Chair throwing VP
Pati
7 Posts
This post may be lengthy - sorry...
About 5 months ago, one of our VPs became upset at work and threw a chair in the office. He was counseled after the 1st incident (no documentation and I don't know the details).
Last week, he did it again in the presence of an office worker who apparently became very frightened. She has requested a meeting and I assume she will be logdging a complaint (I wasn't in the office at the time).
We plan to investigate and put a stop to this behavior. The owner of the co. doesn't want to terminate the VP (he has been here about 20 years and considered a value, blah, blah). Would it be appropriate to give the VP one more chance and require him to attend anger management counseling as a condition of continued employment?
At this time, we don't have any indication of a physical or emotional condition that might be considered a disability and I'm trying to avoid getting into that.
While my first reaction was to terminate him immediately, I don't have that option right now so I'm looking for an alternative that we can all live with that will ensure that our employees are safe from further incidents of potential violence, hostile work environment, etc.
Has anyone dealt with this tye of situation before? I would appreciate your thoughts.
And, as always, there is another kink to consider: the employee who complained is a poor performer and they had considered terminating her before this happened. Of course, we will not proceed with any termination of this employee right now, but eventually it will be best for her to leave. To avoid a charge of retaliation, what should I do?
Grateful in advance...
About 5 months ago, one of our VPs became upset at work and threw a chair in the office. He was counseled after the 1st incident (no documentation and I don't know the details).
Last week, he did it again in the presence of an office worker who apparently became very frightened. She has requested a meeting and I assume she will be logdging a complaint (I wasn't in the office at the time).
We plan to investigate and put a stop to this behavior. The owner of the co. doesn't want to terminate the VP (he has been here about 20 years and considered a value, blah, blah). Would it be appropriate to give the VP one more chance and require him to attend anger management counseling as a condition of continued employment?
At this time, we don't have any indication of a physical or emotional condition that might be considered a disability and I'm trying to avoid getting into that.
While my first reaction was to terminate him immediately, I don't have that option right now so I'm looking for an alternative that we can all live with that will ensure that our employees are safe from further incidents of potential violence, hostile work environment, etc.
Has anyone dealt with this tye of situation before? I would appreciate your thoughts.
And, as always, there is another kink to consider: the employee who complained is a poor performer and they had considered terminating her before this happened. Of course, we will not proceed with any termination of this employee right now, but eventually it will be best for her to leave. To avoid a charge of retaliation, what should I do?
Grateful in advance...
Comments
Also, requiring this person to get some help would also take care of your issue with the employee lodging the complaint.
This behavior started about 6 months ago. My first thought was an emotional or mental problem (or medication) and it threw up a red flag. I want to make sure we proceed carefully and don't violate ADA.
I appreciate you confirming that I'm on the right track.
Best of the day to you!
The Company should start its discipline process immediately for the chair thrower. Forget that he's a VP (easier said) and put your discipline in motion as if he were a payroll clerk. He should be asked to explain his behavior. The person who asks the question should take complete notes of his explanation. Once given this opportunity, if he does not mention anything medical, and just dismisses his own behavior as meaningless, do not continue to explore the medical possibilities. When you do, you're offering him the lifeline that may strangle you and the company.
The productivity of the woman he threw the chair at is totally irrelevant, unless you have 'chair throwing' as one of the progressive steps in your disciplinary process, and I doubt you do. Her performance is an entirely separate issue and she should be disciplined independent of him.
We have an EAP and I would have the VP sign a "last chance" agreement & get into counseling for this anger problem.
Also, I would have him apologize to the person he threw the chair at. A sincere apology goes a long way.
I would issue the employee a written reprimand and warn him in writing that he faces termination if he has outbursts like this again. Of course, there is no sense in warning him of this if the owner won't back it up when the time comes. Otherwise, you might as well tell him "we don't like it, but you can probably keep doing it without fear of serious reprisal".
Too many HR people want to diagnose the employee's mental health problems. Deal with what you know as facts.......the employee has bad behavior.....discipline him for the bad behavior. Don't try to figure out why he has bad behavior. If he coughs up info that indicates he might need ADA condieration then consider it at that time.
Sometimes I feel there is a need for public acknowledgement of public incidents. While I would not go into details I could envision the President or someone up high saying something like this at a staff meeting.
"As many of you may know, there was an unfortunate incident last week in which VP Joe made a mistake. I want you to know that this incident has been addressed and we are confident that this will be the last incident of that kind. We at ABC company value a safe, productive environment where all employees can voice their opinions and express feelings in a positive, professional manner."
VP Joe might say next "To all of you who witnessed my actions last week let me say how deeply I regret what I did. I hope to earn your trust and respect and I am actively working on controlling my emotions. Its great to be passionate but what I did was unacceptable and innappropriate. Please accept my apology."
This may not be standard HR practice but it makes sense to me. By not publicly acknowledging a public incident there is no closure and employees may be left wondering what if anything was done in response. Again, I am not saying you go into the specifics but rather there is some general acknowledgment of what happened, that the incident does not reflect the true nature of the employee and the company, and that steps are being taken to address the problem.
Call me crazy.
Paul
>claim as Don suggested. I would focus on the observable behavior,
>deal with that, and let the pseudo-diagnosis stuff alone. Believe it
>or not, I knew a plant superintendent who utilized violent tantruming
>as his intervention of last resort to motivate employees. He would
>call the EE into his office, then proceed to start screaming and
>throwing things around. He felt that this was better than using the
>disciplinary process because he didn't do it often, and was simply
>trying to increase performance. Crazy, but it was okay in his mind
>because it actually worked in most cases.
He must have been a big fan of the "Scared Straight" approach.
As for EAPs, I remember an Employment Law Letter article a while back where the EEOC made some sort of statement saying bosses can refer employees to an EAP without regarding them as disabled.
James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers
Thanks to all!
Pati