CASE 43 Fixing Things Over Dinner Background Information "It's been almost four years since I was made supervisor." Wendy Miller told her husband, Ted, during dinner on Friday, and I thought I had seen it all But this past week was a new one." Ted smiled. "What happened? Sounds like another radio ad fiasco Wendy supervised the promotions and advertising section of the marketing division for the Heritage Valley Insurance Corporation, and Ted was kidding her about a major snafu in radio ads that had happened on the day she joined the company, Even though she had not been responsible, he never let her forget it happened "No." she shot back, smiling, "No, this involved Melissa, my secretary." "But I thought you and Melissa worked well together." Ted responded "So did I, at least until this week." Wendy said. She paused, sipping a glass of wine. "Let me tell you what happened. She reviewed the following facts on her watch." with Ted. Wendy hired Melissa Wolff, 24. about one year ago for the secretarial job in the department. Melissa had almost two years of college and had worked as a receptionist-secretary in a nearby doctor's office for the past two years. During the interview. Wendy felt that Melissa could be a good addition to the department. Sure enough, Wendy was pleased that after an initial orientation period. Melissa tumed out to be a great employee. She was always at work on time, was careful about completing her tasks correctly, was eager to help out and was good in dealing with the various people who came into the department Indeed, things had progressed so well that Wendy and Melissa became close, occasionally talking about the problems they had with the men in their lives, jobs, and family. Wendy felt she could achieve such close relationships with her employees because she liked to let employees manage themselves. Wendy disliked the idea of acting in a "dictatorial manner or being a "corrector," so she was perfectly happy to let Melissa and the three other employees in the department work on their own, as long as they remembered who was the final authority 43.1 Fifty Case Studies for Management & Supervisory Training "Well, that's all well and good." Ted told her. "But I don't see what the problem is." "I'm not finished." Wendy said. "Well, excuuuse me," Ted said, laughing About two months ago, Wendy started noticing how much time Melissa was spending talking to Deborah McBride. Deborah worked as a clerk in a department on another floor of the building, and it seemed that Deborah was either visiting in this department a lot or that she and Melissa were on the phone a lot. Wendy knew that Melissa and Deborah were about the same age and shared many things in common. For example, they lived in the same apartment complex and often commuted to work together. Since their work duties never required them to work together, Wendy became concerned about the excessive amount of personal communication between them. She noticed that Deborah began running into delays in getting her work completed and that other employees in the unit were often interrupted when they were trying to complete their work. However, with her vacation soon approaching, Wendy decided not to say anything, at least until she returned. She was hoping that all the conversation might just stop naturally "Unfortunately, after we retured and I went back to work, I found that they were spending more time conversing, not less." Wendy reported to Ted. "So then, last Monday, just before lunch, I noticed Deborah was coming by to visit with Melissa. She stayed about 15 minutes. As soon as she left, I called Melissa into my office." "Melissa, do me a favor, would you please?" Wendy asked Melissa. Wendy was trying to appear casual and informal. "Sure, what's that?" Melissa replied. *Ask Deborah not to come into this office so often, OK?" "Oh, OK." Melissa said. Melissa left Wendy's office, and Wendy thought that it wasn't such a bad day after all. However, within 30 seconds, Wendy heard a crash. Probably dropped something." she thought. But that was followed by another crash, then a few drawer slams, and a couple of pencil slams onto the desktop, Wendy called out, "Melissa, get back in here!" Melissa appeared in the door. "What's going on out there? What's the problem? Melissa blurted out, rather belligerently: "What do you mean, tell her not to come back in here again? I've got a right to talk to whomever I want to, and you can't make me stop. We're not doing anything wrong!" 43.2 Case 43: Fixing Things Over Dinner Wendy was surprised by the intensity of Melissa's outburst. Well, as a matter of fact, you were. I've noticed that you two spend quite a bit of time each day talking about all kinds of things-but none of it is job-related. And if she's not here, you're on the phone talking about personal, outside matters." Melissa jumped right in. "Well, you make personal phone calls, too. 1 know. I can see when you're on your line and I can hear who you're talking to." With that last remark, Melissa began to cry. As she started to hurry from the office, she turned back to Wendy and told her: "If you monitor my calls, I'll just start monitoring yours. We'll just see what happens then." There was still a defiant tone to her voice. Wendy, now worked up herself, shouted at Melissa's retreating figure, "You just do that!" Wendy took another sip of wine, then explained to Ted. That was on Mon- day. Ever since then, she's been very formal, almost icy with me. I mean, I knew she could be very defensive, and I've seen her turn into a tiger a couple of times when some media people tried to comer her with some problems. But I never expected this." Ted was looking at his wine glass, thinking. Wendy continued: "And then on top of it all, Deborah came into my office this afternoon. She wanted to know why I didn't say anything to her directly She was almost as aggressive as Melissa. I was so glad when today ended." Ted waited for a moment, then said: "Let me ask you a few questions. First. how do you think you handled the initial conversation with Melissa when you asked her to talk with Deborah? If you could do it over, how would you ap- proach it? Second, how did you respond to Melissa's threat to monitor your calls? Finally, it sounds like you've got a festering sore on your hands. What can you do about it now to try to correct the problem?" Wendy looked up and smiled at Ted. "What are you, my therapist "No," Ted winked, "just your trainer." CASE QUESTIONS 1. How well did Wendy handle the initial conversa tion with Melissa, in which she requested that De- borah not come into the office so often? How should she have conducted the discussion? 2. How should Wendy respond to Melissa's threat to monitor Wendy's calls? 3. How should Wendy deal with the problem now? 43.3