Employee refuses Supervisor request
New2HR
19 Posts
Good morning,
A few months ago, we implemented a new travel and expense system. This program allows the Accounting department to better analyze how travel funds are being spent. I headed the implementation and execution of the program. I have administrative rights, our Admin has those rights as she handles travel and processes expense reports. She reports to me. Our CFO has rights and our Staff Accountant has rights as she works with the program to extract the expense portion into our GL system. Our Accounting Manager (who reports to the CFO, and supervises the Staff Accountant, does not have rights).
Our Staff Accountant is going on vacation next week and therefore, the Admin is tasked with being the backup for the Staff Accountant's duties in regards to the expense reports. The Staff Accountant sat with our Admin this week in order to go over the steps and the task. The Accounting Manager decided to sit in, although she has no involvement in the process. Both the Admin and Manager took extensive notes on the steps. Later on, the Accounting Manager asked our Admin to print screen every step of the task for documentation. The Admin refused and requested that the Manager ask the Staff Accountant to do this since it essentially the Staff Accountant's responsibility. The Manager then went to the Staff Accountant and requested the print screens. The Staff Accountant refused, stating that this particular responsibility fell under the realm of the HR department, the Manager does not even have access to the admin rights of the program, and had already taken notes regarding the steps of the task at hand.
My question is, can the Staff Accountant essientially be written up for insubordination?
I am trying to decipher if the Supervisor is abusing her power as well. She is not respectful of her reports, she repeatedly requests uncessary information from numerous departments and regularly oversteps her bounds as far as trying to manipulate other employees in different departments to complete tasks that do not fall within her realm of supervision.
We have already sat down with her once regarding her "bullying" one of her reports. I have talked to the CFO on more than a few occassions regarding complaints of her behavior. Nothing has been done as the CFO is not really one to handle confrontation.
I realize this is a partial vent, however the question remains regarding the employee being insubordinate and the supervisor abusing her power.
Thanks!
Comments
Good morning,
A few months ago, we implemented a new travel and expense system. This program allows the Accounting department to better analyze how travel funds are being spent. I headed the implementation and execution of the program. I have administrative rights, our Admin has those rights as she handles travel and processes expense reports. She reports to me. Our CFO has rights and our Staff Accountant has rights as she works with the program to extract the expense portion into our GL system. Our Accounting Manager (who reports to the CFO, and supervises the Staff Accountant, does not have rights).
Our Staff Accountant is going on vacation next week and therefore, the Admin is tasked with being the backup for the Staff Accountant's duties in regards to the expense reports. The Staff Accountant sat with our Admin this week in order to go over the steps and the task. The Accounting Manager decided to sit in, although she has no involvement in the process. Both the Admin and Manager took extensive notes on the steps. Later on, the Accounting Manager asked our Admin to print screen every step of the task for documentation. The Admin refused and requested that the Manager ask the Staff Accountant to do this since it essentially the Staff Accountant's responsibility. The Manager then went to the Staff Accountant and requested the print screens. The Staff Accountant refused, stating that this particular responsibility fell under the realm of the HR department, the Manager does not even have access to the admin rights of the program, and had already taken notes regarding the steps of the task at hand.
My question is, can the Staff Accountant essientially be written up for insubordination?
I am trying to decipher if the Supervisor is abusing her power as well. She is not respectful of her reports, she repeatedly requests uncessary information from numerous departments and regularly oversteps her bounds as far as trying to manipulate other employees in different departments to complete tasks that do not fall within her realm of supervision.
We have already sat down with her once regarding her "bullying" one of her reports. I have talked to the CFO on more than a few occassions regarding complaints of her behavior. Nothing has been done as the CFO is not really one to handle confrontation.
I realize this is a partial vent, however the question remains regarding the employee being insubordinate and the supervisor abusing her power.
Thanks!
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Textbook insubordination occurs when a subordinate refuses to carry out a task assigned by a supervisor:
Staff Accountant reports to Manager. Conversation was:
If I understand the relationships properly, this could be insubordination. Why is it not automatically insubordination? Because there are exceptions. What if the manager did not have the authority to assign the task? In that case refusal to comply could have been wholly appropriate, depending on how your policy is written and your practices have been established. Here, because accounting processes are involved, there may be a separation of duties issue. Perhaps the manager is not supposed to be involved. Perhaps the manager not only does not need to know, but also should not know. I can't resolve those issues for you. However, if the manager has no authority to have a subordinate document a process because of GAAP, security policies, or other reasonable concerns, then the subordinate is probably not insubordinate for refusing to do so. On the other hand, I like to have documented processes for my subordinates tasks and I have come very close to firing a long term cherished administrator for refusing to do so.
On the other topic, "abuse of power," it all depends on your policies. You probably do not have an abuse of power policy. However, you probably do have a code of conduct. You have already disciplined the manager for assigning tasks outside of the scope of her authority. What does th warning say will happen if she does that again?
Does that help?
It does help. The task does not fall under her realm of authority and the manager has not taken any action thus far regarding this incident.
Thank you very much for your input!
It does help. The task does not fall under her realm of authority and the manager has not taken any further action regarding this incident.
Thank you so much for your input!