Mediator
By Joan Lloyd
Dear Joan:
This is an unusual situation. The group I work with on a daily
basis is being asked to meet with a mediator because of an informal
grievance from another co-worker.
I am a female age 54 with four years in my current
position. The others in the group are four men, ages
ranging from 52 to 58 with 25 to 35 years (each) in their
positions; one is our supervisor. The complainant is a female
age 31 with 6 years in her position.
We have asked for something in writing to determine what
accusations will be discussed, but have only been told that this
will be an informal meeting with a local counselor as a
mediator.
We are dealing with a younger woman who fits the description
in your article: "Time to Return to Workplace
Accountability." She exhibits "victim mentality" because she
is the type of worker who hurries through an assignment. We find
numerous mistakes in her work, and she doesn't like getting her
work back to correct.
She doesn't listen when you talk to her. Our supervisor
will specifically tell her NOT to do something and two hours
later, he will find that she did exactly what he told her not
to do. She has had several vehicle accidents with
company equipment and caused several thousands of dollars in repair
costs. The more reckless she behaves on the job, the less
respect she receives from our group and the less we want to help
her, or work with her. It is a sad situation. Other
employees in other shops have said they do not like to work
with her on projects and others have said they "will not" work with
her.
I have tried very hard to be tactful and to redirect her to
our supervisor and let him handle her assignments. Lately, I
have given her assignments to our supervisor to show him the
quality of her work and asked him to return it to her for
corrections. I think he should know the quality work she
is producing.
"Spoiled brat" was a confirming phrase in your article and I
appreciated hearing it from someone with a professional
opinion.
The men in our group have more work-related contact with the
complainant than I have, and I can assure you there is no sexual
harassment to be considered. She is doing
what is typically a "man's job" and has been given MORE than
adequate training and consideration to her career goals.
Silver spoon would be a close fit to her situation.
Sounds like I am resentful, but, truthfully I am not.
When I applied for my job four years ago, I was asked if I had any
career goals and I answered that I really didn't. I was
moving to a new position with better pay and benefits and that was
satisfactory for my personal advancement. I'm not a ladder
climber and definitely not competing with the young lady.
I have been researching some helpful HR documents and bad
apple articles for encouragement. I hope the meeting
will not turn sour and agreements can be made. I believe the
generation gap is our worst enemy with older men with
a vast amount of work experience and a younger woman who
does not think and jeopardizes the work of the entire group.
After six years of trying to teach her the job they have given
up and I don't blame them.
Our meeting is less than one week away and I hope you will be
able to use this scenario to help others. Thank you for
considering the details. I would appreciate your thoughts and
advice if you can reply.
Answer:
If the mediator is skilled, he or she will be able to get to
the bottom of the situation. From your standpoint, it appears the
employee hasn’t learned the job and/or is careless and
irresponsible. From the employee’s perspective, she
(possibly) feels harassed.
Let’s assume you are right about her poor performance
and sloppy work. The missing piece is the employee’s manager.
Why is she still there if her quality is so poor and no one wants
to work with her? She should have been on a performance plan years
ago.
If this is a case of her boss being overly cautious about
confronting her because she is younger and female, than he has
contributed to the resentment the team feels for her. Instead of
coddling her by mediating a “team agreement” to accept
her, he would be
wiser to take steps to give her clear standards and hold her
to them—regardless of how old she is.
