me, then talked about me to all the employees in the building. I requested she behave with respect toward me in the future).
To top it all off, my supervisor said that I am bullying her. Classic gaslighting.
Before the meeting, I considered attempting Option 2, which is how I had been operating. After the meeting, I am merely counting down the days. Anyone hiring?!?
Horrible. I hope you find something better. I personally wouldn’t work too hard after this; I’d just show up and sit in my office. But I have a bad attitude. Good luck!
Horrible. I hope you find something better. I personally wouldn’t work too hard after this; I’d just show up and sit in my office. But I have a bad attitude.
What if you are in a HR position that mirrors the one in this article BUT the position isn’t temporary?
Run. Run, baby run!
There is a third option, which is particularly relevant if you want to continue working. The option is this: Try to understand them. Ask them why they think the others didn’t work? Ask what is their vision for what they’d like HR to accomplish. Ask what they think it will take to get there, and what obstacles they think they need to overcome to achieve their vision. And don’t be surprised if they don’t have the answers, chances are they haven’t thought about the questions . . . and now that you’ve asked, they will.
I once had an opportunity to hear Mike Losey, former CEO of SHRM, gave a presentation where he talked about how HR has the ability to change people’s lives. While I don’t remember the exact details, I do remember that Mike asked his employer ‘Why did you hire me?’ which served to remind them they hired him for his HR expertise. In your situation, you might want to ask them why they have chosen to keep their HR department internal versus outsourcing HR.
Yes, you can walk away, yet what an accomplishment it would be if you can turn this around and be successful?
A great book to read is called “Leadership and Self Deception, by the Arbinger Institute. Also, keep in mind that there is a very good chance they have a limited amount of learning in the area of management and leadership. This is an opportunity for you to do some great work here, don’t give up!