While Hanlon’s employees are relatively efficient workers, Hanlon’s management from the executive level down is responsible for many of the company’s woes.
1. Employees are not appreciated
While the employees truly are the heart of Hanlon, they are seen by management as little more than drones set to specific tasks. There is no accounting for an employee’s skills, background, or expertise. Often work is assigned to an employee without the necessary skills to complete the task, while a qualified employee is overlooked. In the rare instance that someone speaks up to management about a topic they have experience in, the suggestions are taken as a plot to “backstab” or “overthrow” the manager, and are thus ignored. Nervous managers repeatedly let suggestions fall to the wayside.
Likewise, an employee’s time is not valued. Many of the departmental meetings scheduled are postponed, delayed due to executives arriving late, cancelled, or even forgotten. This lack of regard for the time of employees extends down to even the lowest management levels, where weekly departmental meetings are repeatedly started 10-20 minutes late.
Communication between management and employees is almost completely nonexistent. As employees are seen as numbers rather than people, there is no sense of community between management and their workers. Thus, communication concerning the direction of the company, praise for a job well done, and requests for employee feedback come perhaps once a year, if that. For instance, while a large sum of money was spent building an addition onto the building, half of the employees in the older building are still working on folding tables with baskets as filing drawers. There has been no communication, nor initiative, to remedy the working conditions of these employees.
Finally, while Hanlon preaches a vow of confidentiality of all customer and employee records, this rule does not seem to apply to its senior executive staff. There have been many occasions when confidential information concerning an employee’s attitude or behavior has circled the office because a senior executive did not adhere to the strictest of confidences. Worse still, emails and chatter between management are overheard and read daily. It is very common to hear senior management refer to an employee, or even an entire department, in a degrading or derogatory fashion. Since many of these statements come from the HR department, employees do not feel they have a representative they can speak to about these breeches of trust.
2. Management is at war with itself
A major rift between managers, departments, and senior executives exists within the company. It accounts for many tasks being duplicated, extra work being assigned, and an air of hostility in the office. Stemming from a lack of definition of responsibilities, managers will quarrel amongst themselves for certain tasks when a project is assigned. In addition, there is no accountability for most of the managers in the office. If an error occurs, blame is passed down the ladder, instead of up the ladder. Loyalty within departments is also lacking. Managers feel no loyalty towards their inferiors, and have no problems passing blame to their workers for their own shortcomings.
Senior management is especially vindictive, with no clearly defined roles between Hanlon and its sister company. Many tasks are passed around the senior officers until they land on the desk of an unsuspecting associate. This is mainly a result of certain senior officials unnecessarily being involved in aspects of both companies.
3. Lack of lasting career training
Employees are given an initial training session at the onset of employment, and indeed the hiring orientation is one of the most detailed I have ever experienced. However, that is the end of the training for the remainder of your career at Hanlon. Unfortunately, attempting to learn new tasks on your own is not only frowned on, it can be potentially harmful. Most of the managers see a curiosity in the inner workings of the company as a threat to their position. Despite the general service attitude of most workers, the everyday atmosphere at Hanlon is one of fear, nervousness, and suspicion due to management quelling the instinctive questioning of the human mind.
Procedures are purposely sparse to be sure only certain selected people can be experts on the tasks. Asking to be trained is questioned and met with suspicion. Questions about why a process is done a certain way are ignored, or regarded as an act of insubordination. Knowledge is not shared, nor is it encouraged to be shared.
