What did You Observe?
I observed a supervisor by the name of John walking into the workstation cubicle and talking to a person who appears to be his subordinate about the dress code of another employee called Kelly. They discuss about her dress code and even make jokes about it. They both say they do not have a problem with Kelly’s dressing and even wonder why Beth would complain about it. They chat a little longer before John decides to deal with it by writing a sticky note and placing it on the screen of Kelly’s computer. Kelly walks in with other colleagues making random talks and her colleague picks up the sticky note that John left on Kelly’s computer and reads it aloud. It generally addresses Kelly’s dress code and asks her to be professional about it. Kelly is not amused as she expresses her displeasure with the manner in which John chose to handle it. She goes further to state that he should not have placed the note there where everyone could see it. She reiterates that John was not professional in the manner he is handling the matter. She conclude the talk with her colleague by saying that she is going to write an email to Beth the colleague who complained about her dressing and her friend suggests that she copy’s John in the mail too (HR Videos, 2010).
How did the Supervisor handle communicating with the Employee? What was the Employee’s reaction?
John, who is the supervisor decided to walk to Kelly’s work station cubicle and write a sticky note and placed it on her monitor screen conspicuously for it to be seen first thing she arrives. He chose to offer a more indirect approach as opposed to direct address of the matter.
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Kelly is angered by John’s actions who is her supervisor. She is upset because she feels that John handled the matter in an ‘unprofessional manner.’ She is heard saying “….and he even placed it on my monitor screen where anybody could have read it.” She says this likely to suggest that it would have been better if the supervisor had spoken to her directly.
What did the supervisor do well?
He at least addressed Beth’s complaint about Kelly’s dressing.
What could the supervisor have done differently?
The supervisor would have talked to Kelly directly or even emailed her about the dress code complaint and left out Beth name in it.
In your opinion what should have happened?
The supervisor should have called Kelly or emailed her and expressed the complaint. He should not have mentioned Beth’s name or even suggested it. He would have referred to the work ethic dress code and guided Kelly to abide by it.
Reference:
HR Hero Videos (2010), The Confident Supervisor: Conflict Management, Supervisor Training < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGYCK_nr-O0 > retrieved on 19 th October 2018
