Two Tough Calls
A Journal by Karan Vaidya
! What are the responsibilities of a manager to his or her employees? Should a manager divide a person’s internal career (current career within the company) or also the person’s external career (future career, probability and possibility)? How does a manager divide an employees human side and official side (the side that makes the employee just a part of the whole company) and maker his ir her decision? Then how does she separate her human side to make these decisions?

The fact that the case was a first person narrative, it helped me place myself in the shoes of ‘Susan’, the manager and look at it with a personal perspective. In our case, we have two very different characters, Terry and Phil. We can see, that Terry is a nuisance, and has come to his position through “guanxi” or relationships, rather than the traditional Human Resources methods. Therefore, my first insight was to jump into the conclusion that Terry does not belong to his department or even the company. But as I looked deeper into the case, I realize that what Terry did was doing a job that noone else could. His work methods were somewhat ‘sleazy’ and ‘unethical’, but he almost seemed like a necessary evil. Secondly, agreeing with Susan, Phil is definitely not as bad as Terry. But Phil definitely requires motivation. His state seems much more situational than Terry’s, and after reading the secoknd part of the case, I realized that infact he was seriously ill. But how should a manager leave his or her human, empathetic style and be a completely rational being and make her judgement according to facts and data. This is a dilemma, I believe every manager faces throught life. Reflecting on a personal experience, and amalgamating the fore-mentioned dilemma, I recall an event in my life, where I had a very difficult decision to make. As I was a very young manager in my company in Nepal, gaining respect was certainly hard tast, especially in a culture where elders are much respected. Therefore, going against the Machievellin statement of power, “Its best to be feared and loved; however, if one cannot be both, it is better to be feared than loved” (The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli); I turned into a manger that's more loved than feared. Therefore, this brought me about to the dilemma mentioned above. An office chauffer, who had been working for more than 25 years at the office (even before I was born), was suspected with imbezzelment in the company. I was furious when I heard this news, and I had almost made my decision to fire him. Therefore, I summoned his to my office to get a reasoning. We need to understand the situation here, the chauffer had seen me grow up, he had taken me to school everyday. And now seeing him here in my office was disheartening. He brokedown and talked to me about his lack of education in life and wanting to give his daughter the opportunity that he never got. He wanted to do the right things but through the

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wrong reasons. Knowing my human side and his human side, versus the facts of imbezzelment and my position as a young manager, I was in a terrible catch-22 situation. Therefore, I could relate to Susan in a particular way. But my decision was not to fire him, but give him one last opportunity, keeping him under strong supervision. My decision was definitely swayed by my human side, but also something I read. Dale Carnegie explains in his acclaimed interpersonal relationship management book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving”. And sometimes these strategic forgiveness leads to much better results than expected. I realized that the chauffer was frustrated with the fact that he was not well educated and could not even dream to be promoted. Therefore he wanted his daughter to have a much better opportunity in the world. Therefore, moving to the situation after, I understood his desire for a more valued position, and worked my way to give him a supervisorial role in the company. He is happy now and works with a vigour that he didn't show in the 25 years he worked before. Therefore, listening to the human side of one, as a manager can certainly bring good outcomes. Moving to my last question, what should a manager’s responsibilities? I believe manager should treat his employees more than just pieces of a puzzle that make a whole. Professor Qian brought up a very interesting and justified point. Manager’s should not jut look at their employee’s career internally (related to the current company), he or she should undoubtedly think about their future and give them an opportunity for redemption even if they have wronged in the current situation. Therefore, I am quite against the concept of “two weeks notice”, cause it is an inconsiderate timeline fore both, the employee and the employer. Giving the short time could be particularly difficult to find a job, especially in the economy today. Therefore, there is a need of reform regarding this rule. Therefore, summarizing my journal, I asked the following questions. What are the responsibilities of a manager to his or her employees? Should a manager divide a person’s internal career (current career within the company) or also the person’s external career (future career, probability and possibility)? How does a manager divide an employees human side and official side (the side that makes the employee just a part of the whole company) and maker his ir her decision? Then how does she separate her human side to make these decisions? I answered my queries using self-reflection and personal opinions. Therefore, I believe that a manager should be responsible of the employee, as he has the power to be so. And with great power comes great responsibility. He should not divide neither the employees career nor hir or the employees human side.

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