Resignation Effective Immediately
tonia
38 Posts
Hi Forum!
My receptionist/administrative assistant has been with the company for 10 years. She is the main source on the information highway at this site. She has made several close, personal relationships with other staff members and parents of the patients we care for. She has a lot "influence" over the staff members. Some good influence, but has been spoken to about being positive when company changes take effect. Employees come to her when they have grumblings and 9 times out of 10, she will agree that company decisions are not her cup of tea either. When a staff member is terminated or leaves, she will always go the Manager and give her opinion of how wrong they were. Unfortunately, she feels that the company is "heartless". I can't run the business based on "love." So...
She was given corrective action last week in two subjects. One, for allowing parents to pay late, without informing the Director; and two, for creating a negative work environment.
She took this very hard and resigned immediately. So now what do I say to staff members and parents? I need to keep morale up, but professional address her immediate departure. Any help on what I can say would be greatly appreciated!
My receptionist/administrative assistant has been with the company for 10 years. She is the main source on the information highway at this site. She has made several close, personal relationships with other staff members and parents of the patients we care for. She has a lot "influence" over the staff members. Some good influence, but has been spoken to about being positive when company changes take effect. Employees come to her when they have grumblings and 9 times out of 10, she will agree that company decisions are not her cup of tea either. When a staff member is terminated or leaves, she will always go the Manager and give her opinion of how wrong they were. Unfortunately, she feels that the company is "heartless". I can't run the business based on "love." So...
She was given corrective action last week in two subjects. One, for allowing parents to pay late, without informing the Director; and two, for creating a negative work environment.
She took this very hard and resigned immediately. So now what do I say to staff members and parents? I need to keep morale up, but professional address her immediate departure. Any help on what I can say would be greatly appreciated!
Comments
The reality is that a 10 year employee with influence who has been (for better or worse) an advocate of others was so deeply offended by a "corrective action" that she felt it necessary to resign immediately.
I think the wording of your announcement would be less of a concern to me than whether the corrective action was handled properly. Are you OK with the result?
If I had to guess, I would imagine the phrase "creating a negative environment" was what led to the employee's decision to resign immediately. I could be wrong but if this employee had the influence you described you may be dealing with the ramifications of her departure for some time.
We've all had employees who had undue influence over their coworkers. Most of the time, in my experience, those coworkers are fairly like-minded about the company's perceived shortcomings but not as bold. Sometimes, for whatever strange reason, really good employees fall under the spell of your negative influencer. But when that problem employee is gone, those coworkers usually snap out of their spell, almost as quickly as they do in the movies.
In other words, I wouldn't worry a bit about the hit to morale you may take, as long as you've done these things:
1. Ensured the corrective action that initiated the resignation was accurate and fair;
2. Taken steps to fill the position with a more positive - and hopefully, as talented - individual (in many cases the "influencer" derives their power over coworkers from their position and its importance, whether real or perceived... admin assistants are a frequent example); and
3. Started working behind the scenes to provide people a more constructive outlet to express their frustrations or disagreements.
A contributor poor morale has left... take those other steps and you'll look back on this event as one of the best things that ever happened.
One other thing to look at... Frequently, admins have undue influence because they share information they should not be sharing. Drill deeply, and you'll probably find that your problem child was either betraying confidences or intentionally creating an impression that they know about all sorts of skeletons in real or imaginary closets.
I've had some incredible admins that I would love to have work for me again, and I've had some who were absolute poison. It's unfortunate, because it's such a key position and you have to be able to trust that person 100%.