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I had an idea. One of the most interesting things that I saw during the conference was the role playing of feedback scenarios. How about if we start a thread where we write a scenario and other users post the script for the feedback they would give in that scene. After the feedback scripts die out, post another and so on....It should provide us hours of entertainmant....keke

I'll start:

You just got your google alerts for the morning and you found out that your best direct got back from their vacation in Amsterdam and posted their vacation photo's on their web page. One of the photo's contained an image taken in a coffee shop where your direct is passing what looks like a small hand rolled cigarette to his wife with a glassy stare and a smile.

Oh the quandary...lol Let's see what you guys come up with.

TomW's picture
Training Badge

OK, I'll bite.

"When you see a photo and make assumptions about your directs' actions that cannot be verified from the photo, it makes me wonder how much you trust them, maybe even if you are just looking for a reason to give them negative feedback. Not to mention, even if your assumptions are correct, such things are legal in the location the photo was taken.

How do you think you can handle this differently next time?"

;-)

AManagerTool's picture

Ha ha, he sees the dilemma. The point was not to give me feedback though.....LOL. :? :wink:

Scenarios like this are what happens in real life. The ones presented sometimes like the "your staff member is late" are the cut and dry easy ones that should be management 101. This stuff is the post-doc stuff.

I'll add something to the scenario. This semi vacation was after a two day business conference and one of the other people in the picture was one of your peers so now it's not just "Personal Time" thing. Another point is that if it's legal there but company policy is that all employees are screened to be drug free...even in the Amsterdam office, so does it matter? Oh, and the picture was crystal clear...it was indeed a joint as confirmed by your peer who was there "just getting a latte" LMAO.

By the way, this isn't a hypothetical. This happened this spring to a peer and I was helping him out with advice about it.

Try again...

rthibode's picture

Okay, I'll play.

"Direct, vacation photos you posted to your website were forwarded to me recently. Those photos show you doing something that wasn't wrong in that context, but is illegal in this country. When I see that you've put this side of your life on public display, I get concerned about your ability to be discreet, your understanding of Internet "privacy," and also about the possibility that these images could damage our organization's reputation. What can you to address these concerns?"

TomW's picture
Training Badge

If it's against company policy regardless of the law, that changes things. I see this the same way I look at professional athletes: A condition of employment is that employees don't take some certain substance, regardless of its purpose, and they may be tested to verify compliance with the policy. If a test reveals that an individual took that banned substance, he or she knew the risks, made a choice, and now has to deal with the consequences.

At this point, it's not about drugs, it's about violating company policy.

Now we have someone publishing a picture of themselves doing something against company policy AND something they could be tested for.

As we often hear, there are no secrets. People know when someone is terminated for something galactically stupid, like failing a drug test.

My feedback (more of a shot across the bow) would be this:
"When you do something that you know is against company policy and publish a photo of yourself doing it on the internet, it makes me wonder if I should terminate you myself, sparing you the humiliation of being terminated for failing a drug test."

stephenbooth_uk's picture

I'll give it a shot:

"I saw on your website that you'd posted some pictures from your trip to Amsterdam. One of them showed you handing what looked like a joint to your wife. When you post pictures like that where anyone can see them, I worry that our customers might see them and make a judgment about our company, I worry that others in the company might see them and make a judgment about our team and I especially worry that my boss might see them and tell me to have you tested for drug use. You do know that any form of drug use is against company policy and you can be tested any time. You do know that cannabis is still detectable in your blood for upto 6 months after the last time you used?

What could you do differently?"

If there's a specific penalty for testing positive I'd refer to that.

One company I worked for had a policy of first positive resulted in a warning, second positive resulted in a choice between drugs counselling with a written warning in yoru HR file or dismissal, 3rd was dismissal. A positive test also greatly increased the likelyhood of being 'randomly' selected for retesting, typically you could expect to be tested once every 18 months (although new starters were tested on their first day and again after 6 to 12 months) but if you tested positive that went to once every 3 months. A warning would expire 2 years after your last positive test. This covered not only illegal drugs but also alcohol and any other drugs that could impair your judgment or reaction speed. The rationale was that some of our employees were driving high speed trains so these restrictions were necessary for them and in the interests of fairness the same measures were applied to everyone. If you were taking any drugs of medical reasons then you were required to tell your line manager who would refer you to occupational health who would rule on whether they impacted on your ability to do your job. If they did impact your job you would be moved to a job where they didn't impact your ability to do the job, be put on 'gardening leave' or be referred to an out placement consultant depending on the level and type of impact and how long you would be on them.

Stephen

Fitch's picture

Hey, great idea for a thread AManagertool,

here's my attempt at a response.

"Hey, direct, can I give you some feedback?

I got a google alert this morning with some photos of you on that business trip to Amsterdam. When you post pictures like the one where you're smoking in that cafe, I wonder whether you realise that our customers and our execs can see them - and they may conclude something happened that wasn't the case - you know, amsterdam and the whole drug thing out there. They and I may start to get worried about the reasons behind your performance the next time your report isn't as good as it normally is, you may not be the person they think of when there's an opporunity coming up in the company and I may not think you are the best person to represent the company when there's another business trip coming up.

So, what can you do differently next time you have some photos to post on the internet? "

** See what I find really hard is to isolate the behaviour - is it that they guy *may* have been smoking something illegal, or is it the fact they posted photos of it. My guess the behaviour is the posting photos of it (whether it was illegal stuff or not because we cannot know that so can't isolate it as a behaviour. We wouldn't have known what went on if he hadn't posted the photos and haven't got behaviours which need correcting directly as a result of 'maybe' doing the illegal thing). If he started turning up for work with red-eye, sleepy, etc then those are behaviours related to the illegal stuff).

rwwh's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

Hm. Mark also says that it should not take many words. These are all quite wordy. Lets try and make it shorter.

[quote]When you post private pictures on the 'net it can damage your reputation. What can you do differently?[/quote]

Fitch's picture

Hmmm - but, what about context.

I have difficulty in 'introducing' a person to exactly what I want to give feedback about without 'tainting it' with my judgement.

eg. to say 'when you post private pictures...' they will say 'which ones are you talking about'...and then you have to describe them to them. I'd rather be specific about THAT behaviour (posting the smoking one) up front - it's the only one you've seen. This will also act as a 'shot across the bow' for anything else they have posted you haven't seen yet!

stephenbooth_uk's picture

Then how about:[quote]When you post private pictures on the 'net, for example those ones of you smoking in an Amsterdam cafe, it can damage your reputation. What can you do differently?[/quote]

Identifies the photos you saw but more brief ly and sets up in your direct's mind that perhaps that's not the only set of photos you saw, maybe you also saw the ones from the red light district.

Stephen