Have you ever had a Charlie Sheen at your office?
Celeste Blackburn SPHR
248 Posts
For the past couple of weeks, it's been hard to escape the craziness surrounding/created by Charlie Sheen. It seems he's given "exclusive" interviews to every major network news show. He says he's sober, but it's pretty clear that something's just not right.
That said, between his rants about "tiger blood" and "winning," he's made some good points about how he is the star of the biggest show on TV, bringing in millions for CBS. To hear Charlie tell it, he may have missed "practice," but when it was time to film, he was always there, hitting his lines. Despite his star power, CBS officially fired him yesterday.
If you need to catch up on the story, [URL="http://on.wsj.com/eMlMNX"]click here to read about it in the Wall Street Journal[/URL] or [URL="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/charlie-sheen-fired-from-two-and-a-half-men/?scp=2&sq=charlie sheen&st=cse"]click here read about it in the New York Times[/URL].
My question is this: Have you ever had to deal with a Charlie Sheen at your workplace? A superstar employee with a terrible (or erratic) attitude? A great salesman who thought the rules didn't apply to him b/c he made lots of money for the company?
That said, between his rants about "tiger blood" and "winning," he's made some good points about how he is the star of the biggest show on TV, bringing in millions for CBS. To hear Charlie tell it, he may have missed "practice," but when it was time to film, he was always there, hitting his lines. Despite his star power, CBS officially fired him yesterday.
If you need to catch up on the story, [URL="http://on.wsj.com/eMlMNX"]click here to read about it in the Wall Street Journal[/URL] or [URL="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/charlie-sheen-fired-from-two-and-a-half-men/?scp=2&sq=charlie sheen&st=cse"]click here read about it in the New York Times[/URL].
My question is this: Have you ever had to deal with a Charlie Sheen at your workplace? A superstar employee with a terrible (or erratic) attitude? A great salesman who thought the rules didn't apply to him b/c he made lots of money for the company?
Comments
OK, people, you're dodging Celeste's great question. Fess up!
:back to topic:
There. Happy now, Celeste?
Any employee, regardless of whether they are a "star" who has lost control of their behavior is a liability in my opinion. Keeping them is at best a calculated risk.
As an employee who has never worked in the HR department or as a manager or supervisor, I do wonder how you deal with the difficult "star" employees (like Paul and Nae mention). Certainly, I've had coworkers that were really good at what they did so they sort of made their own rules.
In fact, a coworker/friend from a former job who fit that bill was recently fired after about 10 years of openly defying, talking back to, and bad mouthing his manager. When I was there 6 years ago, it was tense, but everyone knew that my friend would get away with these things because the manager would have been hard-pressed to find someone who could take his place and, in the end, having my friend on staff made the manager look good to the higher ups (even though it really lead to most of his staff losing respect for him).
How do you counsel your managers and supervisors to handle star employees who don't necessarily do anything illegal, produce lots of good work, but just have a terrible attitude?
Quirky behavior? Sure.
A sloppy desk. Sure.
Late with some reports. No problem.
Forgets receipts for expense reports? OK.
Open defiance. Absolutely not. That just cant be a negotiable in my opinion.
Quirky behavior and sloppy desk I agree with. I would be a hypocrite not to.
In all seriousness, you do have to consider a few things:
1. Can you mitigate the "stars" faults? Ex. assign some extra administrative help
2. Whats the downside to allowing for this behavior?
We had a young lady on our staff who was very.. unique. As a worker she was just average. As a person she was incredible. Caring, thoughtful, sensitive. She almost seemed from another planet. She had no guile.
Sometimes she would do odd stuff or underperform but it was never because of effort or attitude. She was just... different. I liked to say (within our HR dept) she was royalty from another planet just visiting ours. So I made a few allowances for her.
Special treatment? Sure. My motto is: everyone gets special treatment.
Sometimes people are really too busy working on something for the organization to meet deadlines, especially if the deadlines are somewhat arbitrary. We should always try to be flexible for the odd unexpected case. However, getting special treatment on a regular basis while others are forced to tow the line is not fair. Being really good at bringing in business is not an excuse. In fact, those people should set the standard for others to live up to (not down to).
Even if someone smiles and says they are sorry to put you to extra work, it can still be an issue if it is the same story for every report. They don't have to be an obvious jerk to still expect special treatment and lose my respect.
Keep in mind that I am talking about people who think they deserve special treatment because they are the 'star.' Some people are just different, and a good manager will make the most of their idiosyncracies. Having said that, if I had an employee, star or not, who needed help in a specific area (like some kind of administrative help) I would do my best to provide it. But not holding someone to standards because they simply want to throw their weight around is not acceptable.
It's pretty interesting that according to the ABA article, the lawsuit mentions an "alleged" disability.
Also, on a side note, it always makes me smile when TMZ posts legal documents.
[INDENT]As "Hollywood" as this story is, there are lessons here for all. First, if you permit a long period of misconduct, it's hard to correct it later, so be consistent and timely. Second, if you publicly spat with an employee (as Lorre did with Sheen), it's hard to be punitive if the abuse is returned; indeed, some of Sheen's comments about Lorre might be protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)! Third, unless you want to be sued for disability discrimination, don't throw around words like "bipolar" or "nuts."
[/INDENT]It's odd to me to think of the $2 mil-an-episode Sheen who is infamous for his bad boy behavior as a protected individual under the ADAAA, NLRA, and other employment laws.
(sorry 'bout that)