9 Leadership Strategies to Beat the Recession Blues
Wednesday, December 09, 2009 by Steve Bruce BLR Daily Advisor

It’s been a lean time for most companies, and the dark days of the recession have spawned a troubling new issue—widespread loss of employee engagement, says consultant Jon Gordon.

“Even if companies haven’t literally lost their employees, many have lost them psychologically,” warns Gordon in his new book, The Shark and the Goldfish: Positive Ways to Thrive During Waves of Change. “Leaders have to change that.”

“You need to personally make sure that your company is a place where people want to work. You must focus on winning in the workplace if you want to win in the marketplace,” says Gordon. Here are his nine strategies for boosting morale and engagement in the current economy.

1. Focus on People, Not Numbers“It’s not numbers that drive people, but the people that drive numbers,” Gordon points out. After all, he says, numbers are just indicators of how well your people are executing. Remember, he says, “Culture drives behavior, behavior drives habits, and habits drive results.”

2. Model Good Behavior
Leaders set the tone for employees. They can inspire, or they can extinguish. For example if you greet workers cheerfully even though you’ve both had to come into work an hour early, they’re likely to mirror that attitude. “Whatever you expect from your people, you must also expect from your senior leadership,” Gordon says.

Leaders need to be humble and hungry, he explains. Humble in that they seek to learn, grow, and improve every day, and hungry with a passion to work harder than everyone else.

3. Practice Positive Leadership“Positive leadership” means remaining purposeful in the face of adversity. “While it’s important to acknowledge the obstacles your organization is facing (after all, no one really respects a naïve Pollyanna!), don’t dwell on them, and don’t bring up bad news before you’ve pointed out one or two things that are going well,” says Gordon.

Optimistically focus on where you are going. Remember, Gordon says, “Culture drives behavior. You win in the office first. Then you win in the marketplace.”

4. Fill the Void
In these uncertain times, employees are questioning how their industries and jobs will be impacted. This uncertainty creates a void, and “Where there is a void, negativity will fill it,” Gordon believes.
In the absence of clear and positive communication, people assume the worst, Gordon says. As a leader, you must personally meet with your employees and continually communicate, communicate, communicate.

“Make transparency the norm, not the exception,” asserts Gordon. “Talk to your team members often, and let them know where they stand. Host frequent town hall meetings in which you listen to employees’ fears, concerns, and ideas, and share your vision for the future.”

5. Tell Energy Vampires, ‘It’s time to get on the bus … or off.’ You might think that a few nonconformists and cynics won’t be a major problem, but Gordon insists you’d be wrong. He calls those who are a constant source of negativity “Energy Vampires” because they suck the energy and life out of everyone around them.

“Once you’ve identified the naysayers, gently approach them and give them a chance to get on the bus and share in a positive vision,” Gordon advises. If they refuse to get on board, you must get them off the bus. “Even if your biggest complainer is your highest performer, the negative energy outweighs any positive contributions,” Gordon says.

6. Forbid All Complaining
Successful organizations with great cultures focus on solutions, not on complaints, Gordon says. His rule is simple: “You are not allowed to complain unless you also offer a solution.”

7. Teach Your People to Be Heroes, Not Victims
Gordon points out that both heroes and victims get knocked down. The distinction is that heroes get back up while victims simply give up.

Help your employees to realize that they are not victims of circumstance, Gordon says. Remind them that they have a high locus of control—in other words, they have a significant influence over how things turn out. “True, you can’t always control the events in your life, but you can control how you respond to these events—and your response determines the outcome,” Gordon says.

8. Focus on the Small Wins
The key, says Gordon, is to always place your attention on those little, ordinary, nonspectacular “wins” that add up to big successes. His credo is to expect success, look for success, and celebrate success.

“Keep in mind that employees might be discouraged or burnt out right now, so make sure to really highlight and celebrate the small wins in order to foster loyalty, excitement, and confidence,” Gordon urges. “Championships are won as the result of many small wins.”

9. Make Sure You Have Sharks in Your Key Positions
When the economy was thriving, it didn’t matter as much if key employees turned in a mediocre performance. Now, that isn’t the case, Gordon says. He suggests looking at your team and figuring out which people display the characteristics of driven, go-get—’em “nice sharks” and which are “goldfish” or more natural relationship managers.

Your sharks are the people you need in sales or business-driving positions, Gordon suggests, not your goldfish. People who aren’t in the right positions won’t thrive—and your organization will constantly find itself struggling, he says.

Too many organizations have goldfish types in sales positions, and that’s why they aren’t thriving, Gordon says. “Put your people in the right positions and allow them to do what they do best—and they will help your company to perform its best.”

Randall Barker is the VP of Human Resources for A Plus Beneifts, Inc.

Top 10 Ways to Reduce Bad Behavior at Work
(from BLR HR Daily Advisor 11/23-24/2009)

Workplace incivility is an often overlooked, expensive, yet treatable malady, says the new book, The Cost of Bad Behavior. Authors Christine Pearson and Christine Porath show how to calculate the cost and what to do about eliminating the undesirable behavior.

What Is Workplace Incivility?
Pearson and Porath offer several examples of incivility:
•Taking credit for others’ efforts
•Passing blame for mistakes
•Talking down to others
•Spreading rumors
•Setting others up for failure
•Belittling other’s efforts
•Withholding information
•Making demeaning or derogatory remarks
•Taking resources someone else needs
•Paying no attention to people, texting during meetings, failing to return phone calls or respond to e-mail.

What’s the True Cost?
Pearson and Porath have developed a system for calculating the actual cost of incivility. Essentially, you estimate the numbers of employees who will, for example:
•Lose work time worrying about an incident and future interactions with the offender
•Lose work time avoiding the offender
•Experience a lessened sense of commitment to the organization
•Intentionally reduce their efforts at work
•Intentionally reduce their hours at work
•Leave their jobs because of incivility
•Be indirectly affected by observing uncivil behavior

Add to that the number of customers who will turn elsewhere because they are turned off by the incivility they experience when dealing with you.

Once you know that, you calculate cost based on hours lost and sales lost. There are, of course, a number of assumptions involved, but the underlying result makes it clear: This is a bottom-line issue; uncivil behavior really does cost companies substantially.

The good news is, you can do something about it, and it’s not overly time-consuming or expensive. Here’s what Pearson and Porath suggest:

1. Set Zero-Tolerance Expectations.
Set clear expectations for civility from the top. For example:
“Treat each other with respect.” (from Boeing’s integrity statement)
“Treat everyone in our diverse community with respect and dignity.” (from the mission statement of the Mayo Clinic)
“Nike was founded on a handshake.” Implicit in that act was the determination that we would build our business based on trust, teamwork, honesty, and mutual respect. (from Nike’s Responsibility Governance statement, which is reviewed and signed annually by every Nike employee.)

2. Look in the Mirror.
Remember, say Pearson and Porath, that as individuals rise in the organization, they are less and less likely to hear negative information, including that about their own civility. Here’s what the book suggests:

Self-examination. Ask yourself:
•Do I behave respectfully to all employees?
•Do I take my frustrations out on employees who have less power than I?
•Do I treat individuals, on whom I rely or who can do good things for me, better than others?

Peer review. Seek out the opinions of peers who may be straighter with you than subordinates.
Videotape. Videotape yourself at meetings. One CEO who did this was stunned: “I didn’t realize what a jerk I sounded like.”

3. Weed Out Trouble Before It Enters.
The easiest way to foster civility is to keep uncivil people out, say Pearson and Porath. No uncivil vendors, contractors, customers, or employees. To accomplish this:

Do thorough reference checks. Pearson and Porath were “stunned” to see that many firms don’t bother with reference checks, or do very cursory checks.

Don’t go on gut. Your gut feeling may generally be reliable, but collect evidence.

Desperation. Don’t allow yourself to act hastily out of desperation, Pearson and Porath say. Take the time to be sure of a good hire.

4. Teach Civility.
Many offenders “just don’t know any better.” Pearson and Porath’s research suggests that training can make a difference. For example, teach coaching, how to listen, how to respond, and how to receive and give feedback.

Also, include civility at performance rating time.

5. Train Employees and Managers to Recognize and Respond to Signals.
Many offenders reported to Pearson and Porath that their companies just didn’t seem to care about how employees treated one another. The employee thinks, why should I bother if no one cares? Charge your supervisors and managers to be alert for signals of incivility.

•Are there certain people with whom no one wants to work?
•Are there certain managers whom no one wants to mentor?

6. Put Your Ear to the Ground.
Combining 360 feedback and organizational data is very helpful at pinpointing problems, Pearson and Porath have found.

Organizational data, such as absence records and turnover stats, can reinforce 360 results. However, say Pearson and Porath, be very careful using these data. Take into account the many reasons why two facilities in different areas of the country, or doing different kinds of work, could reasonably have significantly different results on the various metric scales.

7. When Incivility Occurs, Hammer It.
If you ignore incivility, say Christine Pearson and Christine Porath, authors of The Cost of Bad Behavior, it festers. It continues toward the people it started with and expands to other people. Some of Pearson and Porath’s research participants noted that they have stopped using the internal hiring systems at their companies because they have been burned by managers who gave glowing recommendations to uncivil workers just so that the manager could pass the problem off to another department.

Pearson and Porath stress the great importance of civility where employees interact with customers. On Disney properties, they say, reports of incivility are dealt with instantly. “Suits” (security personnel, dressed in business attire) descend out of nowhere, and the employee is gone.

8. Take Complaints Seriously.
It takes a lot of courage for lesser-empowered individuals to lodge a complaint about incivility. They fear not being taken seriously, or worse, being made to feel that they are the ones committing the crime.

To counteract that, employees need to know that you will respect their complaints and take action. Pearson and Porath note that in talking to employees, they have never had any difficulty finding out who are the uncivil members of the staff.

9. Don’t Make Excuses for Powerful Instigators.
Pearson and Porath have heard lots of excuses for habitual offenders:

“That’s just how Darwin is.”
“We can’t afford to lose Sally.”
“We’re dealing with Rob, but bringing him around in his own time [his own way, in his own style]. That is the best approach to use with him.”
“I don’t like to get involved in employees’ personal matters.”
“Tracy doesn’t mean any harm. He’s just [overworked, having problems at home].”
“I have bigger problems to deal with.”

The cost of cutting loose habitually uncivil employees will never be as much as the outrageous price of keeping them, Pearson and Porath say.

10. Invest in Post-Departure Interviews.
While departing employees often won’t speak up in an exit interview, Pearson and Porath find that they often will open up 6 months later. Give that a try, they suggest.

A Plus Benefits Comments:
The cost of sending a post-departure interview questionnaire to a former employee is relatively small when compared to the information that might be discovered from the returned forms.

If nothing else, the employee who has left your organization may feel that you really did care about them and other employees. A good employee who departed may think about returning or the former employee may be more willing to refer qualified friends and associates to your company.

Can’t we just all get along? It’s a big part of civility. Organizations that practice and enforce civility experience less stress and higher productivity as well and lower turnover.

Randall Barker is the VP of Human Resources for A Plus Benefits, Inc.

In the past couple of months, several A Plus Benefits clients have been presented with retaliation claims from current or former employees. While we have been successful in defending our clients at no additional cost to them, and have helped our clients prevail in each case, the information below is a good reminder of what can happen.

(BLR HR Daily Advisor – September 28, 2009)
Retaliation suits are the one type of EEOC suit that is increasing, and Attorney Judith A. Moldover says HR managers have an “incredible role” in sparing their organizations the expense those suits invariably bring—even if you “win” them.

Retaliation claims are very fact related, says Moldover, and that makes it especially important that someone with good judgment—like an HR manager—be there to guide management through the case.

They’re Not Over ‘Til They’re Over
By the way, Moldover says, HR’s role doesn’t end when the case ends—you have to keep an eye on management as long as the employee who complained is employed.

Moldover’s comments came at the recent Legal and Legislative Conference of HRNY, the New York City chapter of SHRM. Moldover is with the New York City office of law firm Ford & Harrison LLP.
What Rises to the Level of ‘Materially Adverse Action’?

One of the keystones in a claim of retaliation is that the employee must have suffered a materially adverse action. As a result of the Burlington Northern case, Moldover says, we have a definition for retaliation: an action that would dissuade a reasonable employee from making or supporting a charge. Furthermore, the action need not be employment related.

In the Burlington case, a supervisor constantly told a female worker, “Women shouldn’t do this work.” Then he started saying other things to her with sexual overtones. When she complained, the company investigated and punished the supervisor by giving him a 2-week suspension without pay and making him go to sexual harassment training.

So far so good, says Moldover. But then, the same day the complaining employee was told about how her complaint was resolved, she was taken off her relatively easy forklift job and given a much harder and more physical job. She didn’t lose seniority, pay, or title, but the court did find that the action was adverse.

In another case, an HR manager who reported to top management made a complaint. Soon thereafter he lost all his staff, was moved to another area, and found himself reporting to a middle manager. His new boss said to him, “I don’t know why they sent you to me. I don’t have anything for you to do.” As with Burlington, the manager kept his title and his pay, but the courts found that the action was an adverse action.

However, in another case, a company moved an employee who had complained about sexual harassment away from the harassing supervisor. The new location involved a slightly longer commute. This action was not found to be adverse, but in fact it was judged to be a reasonable response to the complaint.

Moldover offered the following examples of other potentially adverse actions:
• Giving a lower evaluation. Even if the evaluation is only lowered from “superb” to “excellent,” it could be considered an adverse action, especially if pay or promotional opportunities are affected.
• Transferring to a less desirable position. Transferring a person to another position or office could be adverse, although as noted, in sexual harassment cases, a move may be the best thing to do.
• Ultimate employment actions. Naturally, when you take ultimate employment actions, such as firing, demoting, not giving a promotion, or imposing discipline, you are likely taking adverse action.
• Lowering benefits. Removing a significant benefit could also be considered an adverse action, Moldover says.

Counterclaims Could Be More Retaliation
When an employee files a charge or complains about a manager, the manager’s response is often, “I’m going to sue for defamation!”

You probably don’t want to do that, says Moldover. First of all, that case is going to be hard to win, and it’s going to take resources and engender bad publicity. And if that’s not enough, the countersuit itself could be viewed as retaliation.

HR managers have a balancing act to perform in preventing retaliation, says Attorney Judith A. Moldover. You’ve got the manager storming around, saying “I’m going to get this person—can I fire him today?” And you’ve also got a complaining employee who is strutting around thinking he or she is bulletproof.

Find the balance, Moldover says. When you get wind of a manager’s action that might be retaliatory, put the situation in context and try to view it from the employee’s perspective.

Moldover’s comments came at the recent Legal and Legislative Conference of HRNY, the New York City chapter of SHRM. Moldover is with the New York City office of law firm Ford & Harrison LLP.

Context Matters
With retaliation, context matters, Moldover says. Take, for example, a schedule change. One person might not care at all, while another might care a great deal. For instance, a single mother with a carefully arranged daycare schedule might find a schedule change adverse if she has no other options.

Similarly, someone with asthma might find a change of workstation adverse if he or she can’t work in certain atmospheres.

Moldover’s Most Important Rule
The most important rule for fighting retaliation is to insist that HR have prior review of any action proposed against an employee who has filed a charge or lodged a complaint.

Decision makers often want to act fast and be tough, but you can’t let that happen, says Moldover. You have to get wind of any planned change so that you can talk it through before it happens.

Don’t let a manager take an adverse action or what might be considered an adverse action until you are convinced that the decision maker can explain the basis for the action. That’s not just termination, but any form of discipline, lower evaluation, etc., says Moldover.

Ask yourself these questions, she says:
• Will a jury buy this explanation?
• Why are we doing this to this employee?
• Why now?
• Are there alternatives?

How HR Can Help
Moldover recommends the following for HR managers:
• Delay action pending investigation. Acting too fast, before you are all on the same page, can have disastrous consequences in court. It may take a few weeks, but you’ll be able to take adverse action secure in the knowledge that you can support the decision.
• Deliberate with decision makers. Make sure that you are there when decisions are made, and make sure that all present understand the reasons behind the adverse action.
• Don’t deviate from precomplaint practice. Be cognizant of your past practice. When you deviate from it for one employee, you will certainly look as though you are retaliating.

For A Plus Benefits’ clients
As always, we encourage you to contact one of our HR Professionals at A Plus Benefits when you find it necessary to deal with the kind of situations that are outlined above. We have found, over the years, slowing down a disciplinary process by a few hours and discussing the situation in detail can often reveal a better course of action and yield a far better outcome.

Randall Barker is the VP of Human Resources for A Plus Benefits, Inc.

Keys to Motivation (plus a really cool interview question)
HR Morning September 17, 2009 by Jim Giuliano

In these tough times, if your organization is one of those asking employees to do more for less, it’s especially important consider what’s going to motivate them.
The best parts of these motivational tools — excerpted from the Harvard Business Review — is that they don’t cost anything and just about any manager can implement them:

• Give feedback, lots of it. But don’t confuse feedback with backslapping. In uncertain times, employees want you to be dead-on honest and thoughtful.

• Offer as much professional development as possible. One mistake managers make: Setting a career path for an employee without fully asking the employee about it. Try not to assume you know what the employee wants. At the very least, employees will be motivated by knowing you care what they think.

• Say “thanks.” Money and benefits are tight, so if you can’t shower them with cash, at least shower them with praise when they deserve it. And practice the two kinds of thank-you: (1) For doing the everyday job at a high level. (2) For going above and beyond the everyday job.
Executives need to take a walk and interact with their employees. Employees worry about what is happening when the organization’s executives become invisible.

• Don’t assume your employees know what is going on. In difficult economic times never assume that your employee know what is “going on” with the company. The old adage No News is Good News is never motivational. Be frank about the challenges the company may be having and make an extra effort to celebrate positive developments.
And the cool interview question:

• Ask employees (and applicants) what they’d do with themselves if they had all the money they needed. OK, some people are going to say “nothing” — that’s a given. But some others will tell you what their true passions are. Maybe you won’t be able to accommodate them, but you’ll know what motivates the person and how you can best adjust the tasks at hand to match the passion. Example: If someone says, “I’d write a book,” you then know that person would be happier doing work that involves writing, even if it’s only routine reports.

Randall Barker is the VP of Human Resources for A Plus Benefits, Inc.

The following is a very thought provoking story and then a follow up to the original story. While this HR Update is longer than usual I believe it’s worth the time it will take to read the article.

After reading the article I believe a business owner or manager needs to ask several questions about the reader’s organization, do employees understand their role in the organization, does management know what is going on in “the trenches,” when an employee “colors outside of the lines” what effect does it have on other employees, is just okay good enough – have we accepted mediocrity.

What questions does this article spark in your mind about your organization?

We appreciate your business! We hope what we do for you allows you to get back to business.

Randall Barker SPHR CELS – VP Human Resources – A Plus Benefits, Inc.

Goodbye, Mr. Foster–A True Story About an Employee Who Was Too Good
Friday, September 26, 2008 7:00 AM HR Daily Advisor by BLR
by Steve Bruce – Andy Andrews also contributed to the story.

Can an employee do his or her job too well? If so, what do you do? Praise? Raise? Discipline? Terminate? Today’s guest columnist tells the true story of Foster, who did his job too well.

I met him at least 8 years ago at the Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport. He wore black pants and a white shirt with a black tie and bib apron. “Let me carry that for you, young man,” he said, noticing the balancing act I was performing with my luggage and the tray of food from Paschal’s Restaurant.

The old fellow grabbed my tray with a smile and was off, limping heavily on one leg that was obviously shorter than the other. I followed him around the escalator to an empty table I would never have found, and it was only then when I realized that he had also brought napkins, a straw, and packages of salt and pepper … items I usually forget.

With a flourish, he wiped the table, removed my plate from the tray and arranged it carefully with the napkins and the iced tea. Pulling back my chair as I hurriedly retrieved three, one-dollar bills from my pocket, he smiled and said, “God bless you.” His nametag read: FOSTER.

I was curious to see if this was a new service the airport had put in place. Certainly, I had never been “helped” before. I saw several other men and women dressed like my new friend, loosely assembled, and talking with each other, waiting without enthusiasm for tables to come empty. At that point, one of them would disengage from the group, clear any trash left on the table wipe it down, and return to their co-workers.

Glancing around the huge area, I quickly spotted Foster. Smiling, laughing, and moving fast, he helped one person after another. He never waited to be summoned. He went where he was needed.

I was back through the airport the next day and couldn’t wait to visit the food court again. Sure enough, there he was, the old man with the big smile. He helped me to a table as he had the day before (with napkins, salt and pepper, and a straw) and said, “God bless you, young man,” as he held out my chair.

I had a twenty folded and ready to place in his hand that day. I was impressed and inspired by this old man who struggled to walk, yet moved like a dervish as he cleaned empty tables and looked for people to serve. From that day forward, he was Mr. Foster to me.

As the years rolled by, I developed a great admiration for Mr. Foster. I saw him several times each month and introduced him to anyone with whom I was traveling. “Watch this guy,” I would always instruct as he left our table. “And watch that bunch of other people over there dressed just like him.” The contrast was clear.

I never once suspected Mr. Foster was making a play for tips. In fact, though I rarely slipped him less than twenty dollars, he often made me wait while he helped someone in obvious need of assistance. And whether they offered money or not, he always smiled, held their chairs and said, “God bless you.”

And then he was gone. Unable to find my friend, I asked the ladies at Paschal’s, “Where is Mr. Foster today?”

“Fired,” they told me. “They fired him. Humiliated him. Sent the man home!”

The Atlanta Airport Authority, I was told, had determined that Mr. Foster had become “a distraction.” They ordered him to stop helping people. “Stand with everyone else,” he was told, “and wait for the tables to empty. You are a busboy; act like one.”

A few months later, he was back (happy as ever) on a trial basis. But I never again let him carry my tray. I did, however, continue with the tips. He took the money because I made him take it. I was mad for him and he knew it. His “God bless you’s” often came to me with a tear. His spirit was gone.

Today, I went by Paschal’s. Before I could even ask, one of the ladies on the serving line spotted me. “I been expecting you,” she said. “Mr. Foster’s gone. He quit. Told ‘em he was old and sick and couldn’t do the work no more.” Then she cocked her head and added with a whisper, “He ain’t sick. There ain’t nothing broken about that old man.”

Nope, I thought as I turned away, there ain’t nothing broken about that old man. Nothing but his heart.

What happens to the Mr. Fosters in your organization? What can you do to encourage employees to go above and beyond for customers? Or should you? What do you think?

Readers See ‘Mr. Foster’ Column as Inspiring, Troublesome, Symptomatic
What a response to our recent story about “the employee who was too good”! Some readers called for a boycott, some lashed out at management, and one lashed out at HR.
Although most readers heaped lavish praise on Mr. Foster, one reader wasn’t convinced that he was such a good employee after all.

‘Mr. Foster personifies the ultimate customer service!’
One group of readers focused on what a good employee Mr. Foster was:

“Mr. Foster should be director of training. Where is this man now? Maybe I can hire him as a consultant!”

“Mr. Foster sounds like an exceptional employee. He should have been rewarded and given a pay raise.”

“Shame on that company. This is a person who should be rewarded and held up as an example to his co-workers.”

“Exceptional customer service … is becoming so rare that when some one does encounter it they write a book or a story about it.”

Boycott Foster’s Employer
Two readers called for a boycott of the restaurant where Foster worked:

“We should vow that when we go to Atlanta we will not use the services of Paschal’s. But we should stop and tell the manager what we think! I know I will take the extra step to do so.”

“Stories like this one make me angry and I retaliate by refusing to spend further money in their establishments.”

‘Going the Extra Mile Doesn’t Put You Ahead Any More’
Three readers felt the tale was symptomatic of what is wrong with America:

“From our school systems to our social systems to our work places, going the extra mile doesn’t put you ahead any more, but it alienates you from the group. Those who excel are punished while those who only put forth minimal are rewarded.”

“It was easier to ask people to be ’status quo’ so the managers did not have to encourage other employees to meet a higher standard.”

“I suspect poor Foster was the victim of a metrics push, and since the core function of the job was to clean tables, perhaps Mr. Foster didn’t react as quickly or clean as many tables as his do-nothing counterparts. In today’s workplace, it’s not about how well you do your job or please your clients, it’s about the number on the metrics chart.”

‘From top to bottom this story is about a management issue’
A number of readers blamed management for failing to appreciate Mr. Foster:

“Good waiters, busboys, etc. are trained, not born. If the ownership trained laziness, they got laziness … do-nothing employees are created by slacker ownership, management, and trainers.”

“This seems to have happened because of a lazy or unaware manager. It was easier to tell Mr. Foster to work less hard than to get the other workers to perform to his level.”

“I think we have all seen this attitude, ’slow down, you’re making the rest of us look bad.’ The question is, do you care about your customers enough to care about your employees?”

“If employees have no way to differentiate themselves from the herd of mediocre workers, everything and everybody achieves a lower, flatter, blander mediocrity because the real stars move to a better universe.”

“This is a situation where HR could and should have stepped in … or maybe HR is the problem.”

Maybe Mr. Foster Wasn’t that Great
One reader saw another angle:

“On the face it appears that the employer is the bad guy, but what do you do when an employee expands his job description under the guise of enhanced customer service at the expense of other job functions? What if customers were uncomfortable with his attentiveness and the undercurrent that perhaps a tip (How much is enough? You tipped $20) was required?

“Perhaps the employee was not being effectively recognized for doing the expected job functions. But you come along and tipped him $20. What behavior will he continue to exhibit?”

Finally, one reader added, “This was an excellent, thought-provoking story that I will use to underscore the need for timely, reasonable and relevant reprimands and rewards.”

Randal Barker is the VP of Human Resources for A Plus Benefits, Inc.