My place of employment has a lot of turnover. My position is one of very little power. After selling my business which I owned for 16 years, it was my dream to work doing something I truly love and fortunately my family has the level of financial comfort necessary where I can do it. I sell books, for very little money and find it tremendously rewarding.
The manger is reasonably competent. He does everything required of him, but exhibits no interest in his employees on a personal level. I spend most days greeting new employees, talking to others and chatting with them in between helping customers. I write down little things about them. Their likes and interests and some biographical information, usually. Not sure why I do it, probably simply habit built over many years. It is one of the things which makes my job so enjoyable.
Back to the manager. We have an employee who is in her early twenties. Nicest girl you are ever going to meet. The manager makes comments to her which are completely inappropriate. They aren’t things which are sexual and I truly believe if you hooked the manager up to a polygraph test and asked him if he was being deliberately offensive he could truthfully say no. The guy simply has no ability to empathize with other human beings and build rapport with them. I have been with the company for 2 years and when the regional manager enters the building he makes no effort to talk to anyone but the manager. Ignores every other employee. So it appears to be established corporate culture.
The manager’s behavior is not overtly wrong in the sense that if you wrote down his words on paper they would not appear offensive. However his comments amount to bullying, because he is deliberately targeting an employee who can not defend herself and worst of all he does it in a public setting. Your middle paragraph made me think about this and what my responsibility is in this situation. I comfort the girl when she is upset and listen to her and I have even urged her to contact HR which she did. I honestly wonder if I should do more. What would the more be though? The world is changing and this rock headed, Neanderthal approach to management is shifting, thankfully. It is so incredibly frustrating to still see it in action.
Good for you for recognizing the situation and acting to help the employee.
I apologize in advance for the long response, especially as we are off the original topic now. Those not interested should opt out now!
High, unwanted turnover could be BAU within the industry (retail bookstore?), and/or it could be a result of bad management, most often meaning poor interpersonal skills, and other factors such as training and career opportunities, of course.
There is so much information available showing that poor people skills are one of the bigger deterrents to a company's higher levels of success, and there is a ton of training available to help people become better managers, so there is really no excuse for having bad managers in place.
If the employee went to HR, good for her but bad for all if HR sits by idly. This situation won't be resolved without at least a serious conversation with the manager by HR and his management, but may be better resolved through targeted training around Mgmt 101.
From my experience, the best way to convey the damage or potential damage is to have someone relate their personal experience in a training session. Like I said, I had one approach to these types of situations back in the 90s, even talked about it during new employee orientation, and it was accepted and applauded. But better information came about by listening to those directly impacted and not guessed at by the likes of me. So I changed the approach and insisted on management training to set the right tone for the company's expectations of our managers and leaders. Some managers or potential managers opted out - that was fine, maybe they were great individual contributors and that was where we'd all be better off. But they also came away knowing that certain behaviors were not ok and would be addressed.
So within the training sessions, I'd ask for someone - in this situation, a woman - to talk about her reactions and level of comfort or discomfort in such a scenario. But first, I'd ask the folks in the session to just give their thoughts about the scenario... how would you handle it, what would you say, etc. Most answered the way I used to, some said they'd kick it to HR and run away and hide, some said that Sally should just be able to shrug it off. Then I'd ask how they'd answer of their wife or gf or sister or mother came to them with the same scenario. The tough guy 'they'd be eatin' chicklets' approach was often cited. Then I would ask what was the difference? Usually crickets.
Then I'd ask for any of the women to volunteer their experiences, their feelings about it, their thoughts about it. I think I always had at least one volunteer, if not multiple. Sometimes the responses were full of emotion, including tears, anger, and mocking disbelief at how out of touch the guy was in the situation. This was the most impactful aspect for folks such as the manager you reference. Me saying it was: 'HR said yadda yadda and we hate HR because we can't have any fun'. Their respected colleague saying it, and really feeling it, drove home the point to others in the room. And that's how that particular bad-culture aspect was changed, and at a more rapid pace than by corporate edict and punishment. The managers and leadership now owned it, not HR.
So, if you are comfortable in talking with the manager directly to gauge what kind of reaction you may get to relating your observations about his behavior, you can go that route. Or perhaps consider going directly to HR yourself and bypassing the manager. (I'd still followup with HR if you talk with the mgr first). In either case, let them know that you have personally observed the situation and you are concerned about this person and about the work culture. Let them know how
you feel about what you witness. Let them know it impacts this person, and it impacts you - you're spending time thinking about it, you're concerned for your colleague, you know from your success in your own business that treating people this way is a bad formula. Your words should carry some weight with both the manager and with HR. Ask HR about training for managers and in general. If you're concerned over retribution from this manager toward either you or the other employee, let HR know that without being accusatory. You should be covered by an explicit policy that prohibits retribution for voicing concerns.
This manager's level of emotional maturity will impact his reaction to whatever gets said to him. Consider that prior to deciding to talk with him. I'd say that even if you do talk with him, let HR know the whole deal, and if you can, document it to HR as a note to file via the email system. Make it clear you're not trying to handle the discipline yourself, you're making a personal observation about the underlying culture of the workplace. It is important to you, and it is safe to assume that it is important to others as well.
Bad managers are often more of a pita than bad employees.
