Feeling Targeted at Work: Should I Resign or Fight Back? Seeking Advice on a Tough Situation

Hi, my name is Joyce. Currently, I am faced with a lot of frustrations at my place of work. These range from the employer hiring a lawyer to carry out a search on all consultancy firms that have conducted consultancy work in my HR Department to ascertain if I am one of the directors in those companies, to being accused of disturbing other employees. I am contemplating resignation. Please advise.

While empathizing with your situation, it could help the members to give more practical and realistic suggestions if you could provide more details about the situations you are facing. For example, "to ascertain if I am one of the directors in the companies to being accused of disturbing other employees" sounds a bit confusing. What do you mean by "disturbing other employees"?

In short, the more details you provide, the better the suggestions will be—'better' here meaning 'more actionable'.

Regards,
TS

Challenges in Human Resources Management

As the person in charge of Human Resources, I am finding it challenging to guide and nurture employees effectively. When addressing employee mistakes, I have been told that I do not give them enough attention. Consequently, there is a significant level of indiscipline in the workplace, with employees engaging in abusive behavior towards each other. Moreover, the recruitment process is not aligned with the established procedures and rules. Working in such an environment has become increasingly difficult for me.

Regards,
Joyce

Suggest giving the FULL & COMPLETE details of 1 or 2 situations you are facing – that will enable the members to give more realistic suggestions.

Correcting Employee Mistakes

Coming to what you mentioned, "Where employees are corrected in the case of making a mistake," I am sure, being in HR yourself, you know that more often, it's the WAY a mistake is corrected that matters much more than the correction itself. This is what prompted me to request you to mention a couple of incidents in detail.

Role of Line Managers

Another aspect is: what are your Line Managers doing? Usually, the day-to-day guidance & mentoring is done by the Line Managers, and HR comes in ONLY when there are some generic situations/issues affecting the company on a larger scale. Hope you get what I mean.

Considering Resignation

And finally, coming to your intent to "resign" due to this situation, frankly, I wouldn't suggest it. This/such situations ought to ONLY "temper" the "professional" in you, rather than encourage you to throw in your hat. And the best way to handle such situations is: Keep your mind OPEN for all possibilities, including the possibility that, with the benefit of hindsight, YOU COULD have handled a particular situation better... meaning this becomes a learning experience for you.

All the Best.

Regards,
TS

Keeping in mind that the situation is quite imbalanced, I suggest you conduct a meeting. Be calm and unemotional on the matter. Talk to the whole staff involved and request them to send a problem or a list of issues through email or a hard copy, whichever they prefer.

1) Clearly mention to them that the situation is beyond the stage of asking for suggestions because there are a lot of doubts, confusions, and misunderstandings to be resolved first.

2) Hence, you do not wish to make it more complicated. Request all the well-wishers (employees who will be attending the meeting) to make their points as clear as possible. Request them to address every issue and clarify every fact in question.

3) If it is signed, well and good. If not, do not force it, but maintain a registry of the meeting attendees.

4) Demand a written copy as much as possible. It is always safer for you because beyond that, they cannot claim more, and they will be bound by their comments, helping them realize the importance.

4a) Request that employees do not escalate the situation by involving the law and judiciary. Tell them solidarity is crucial and ask them to understand the situation. Apologize for any inconveniences caused as it does not affect ego or self-respect but promotes peace, eventually leading to a win-win situation.

5) The most important thing is to never lose your temper during the conversation. There is a saying in Kannada, "Kaaryavaasi katthe kalu hidi," meaning to get the work done, be willing to humble yourself when necessary. Stay optimistic and composed, even if they lose their temper. If needed, pause for a few minutes but never lose your temper. This weakness can often lead to missed opportunities for good settlements.

6) After collecting the list of issues, do some homework on filtering and analyzing them.

7) Think of solutions and ways to resolve the issues. Some problems may only be solved with the involvement of everyone.

8) Address each issue individually, without escalating from a small problem to a larger one.

9) As progress begins, you will see changes. Act accordingly.

10) Always act in your official capacity and avoid bringing in personal attributes.

11) Conduct meetings weekly or every 15 days, whichever is feasible.

12) By following these guidelines, you will understand where you stand and how far the situation has progressed. Worrying achieves nothing, but thoughtful consideration does. Therefore, I suggest you follow these guidelines to see the positive impact. This process may seem complex and detailed, but it is simple and effective, requiring only time and patience. Instead of daily struggles, simplify the process. Just as garbage disposal is valuable, removing mental burdens is beneficial, albeit challenging.

For timely feedback on the implementation progress, feel free to share your experiences with us for improvement.

Wishing you a pleasant day. Take care.

Further to the excellent suggestions given by BSSV, I suggest focusing on the line managers—or rather the mechanisms and processes they are currently following. This follows the additional inputs you mentioned after my last posting/response, especially "employee applying for leave and the line manager turning down the same without any clear reasons."

You do seem to have a lot who won't/can't take responsibility for their actions. When this happens in management positions, the results can be catastrophic—depending on the level/position/importance of the concerned official. I have seen this happening in Indian companies.

Also, please confirm if the age gap between the line managers and the rest of the employees is wide/large. Many times this could generate situations that defy any reasoning and logic.

Regarding BSSV's suggestions, frankly, I am not sure how many you can put into practice in Kenya—quite often stonewalling is practiced by experienced managers. But there's one point of his for which I have a well-tried-out method (I had great success implementing it while I used to work in similar environments earlier)—with respect to BSSV's "Point 4) demand for a written copy as much as possible..."

If your past experience has been that your demand for anything in writing is likely to be refused or plain ignored, leading to you spending hours on follow-ups, I suggest you make a gist of the points and mail/circulate it to the concerned managers with the following opening line: "These are the points we discussed, as I understand them..."

After listing out what you wish to, end with the line: "Please confirm/clarify if I have missed out anything or misunderstood anything discussed wrongly."

While the seeming intent is to invite comments/clarifications, you will be achieving the concept of putting things in writing indirectly—even if no one replies/responds. And when there's no objection, usually it's deemed okay. Hope you get the point.

And going by your responses, can it be presumed that you have given up the thought of 'resigning'? :-)

Sooner you do it, the better I guess. :-)

All the Best.

Regards,
TS

Thank you for the contributions. Yes, I have given up the thought of resigning unless I come across another job with better prospects. As a matter of fact, the fourth point on putting everything in writing is quite appealing, and I have already implemented the same. The results are quite comforting. This approach saves time on personal confrontations face-to-face, and a record is always kept on all the proceedings, so the managers are very careful not to be found in a confrontational position.

Thank you so much as I continue implementing the same.

Regards,
Joyce

Handling Meeting Discussions Effectively

Regarding the trick to handle the fourth point, you can bet your last penny, Joyce. As other officials and managers begin to realize that it has become a habit for you to send notes, circulars, or MoMs of whatever was discussed, you will notice that they will begin to take care of what they say or how they respond in meetings—lest it becomes part of the Minutes of Meetings.  That's sure to bring your headaches down to manageable levels sooner rather than later.

Also, see if you can try out any of the other suggestions BSSV suggested—at least some should be possible. I guess you ought to thank CiteHR for steering you away from the negative thought of resigning for the wrong reasons. All the best.

Regards,
TS