When to speak up

Standing up for other people, and your integrity, are both the hardest and easiest things for me.  It’s easy because I feel I have no choice.  It’s also hard, though, because my personality type is subtle as a brick…so I feel compelled to jump onto a rooftop and scream that something is going horribly wrong, and everyone needs to listen.  I know you may find this a great shock, dear reader, but that isn’t always the most effective way.  Having an impact in a difficult situation is incredibly challenging, and I’ve seen my fair share of them.  Probably the hardest one to date was when I had to whistleblow to the Board about a CEO.  Not fun at all.

Over the last few weeks, one of those situations has been unfolding.

My team works right next to our Communications and Government team – a group of around 12 people.  Soon after I joined the Company, the Head of the Comms and Govt team arrived too – we were new kids at the same time.  I was really looking forward to him joining, because I always had a wonderful relationship with the incredibly talented Comms and Govt teams in my Old Job, and I figured there were plenty of opportunities for us to work together to really improve some of the way the Company managed its stakeholders.

Boy, was I wrong.  Within 5 minutes of meeting him, my “arsehole” radar shot straight up, especially when he announced he hated a friend of mine.  Hmmm.  He reinforced this when he passed some of my work off as his own in a meeting with the CEO – right in front of me!  Another hmmm.  With my bubbly personality, I couldn’t let that slide, and I confronted him, and asked if he always took credit for the work of others.  Silence.

Since then, we’ve had a pretty frosty relationship.  The big difference is that I am publicly supportive of his role, and keep telling people in the business that they need to engage him on comms issues.  Meanwhile, he is busy building his empire, and he keeps telling his team not to involve me in their initiatives (they have ignored him).

I stood by and watched as he quickly alienated people in his team.  Quite early on, he lost a talented comms person, who loudly proclaimed that they were leaving because of him.  Since then, 8 of his staff have turned over (in just 8 months).  A particular member of his team, Olive, is pretty vocal.  She’s famous for being passionate, and often not letting an issue go when she needs to.  However, she’s smart, diligent, and she’s been with the Company for nearly 11 years.  She’s a good soul.

Olive and the Arsehole has troubles from day 1.  She had been tossing up whether to tell the CEO or one of his Direct Reports about the issues, and ended up meeting with the head HR dude to take him through all the dramas.  Two weeks ago, the Arsehole ”restructured” her out of a job.  Now, I don’t think it was a real redundancy – it was him getting rid of someone who stood up to him.  Being Olive, she stood up for herself.  I was the first person she came to. 

As General Counsel, these situations can be sticky.  However, I knew that I wouldn’t be advising the Company on the legal issues arising from her redundancy (I was conflicted), and I made it clear that I wasn’t going to talk to her about the legality of what was being done.  I was, though, prepared to be a support for her.  To listen, and to give personal advice.

God, the whole thing felt so much like when I left my Old Job - how COULD I not have supported her?  So, I listened, and sympathised, and told her about the importance of finishing up and moving on.  But she wanted to tell some people what was happening in her area, and I understood the reasons why.  If she wanted to have her say, I advised, she needed to be calm and rational.  The more psycho she came across (no matter how much it was deserved), the less her words would mean.   Calm down, prepare what you will say, deliver your message, and leave.  Leave the listener with the feeling that you are telling them these things “more in sorrow than in anger.”

There was another dilemma: what would I do about this situation?  Soon after the Arsehole joined, I gave a warning to the HR people about him, suggesting that they keep an eye on his behaviour.  I also had a number of senior people say things to me about the Arsehole, so it was clear some people were onto him.  But now, with the situation with Olive, what would I do?  Especially since others in her team had started to talk with me about their issues.

The other challenge was that Olive had been pushing for her Government team to report to me.  While I’d love to have that area, I was concerned about the issues in my role as a leader in the Company.  I really try and avoid undermining others at all costs.  The last thing I wanted was to be seen to be speaking up to manipulate the situation.  But how could I ignore the way people were being treated, right under my nose?

So, when I found myself in the elevator with the top HR dude, I quietly dropped a bomb: “there are problems in that team”, I said, “you might want to look into them.”  And out of the lift I stepped (much like the Phantom).  I also thought I should say something to Dumb Boss (but got waylaid by the shock of my own bizarre performance review – see last post!).

Yesterday, Olive went to see the CEO.  He opened their conversation by apologising to her, and promising to look into the issue.  Yesterday afternoon, Dumb Boss rang me.  He asked me what I knew about what was going on.  I went up to see him.  “Should we be losing Olive?”  No, I said.  She’s a dedicated, smart, good worker.  We are nuts to let her leave.  But, and here’s the rub: I thought that, after everything that had happened, she would be better off getting a fresh start.  It would be best for Olive if she took the money and ran.

Dumb Boss confessed that he had been pushing for me to get the Government Team transferred to me, so I made it clear to him that, while I’d love to do it, I wasn’t after the job, and I was just about making sure they understood the issues with the Arsehole.    Apparently, news of other complaints about the Arsehole have filtered up to the CEO, who is working out that the Arsehole isn’t very good at his job.  God Bless Dumb Boss: he is still pushing for the change.  But the CEO has (wisely) decided to sit on the decision: if he moves part of the Arsehole’s team to me, he may as well fire him.

I am really proud of the Company for having this conversation.  At my Old Job, the CEO would have just let this dreadful situation continue until more lives were lost, or something gi-NOR-mormous blew up.  God, I hope something happens to sort this situation out!

At the end of the day, I’m glad I said something.  While I’ll never know what impact my speaking up had, at least I know that I can live with myself; that I wasn’t one of the people who sat in corners gossiping, but not being courageous enough to stand up for the human beings I work with.

One of my Management Team asked me last week why I felt I had to say something (I had told her about my elevator conversation with the HR dude).  Although it’s probably a little exaggerated for this context, I told her, it’s probably because the saying that most irks me most is this one:

“All it takes for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.”