Navigating Office Politics: How to Handle a Trainee's Disruptive Behavior and Allegations

Dear All,

I am working as an Asst. Manager-HR with one of the IT firms.

Here, I want to describe a situation and expect that you all will help me out.

The company hired a female trainee for software testing from one of the well-known universities in Delhi. As per the policy, her training is scheduled to be completed on 31st July 2007. However, when we asked her to submit her certificates, she simply stated that she does not have them and has not submitted them yet.

Additionally, she is emotionally blackmailing some of the senior team members. It has come to my attention that she is involved in an affair with one of the team leaders and has attempted to emotionally blackmail the HR manager. She is engaging in office politics quite severely, gaining the attention of some senior team members and holding meetings with them after office hours. Furthermore, she is attempting to sabotage the managers and falsely claiming that she is being physically harassed by a manager, which is entirely untrue.

She enjoys gossiping with others against the managers and HR personnel. When questioned, she becomes defensive, and her responses never appear official.

I seek your suggestions on how to address and stop her from engaging in these negative activities. She is still in contact with former team members who left the organization three months ago and is sharing sensitive information with them.

Please advise on how to handle this issue.

Thanks,

Dev

Hi,

According to the information I grasped, in my view, after the training is completed, she should be evaluated by all parties. Then, upon her evaluation assessment, the management should decide whether to accept her into the permanent cadre or to relieve her from the company.

However, I do believe that her actions should have been dealt with at the inception itself. Furthermore, when she has not submitted the required certificates, she should have been warned and given a deadline to submit the same, as company rules and regulations must be followed by all employees regardless of their category.

Cheers,
Ashra

Dear Dev,

Being a very strict disciplinarian, first, the certificate she is supposed to submit must, as someone has said, be submitted by a given date which should be reasonable. Secondly, if right in the beginning she is playing emotional tricks and pitting one manager against another, engaging in office politics, she must be reported to the CEO or MD by the HR Head. She must be given a written warning duly signed by the HR Head. If she still persists, that would mean that she would never fit into your company norms. Therefore, the best course of action at that stage would be to show her the door. Do not confirm her under any circumstances; let her probation be extended until a final decision is made. This should be done before she is due for confirmation.

All the best.

Regards,
Loveindra

Hi Khurram Lodhi,

Can you please tell me if she is a confirmed employee or if she is still on probation? What are the clauses mentioned on the probationary report? Another important thing is to identify whom she is reporting to. Is her boss satisfied with her performance or not? Once I have all this information from your side, I can suggest a future course of action.

Regards,
Khurram Lodhi.

Dear Mr. Dev,

The HR department is the custodian of the Code of Discipline in any organization. The first thing the HR department should do is verify her academic and other certificates before hiring her.

If she completes her training period by the end of this month, you will have enough time on hand to manage her.

1. Provide a written letter requesting the submission of the required certificates.
2. If she shares company information with outsiders, issue a stern oral/written warning to prevent any future sharing of information.
3. If you find that she is causing trouble for the HR department, it ultimately impacts the organization. It is best to terminate her services after the training period ends for non-performance.

Regards,
Bhushan Dahanukar

Dear Mr. Chadha,

I am really thankful for your suggestions. May I have your email ID so that I can tell you more about this situation? I hope with your guidance, I can be able to get out of this sabotaging situation. The employee is a female candidate, hence it seems tough to deal with. Why is she not submitting her B.Tech mark sheets/certificates? The reason, as I know from one of my sources, is that she has around 6 papers back in her B.Tech and she does not want to disclose the same, as she already told the seniors that she has a good career. More painful is she is using emotional tricks to climb the corporate ladder. As I mentioned, she has an unethical relationship with one of her team leads who left the company a month ago. When I found out about the relationship, it was too late, and the team lead was no longer with the company. Then, her emotional tactics caught the attention of two other senior developers who are crucial to the company, and I can't persuade them otherwise. Please advise on how to handle this trainee. She claims that if I take action against her, she will reveal the relationship with the managers, potentially putting the HRM in a difficult position. Though the HRM is not at fault, the management might be swayed by her words due to her close relationships with the two senior developers who seem emotionally manipulated and captivated by her.

Kindly suggest a course of action, as I am inclined to address this issue. I believe that a small problem can escalate and affect others, leading to a situation where the entire environment becomes toxic.

I request all of you to assist me in making the right decision.

Thank you,

Dev

Hi,

She is a trainee, and she is supposed to submit her mark sheets and certificates, which she is saying that she submitted elsewhere. According to one source, I came to know that she has 6 back papers pending. That may be the reason she is not submitting those certificates. She reports to her team lead, and if we ask for feedback, no doubt the TL will give positive feedback as she used some emotional tricks, and the TL is emotionally captured by her.

She is someone who created politics first in the company. She passes company matters to others outside the company (who left the company a few months ago). She has no ethics and culture.

Could you suggest the best way to deal with this situation?

Thanks,
dev

Dev, I don't understand what the organization is going to get by keeping such trainees in the role. Using the respective clause of her appointment order, weed her out. Weeding is the responsibility of HR professionals like us to keep the organization healthy. Just give a plain discontinuance order and never use the words like dismissal, termination, etc. Just mail me if you want the draft letter.

MSV

In my opinion, she should never have been allowed to report for work without the proper certifications. When she was permitted to join the team without verification of her credentials, she felt as though she had a special privilege. To protect herself, she began an affair with members of the team to insulate her from criticism and ultimately discipline.

I would recommend that you confirm the suspicions with the Team Leader and HR manager, as well as the former employees with whom she is still in contact to determine the type of information she is disseminating, before you approach the trainee. If the parties involved validate your suspicions, you can then approach her with facts rather than fiction.

I also recommend that you give her an opportunity to resign (less stressful and eliminates legal problems in the future), before you take disciplinary action. Point out that her conduct is inappropriate and disruptive to the organization. The culture of the company is teamwork, not dissension and chaos, enumerating her actions during and after office hours. Do not be swayed by her arguments that off-duty time is personal time - that may be true in most situations, but when it involves, or has the potential to involve project efficiency and smooth interaction of team members, then it is a concern for the company.

Be sure you have a file of documentation as well as notes from your meeting with her. You may need them in the future.

PALADIN

One of the important facts that I can gather from your email is that this individual is sharing or passing on company information to externals. This is a breach of confidentiality and a serious offense, and the individual can be dismissed for it.

However, I would not suggest for you and me to be moral pundits here and comment on her relationships. That is a personal matter for the individual, as long as it's not affecting their performance, which I understand is not. Yes, it may be generating a lot of office politics, but it comes back to the maturity and professionalism of the employees (including Managers & Team Leaders).

Regards,
Prachi

Hi,

If you are thinking that she is taking advantage of being a woman and you are finding it difficult to reveal things about her to your superiors, then do one thing: call for submission of documents related to qualification, experience, certificates from the previous employer, etc., from all the employees who have joined the organization within the past six months for the purpose of scrutiny and performance appraisal.

Don't let her get the impression that you are acting against her. Don't single her out in any matter, and try to include her in activities in which she seems to be lacking. Based on this, you can prepare a report that may reveal some negative aspects of her performance.

Always inform your immediate boss before starting such a group activity so that he cannot accuse you of any misconduct.

Think about this and take the step.

All the Best,

Abhimanyu Soni
LL.B, MBA (HR)

Dear Vengatesan,

Thank you for your suggestions. I am not worried about filling the position but concerned about potential legal issues she may create. She is quite clever, and we are now prepared to terminate her training. Please send me the draft of the termination letter; I will be thankful to you.

Thanks & Regards,
Dev

Hi Dev, I believe you have gone deep into this. If you find something suspicious about a trainee, the next thing you should do is to chart out ways to move them from the system. I had a similar kind of problem during my previous job. I ended up letting go of all the people involved in that situation, although not for this particular reason. Handling such challenges requires caution as they can significantly impact an organization's culture and reputation.

You can request her to produce the certificates if your company policy necessitates it. If not, your senior managers will surely step in to assist her. Immediately draft a confidentiality agreement, as it can help you address many problems. Explain to your management the necessity of this step, as some confidential information seems to have been shared inappropriately.

Instead of blaming her right away, take some time to investigate how the senior managers became aware of this situation and then address the issue. Feel free to email me if you require further assistance.

Regards,
Vijayakumar

Dear Dev,

Firstly, she has not submitted her academic certificates. Secondly, she shares the information with outsiders, which is a violation of the Data Security Code. Thirdly, if she is on probation, evaluate her and warn her that she is not doing the right thing. If she continues, give her a written warning letter and terminate her based on indiscipline and Data violation.

Regards,
Harish

Information sharing is difficult to prove as there are many instances wherein it happens currently in the company. For example, a company manager using a home PC for office work and vice versa, an executive giving a daily report on the phone in a public place, or some managers may have removable media on their PCs.

This point can only be pursued in the long run by framing information security policies, procedures, etc. It takes at least 9 months for implementation.

Even background checks/ CCTVs etc. figure among one of the 127 controls in ISO27001. Background checks should ideally trace the entire journey of an individual right from nativity. Otherwise, how can you ensure that one of your managers may not have been booked for even a petty civil offense in any of the districts across India?

I am CIISA (ISO27001) certified, so feel free to ask for professional advice whenever needed.

Suryavrat

Hi Dev,

I think I am late to comment on this topic, but still after reading through the situation and also the views given by others, I just wanted to give my opinion too.

Find out a few things before you take any action:

1. Have you given her any confirmation of employment?

2. How are managers interacting with her? Is it that they are just passing time or something else?

3. List down the names of those whom she has taken into her confidence.

4. Find out whether her manager is supporting HRD or not? Is he really a manager?

5. If he is, then do the performance evaluation for her and make sure that the report highlights all her negatives in terms of work.

6. If she is gossiping with others, then why is HRD not warning those who used to sit with her, chat, and gossip?

7. Make sure that HRD is also warning those who are gossiping and chatting along with her.

8. Don't let her brainwash others.

If everything is negative, just say thank you to her and show her the door. No matter how important an employee is to the organization, you can't tolerate such nuisance.

UNDERPERFORMANCE CAN BE ACCEPTED, NOT A POOR ATTITUDE.

Regards,

P Umesh.