Office Politics

WITracy

We have a FT, exempt employee (a manager) who is running for office. If elected, she would resign. She properly notified her supervisor & the owner of the company when she announced her candidacy. Even though it is very early in the race, we are already seeing problems as follows:

-She is frequently gone during business hours, comes in late or has to leave early for meetings & functions relating to her campaign. She always notifies her supervisor & staff of these absences but it is taking its toll on the department(workflow & morale).

-She spends a large amount of time on campaign phone calls, e-mails & faxes (it is a “cube environment” so everyone can hear & see this).

-She is making several errors in her work & forgetting simple details – some have been quite embarrassing to the company.

It is obvious that she has too much on her plate & something has to give. Unfortunately for us, it has been her work performance. The owner wants her to step down from her management position (moving into another, non-management position with less responsibility & pay). She has been “talked to” about the issues above, but not formally warned or written up.

I keep thinking this could be viewed as retaliatory move due to her campaign. Are there any laws out there that relate to this kind of situation? (like jury duty, time off to vote, etc.) Or is her campaign simply a very long interview for a new job & should in no way interfere with her position here?

I am recommending that she be formally warned and given a time frame to improve otherwise she will be removed from her management position, but I don’t know if I can get the owner to agree.

Thoughts on this are appreciated.

Crout

There are no campaign protection laws that I know of, unless there are some local guidelines out there, and of course nothing coming out of California would shock me. Are you in Wisconsin? You might check your state and local laws to make sure. I think your take on the situation is quite correct: it's one long interview for a new job and she needs to get a strong message that her current level of performance won't be tolerated much longer. What doesn't the owner like about your plan? It sounds reasonable to me. Does the owner want to terminate now without a warning, or does he/she want to ignore the problem?

System

The employee is exempt and can get away with using a flexible work schedule. The owner rightfully wants her to step down from her management position. There's no issue of retailiation, it's strictly a performance based decision.

Perhaps the owner is acting with caution, waiting for the outcome of the election. That's politics.

Dasher

If the manager is not performing the job adequately -- that should be dealt with regardless of the cause. It is not unusual for those running for public office to take a leave of absence while they campaign. Sounds like that should happen in this case.

Don D

This conversation should have been held with the employee when she had her initial discussion with the supervisor and owner. It's a bit late now. Perhaps a leave of absence would have been appropriate, not for political reasons, but because a person running for office will never devote full attention to the job, unless the office is the secretary at the neighborhood homeowner's association.

It's kinda like buying a car. If a guy has car fever, you might as well give him two days off. He ain't gonna be worth a crap while he's car shopping in his head and on the phone.

Maybe she'll win the election and just disappear out of sight like a long fly ball.






Note: The preceeding is my personal opinion and has no value beyond that. Although it may be 'sorta offensive' or 'indeed offensive' to someone out there, it is offered without regard to that possibility. Should you find yourself alarmed by my post, you may privately mail me to protest or you may alert the principal's office. x:-)

Whatever

1. Is she using the company phones, fax machines, computers for her campaign. If she is, she has got to be breaking several company rules.
2. In any case, the owner has to either warn her about doing the job or give her an unpaid leave of absence. It is not retaliatory. She is being paid to do a job and is not doing it. Just make sure you have the documentation (and if she is using the company phones, fax machines, computers that should be fairly easy.).

Pork

DEMOCRAT, INDEPENDENT, REPUBLICIAN, LIBERTARIN, OR WHATEVER are not listed as a protected class under title VII. The owner should have his discussion with this manager and offer the options that he might choose: transfer to down graded position with less pay, go part-time at an identified rate of pay,which could be salaried or hourly, or terminate and move on to avoid the theft of additional company assets.

The owner should decide, he/she might be a DEMOCRAT and not only let her rip the company off but increase her salary and support her campaign by keeping her expense to get elected to a minimum. Obviously, the owner is not a Republician or the ee would already be terminated!

PORK

Whatever

>DEMOCRAT, INDEPENDENT, REPUBLICIAN, LIBERTARIN,
>OR WHATEVER are not listed as a protected class
>under title VII. >
>

Pork, why am I not protected? x:-/

Furthermore, the owner has to be republican. Otherwise, he wouldn't have the money to pay for a non-productive employee. :oo

Pork

Whatever: But you are protected! Everyone in New York, and California are, just because you are you, so put a smiley face on and have a Blessed day. While you are at eat go eat "MOE PORK" AND YOU'LL BE EVEN MORE BLESSED. BOY AM I GLAD I DID NOT PUT A "BONG" ON MY POST.

PORK

pork

sonny

Our police chief is announcing tomorrow that he is running for sheriff. Oh boy, I can hardly wait! (due to the lack of a sarcasm icon, please note. .I am being sarcastic)

System

Good luck, Sonny. We have a retiring lieutenant and a former Mayor running for two open commissioner seats. It's fun to see how the plot thickens when the press gets involved. As an added bonus, the FOP is on the ballot for collective bargainning.

Sorry! Did we just hijack?

sonny

WOW that sounds messier than this is going to be. Guess we did hijack, sorry. .we could ask for ransom.