Publications
A Typical Scenario
Let’s suppose you hire a new office manager, and arrange to meet with her every month to review pending projects. In June, she tells you, with great enthusiasm, that she is renegotiating rates with the medical insurance carrier, instituting a new bid procedure for vendors, installing updated software on all workstations, designing a secretarial training course, and implementing a new employee evaluation procedure. You are amazed at her enthusiasm and resolve, and you ask her how she is going to find the time to accomplish so ambitious an agenda. She assures you she has it all under control and can’t wait to get started.
By July, you note that substantial progress has, in fact, been made. But by August you detect a diminution in her enthusiasm and self confidence, and a substantial slowdown. At the September meeting, she tells you that very little has gotten done over the last two months, she breaks down crying, and offers her resignation. You assure her that she simply bit off more than she could chew, and tell her to stick with it.
At the October meeting she appears with a detailed timeline for completion of all the tasks discussed in June, and she laughs off the July through September period as a “down time” that has strengthened her resolve. In October, although some things have progressed, you see the downturn re-surfacing, and by November, her enthusiasm has waned, and you notice that she is coming in late and leaving early. By December, you receive another offer to resign. You begin to dread the January meeting.
You understandably reach the conclusion that you need more predictability in your key employees and you meet with her. You diplomatically raise the subject of her mood swings and unpredictable behavior. Before you can finish, she blurts out, “I know. I can’t figure out what’s wrong with me. I obviously need some help to get through this. I wouldn’t blame you if you fired me right now.”
Counsel Consulting Group LLC helps companies throughout the United States avoid employment and HR-related claims and liabilities. CCG assesses existing policies, procedures and problem areas; it provides customized liability-avoidance training to managers and executives; and it designs and implements business techniques that reduce employment liability risks on a long term basis. CCG also offers specialized workshops for managers and HR executives, customized consulting in focused employment-related areas, and CD-ROM and web-based training alternatives. For more information, contact us at info@powelltrachtman.com and visit our website at www.counselconsulting.com.
Powell, Trachtman, Logan, Carrle & Lombardo, P.C. is a full service law firm with offices in suburban Philadelphia, PA, Harrisburg, PA and Cherry Hill, NJ. Powell Trachtman represents a variety of commercial enterprises, entrepreneurs and business executives in respect to their litigation, litigation avoidance planning, business formation, business transactions, estate and tax planning, and other needs. We are also approved defense counsel for numerous insurance carriers in matters pertaining to professional malpractice, products liability, employment practices, directors and officers liability, and many other fields. For more information, contact us at info@powelltrachtman.com and visit our website at www.powelltrachtman.com.
