Employee Discipline: The Bad Guy vs. the Incompetent
Have you ever had the experience of not being able to communicate effectively with an employee?
In other words, what you said was perceived by the employee to be opposite of what you originally
intended. Consequently, at the end of the conversation the employee thinks that you are a
"bad guy," and you think that the employee is incompetent to resolve their problem.
Case example:
Case #1: A female employee has been showing up late to work for the last month. At first, you
ignored the tardiness hoping that it would eventually correct itself, but now it is getting to
the point that the employee’s coworkers are complaining. The next morning you catch the employee
walking in 15 minutes late, and you ask that the employee come into your office to talk. You
inform the employee that you have been observing a pattern of tardiness over the last month, but
before you finish your next sentence the employee launches into a litany of excuses. The
employee tells you that she had to change her child’s daycare, which adds on an extra 15-20
minutes to her drive time to work. As the manager, you logically tell her that she should
simply leave home 25 minutes early, so she can drop her child off at daycare and get to work on
time. You expect the employee to accept your simple and logical solution; however, the employee
gets even more emotionally upset. The employee’s voice tone gets louder as she tells you that
no one in the company supports her and that you never liked her. The employee starts to cry,
quickly walks out of your office, and then runs into the woman’s restroom. Now you have a
crying employee in the bathroom and four other female employees attempting to calm her down and
console her. Not exactly, what you had in mind when you decided to talk with the employee.
Later in the day, you attempt to approach the employee to talk, but she refuses to acknowledge
you. Because of her unwillingness to engage in problem solving, you conclude that this employee
is not competent to resolve her tardiness problem. Hence, in the back of your mind, you
conclude that the job is not the right fit for her.
What happened to make the above conversation go so poorly?
Social psychologists would label what happened as an actor-observer bias. An actor-observer bias
occurs when an employee, the actor, understands and views a particular problem from the standpoint
of what situational factors they are experiencing, and the manager, the observer, understands
and views the problem as being caused by dispositional, i.e., person-centered, factors. To
illustrate, the actor (employee) considers all the situational factors that cause her to be
late; for example, the traffic, their child being slow to get ready, or that her daycare is on
the other side of town. On the other hand, the observer (manager) who hasn’t experienced all
the situational factors, focuses on the person-centered factors occurring to the actor; for
example, the employee doesn’t care about her job, the employee is lazy, or the employee is
unmotivated to work. Consequently, when you have an employee viewing situational factors as
being the problem and a manager viewing the problem as relating to person centered factors, you
have a recipe for misunderstanding. Add into the mix an employee who is already emotionally
upset, and you have the recipe for misunderstanding and a strong emotional reaction.
How does a manager resolve the actor-observer bias?
The key to resolving the actor-observer bias is to listen to the employee’s situational factors
as you utilize empathy, i.e., understanding the employee’s feelings and motives. Having empathy
is important, because it allows a manager to acknowledge the employee’s situational factors
without agreeing with them. After the employee has voiced the situational factors causing his
or her workplace problems, refocus the employee back to the original problem or reason for
meeting with him or her. Tell the employee that you understand the situational factors that he
or she is dealing with, but also ask how he or she can overcome those situational factors so
they can get to work on time.
The key is to have the employee focus on their own person-centered factors, instead of their
situational variables. Have the employee come up with one or two person-centered changes that
he or she can make to resolve their problem. If the employee returns to situational factors,
refocus the employee back to dispositional factors; for example, "I understand that you are
having a difficult time finding qualified childcare, but what do you think you could do this
week to resolve that problem so you can get to work on time?" At this point, you can become the
"good guy" for the employee if you offer some type of assistance to help resolve the employee's
situational factors. For instance, you might suggest that the employee contact the company’s
employee assistance program or other community resources.
A successful meeting includes the following ingredients:
1.) Listen and have empathy for the employee’s situational factors.
2.) Refocus the employee back to the original problem and ask them to come up with a few
action steps that they can take to resolve their problem.
3.) Offer some assistance, if possible, to help the employee resolve situational factors.
4.) Set up a future meeting to discuss progress.
Happy Working,
Gary Vikesland, MA LP CEAP
Employer-Employee.com
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