Nov 04 2008
Letting go - staff loss, resignations and terminations
We can all agree that hiring staff in any organization is both a tedious and expensive task, an improper science especially when the tools to make decisions are only an interview, telephone references and written references, prior work history, a resume, a cover letter, a formal apllication and perhaps a writing sample. In days past this process may have been sufficient. Days of yore. Today, anything can go wrong and I understand the Rodney Dangerfield analogy of folks going “postal” (reference the spat of postal worker rage in the US a few years ago that led to several deaths in post offices) after a time. When the “reporters” aka supervisors, directors etc come around to ask what went wrong, there is sometimes little to be said.
Is it better to terminate or loose staff while they were temporary or probationary rather than wait 5 or 10 years and go through more costly litigation to get rid of them?
If the employees are unionized and things go wrong is it more prudent to rehabiltate rather than seek flat out termination when you know costly litigation will follow anyway?
Whose fault is it when employees go wrong - supervisors, program leaders, interview committees?
Are schools also beginning to feel the effects of a poorly trained workforce, the same workforce that for profit business and industry have screamed is not ready for a competitive wage market?
Can the best formulated School Board policies prevent attrition of staff and again when this happens whose fault is it anyway?
Are staff losses for whatever reason not par for the course in any organization? Is this not about the burden of doing business or the cost of doing business in today’s job market?
Lets get some commentary going on this hot topic which I have felt personally these past 2 weeks as a school leader and program supervisor.
2 responses so far
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In a partial response to some of the questions you’ve posed I would offer the first of three streams of thought.
1. Growth and Development:
It is possible horticulturally speaking and actually quite interesting to see a grafted apple tree, one onto which are grafted different varieties of apples and pears. By carefully attaching cuttings from these different fruits onto the stem of a single tree you are able to make a tree bear a cornucopia. This is an understanding of what teachers and perhaps supervisors do in the educational environment.
Students, new teachers and new supervisors come with a range of knowledge about many things (although many of us are much more concerned about what they seem not to know). I think it is enormously helpful to find out what students (et.al.) do know and then put this information to use as starting points-the places where we can begin grafting on the new concepts we seek to impart to/with them. If we simply begin tossing out information and expectations, without having a sense of what students are able and ready to do with it, we run the risk of having it fly right past them, without finding any place to attach. If we take some time to find out what they already know, then we can graft the new material onto a trunk full of sap that will help the new ideas blossom and bear fruit.
Before starting out on a new adventure (be it with students, teacher or supervisors) I think it important to ask some questions to get some sense of what is known and what isn’t on a variety of professional levels. In the course of this exploration it is a time to begin planting seeds of interest, to provoke some into curiosity, and to help them reflect on what it is they’ve already learned somewhere else but thought they’d forgotten (and it also assures them that they do know something). And then work to graft the new situation(s) onto what we’ve found they already know.
Grafting is perhaps most tenuous at the first and early stage. Some attempts clearly do not “take” and clipping and pruning is necessary. Incompatibility is painful from many perspectives. Highly Fluid and changing educational environments are not conducive to growth but perhaps represent more of a challenge than opportunity. A more gradual ramping up rather than a sink or swim approach would seem more viable to all parties concerned.
Litigation (costly as you state) to terminate an employment contract can be a long, time-consuming and expensive way to rectify a mistake.
An example of having this form of termination backfire is:
Settlegoode v. Portland Public Schools:
A million dollar mistake.