A Case Study in Professional Ethics in the IT Industry
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Author:
punslinger
Can I pick your brain for a few minutes? (Thanks)
First, a little bit of background.
A small software shop (let us call it ‘The Shop’) that I am helping out as a consultant has a four year old relationship with a strong and stable European client; a relationship that they are working hard to retain. In this economic phase of a high demand for experienced software professionals, The Shop’s relatively unknown name does not attract a lot of resources from the top tier, but it has still managed to create and retain a decent team with them for the last 3 years.
Now, the problem.
The trouble started two months ago, when one of The Shop’s lead developers left for greener pastures (read a larger firm paying a few thousand Rs.). He left on good terms with the shop’s management (and is freelancing for them now), but he also left a big hole in The Shop’s small structure that needed a quick replacement. Meanwhile, their client was requesting a further increase in team size to handle the ever-increasing workload.
This is when a Mr. K, a very experienced programmer and a former employee of The Shop, showed an interest in rejoining, as the pastures that he had left for earlier were drying up (read paycuts). The Shop was quite happy to have Mr. K back as he would have partially patched up the widening hole, and already possessed prior domain knowledge.
The above information is important as it shows that:
- The shop has a cool work environment, a place that people can comfortably come back to.
- The people running the shop are open-minded enough to welcome former employees back into their team instead of holding grudges.
- The grass on the other side usually looks greener than it is.
Anyway, The Shop was happy, the client was happy, and while the shop started scheduling interviews to hire support team members for Mr. K, the client sent one of their project managers from Europe to Pakistan, so that he may train and understand the team for better offshore coordination. The Shop’s CEO also went out of the way to attend Mr. K’s numerous phone calls, and agreed to most of his demands, so eventually, Mr. K signed a contract with the shop last week.
Two days after Mr. K signed the contract, the CEO told me that he had just gotten a one-liner email from Mr. K telling him that he won’t be joining The Shop after all. No apologies, no explanations and no mention of the penalties for such an action that are included as a standard in the contract. The CEO also heard from the grapevine that Mr. K has opted to join another firm.
Despite being an outsider for the most part, I was boggled by Mr. K’s arrogant and unprofessional behavior. Ignoring it this time was not an option as such behavior is not anomalous anymore – I have seen this happen more than once in the last few years. The Shop’s CEO also wants to do something about this incident instead of letting it go, and I personally think he is right because a) Mr. K signed a contract, and is legally obliged to fulfill it, or pay the penalty, and b) This action reflects very badly upon the Pakistani software industry as a whole – the project manager has arrived and is asking ‘Where is the guy that I have to train? The one who is joining from tomorrow.’
So my questions to you are:
- Has such a thing ever happened to you?
- If you were the shop’s CEO, what would you have done?
I am hoping that the discussion in the comments will help us in formulating an SOP/checklist that would be helpful to all shops that face a similar situation in the future.
10:35 pm
This is a tricky situation. Unfortunately, something that happens quite often. Unless it explicitly says in the contract that Mr. K can’t void the agreement without giving X days notice after Y months .. there is nothing that the CEO of The Shop can do about it..
1:43 am
ob: The contract does have an explicit clause that the person has to give a one month notice – after signing the contract, he automatically becomes an employee and the clause applies.
The dilemma is, if the CEO takes some legal action against Mr. K, then The Shop is automatically perceived as the bad guys. On the other hand, I personally think that Mr. K does deserve some punishment for disrupting the lives of a dozen people just by acting the way he did.
Another thing that I have noticed after this incident is that employers in Pakistan are probably so desperate to hire good people that they have stopped background checks. Ideally, his new employer should have called up the last two employers and asked them the kind of person Mr. K was – that just does not happen anymore (please correct me if I am wrong).
So, instead of saying “Sh1t happens, lets just get over it and move on”, they want to do something about it. Mr. K is probably technically a criminal, but ofcourse nobody would want to ruin someone’s life just to get even.
So just to clarify, they don’t want to start a “The Shop vs. Mr. K” battle – but at the same time, their intentions are to make Mr. K (and hopefully other people of his mindset) think twice before doing the same to others.
So, a couple of the relatively lenient options that have been discussed so far are:
* Contacting his new employer directly and telling them Mr K’s standards.
* Contacting his school and letting them know what their graduates are doing – maybe they’ll add a mandatory Business Ethics course (wishful thinking) to their curriculum.
* Getting in touch with Mr. K again and asking him to pay whatever penalty that was in the contract. This may sound petty but if Mr. K changed his track for a few thousand rupees extra only, then he’ll end up with a bit less gain.
Do you think the above would be mean/unfair etc.?
Do you think they should “give the poor guy a break?”
1:57 am
Ob, from my experience, even the people who sign contracts still slip away. I have dealt with these cases e.g., candidate joined and after 2 days decided that he/she had another greener pasture and would opt for it.
Unfortunately, it all comes down to how professional we are. If this conversation is read by the employer who hired Mr. K, see what mess you are starting up. Its a vicious cycle we all are part off and the butterfly effect, affects everyone.
As a recruiter we try 99% to make sure there are no loose ends from either client or employee side, which can backfire for the 3 parties, primarily The client, employee and also us. But then there are always those bad cases, which are titled under “Lesson learned”.
6:24 am
First thing, a contract usually has a probation period (3 – 6 Months). during this time, the employee can be terminated or leave or at one day’s notice. It is only after this time, that the employee has to give notice. Usually nothing is to be paid by EITHER side during this time.
Two, calling up School would not make much difference. Either, because they do not care about their students or because switching jobs is like changing clothes for grads of these institutions.
Three, If you call up the new employer, what are you going to tell them? Would they be interested in his qualifications or his decision to leave school (i dont think so).
Fourth, if you do want to take some action, then go ahead and sue. It will not do anything for your Company, but it will be nice seeing from afar and making comments. Seriously, do take action, it will create buzz, force K to hire lawyers – expensive and finally will hopefully start some discussion on employee – employer rights.
11:06 am
i was about to say the same thing as Kamran, about the probation period. I was in a similar situation once, in the place of Mr. K, however, my contract had this clause of three months probation where either party could leave without ill will. i chose to leave before i joined due to certain personal reasons but that didn’t mean i breached the contract. infact, i even gave the prospective company notice two weeks before i was due to join.
as for what you are supposed to do, well… have you ever looked into succession planning?
i know of this one ‘shop’ here who hires interns, works them up into junior team members and finally till team leads after which they even think about leaving. the shop has a retention rate of around 3 years per employee and a very low risk hiring proposition.
building inhouse takes time, but in the long run is normally more beneficial than bringing in star players… because lets face it.. star players leave quickly!
11:19 am
Some things, I forgot to add.
What is the CEO going to do about the customer? what steps has he taken to replace K and not waste time of the representative?
How much were the bucks, which made the K change his mind? couldn’t the CEO offer him the same bucks? what kind of relationship did the shop have with K? wouldn’t he like working with a nice team even at a lower salary? I would like to know the other side of the story also
11:28 am
On previous Tuesday I went o my old company just for meeting my old colleagues, One of them asked for my help and I sat there and fixed the bug.
What I wanted to say is that When you leave the company please do not leave the bad impression.
Employers should know that every employees has to leave one day and they should be prepared to recover from the loss.
as far as professionalism is concerned, I think ruining somebody’s life will not get any good for the company. [agreed with Kamran]
2:39 pm
Well, I am the CEO……. Here are the answers…
The contract did not have a probation period…. this was done on the request of Mr K
Furthermore our client had come all the way from Europe and this was told to Mr K at the time of hiring…
I did manage the damage done buy outsourcing….
Not to mention, M K took our contract and showed it to his present employer who gave him an increase and kept him…..
Not to mention Mr K is from a university in Pakistan everyone would love to go…….
I do intend writing this to the university and seeing the his boss where he got his raise…But I salute his boss too…..
3:00 pm
In my opinion; the key point is the extend of unprofessional-ism. No one is Pakistan gives a damn to contracts/rules – so let get that out of the way.
I had always thought of setting an association keeping “resource reputation index” for Pakistani software industry. And then to use that as one of the indicators for hiring.
You see the bottom line is that small companies some times are starving for resources. New people do not want to join as they are small; and they want to take on more projects (to expand).
I think it might actually be useful to have some ethics enforced not only on employees but also on software companies; so that they do not cut each other’s throat.
3:10 pm
ceo, the shop: as an employee and employer, i truly feel your pain. i had one prospective employee give me the boot two days before joining as well, even though we had gone through several rounds of discussions etc. i had even called up a senior resource from khi to isb for interview and initial mentoring. granted not the same as your situation but i sympathize.
however, one thing i did do was have backup plans, and even though the resource i wanted didn’t join, i had two others lined up for the job as well.
a little contingency planning goes a long way.
neerahi: ethics are, im sorry to say, learned from elders. one cannot blame resources alone for being selfish and self centered. it is a trait learned by who and what they see senior people doing.
that said, it is also not impossible to induct professionalism into a resource when they are working in your organization. a company, department or division will be as ethical and professional as the people running it.. so if you manage to make the top professional the bottom will follow suit.
3:39 pm
Well, the other part of the story is that this isn’t the first thing this has happened and this time around the board of directors decided to fire the CEO and hired me.
So I filed a case against Mr. K; since I am quite well connected, I also made sure he cannot join the other organization. Furthermore, I gave ads in the newspaper about the incident warning everyone that they are taking a risk by hiring Mr. K – as there is a stay order by court.
Coming back – I offered Mr. K to either pay us 300,000 rupees and settle it outside the court OR just come to our office say sorry to everyone and tell everyone that he was wrong and also say the same in the other company’s office and he’d be free to go. Mr. K was quite wise so he decided to choose the later option.
Since this incident, no one has ever breached any contract with our firm. Retention is still a small issue but at least not contracts are enforced properly.
3:40 pm
Correction:
“…this isn’t the first thing this has happened…”
“this isn’t the first TIME this has happened…”
Sorry for the typo
6:22 pm
In my opinion, a true professional should try to work in such a way that your employer (ex or current) do have a strong bond of trust with you. Secondly, if you plan to move, I would recommend one to do adequate homework earlier than job hunt and then talk to your current employer. As I feel trust is the only thing, which you can earn in your life-time. Despite the fact that Mr. K has apologized, can he be able to build his trust again with the people @ ‘the shop’ or around.
Goodwill is like fragrance, spread with slow pace but last very long and Badwill is like bad smell, spread much faster than one expect.
6:42 pm
Please note that MR k has not apologize , the comment you read is by someone else giving his example….
Mr K has in fact told me to do whatever i can, he cares less……
6:49 pm
I’m confused, we have “CEO, the shop” and also “New CEO, the shop” according to him the Ceo, the shop has been fired! Whats the reality ?
6:55 pm
May be the guy with New Ceo is presenting a hypothetical situation as to what he will do if he is the CEO of the shop.
The reality is that Mr K is so shameless that he is not even willing to excuse himself
8:40 pm
Thank you everyone for the overwhelming response. There’s certainly a lot of brain-power at work here
The CEO, is indeed the CEO of The Shop, whom I have invited here for a more direct interaction.
The New CEO, though, is probably an entity from a parallel universe from some time a months in the future
So far, from the comments, we figure out that Mr. K explicitly did not want a probation period (it would have been his 2nd probation period there, doesn’t make a lot of sense).
@mansoor: I totally agree with you on the “star players leave early” part. They want to solve the problems at hand and move on to higher grounds instead of being “dead wood”. Star players don’t, however, sign a contract and back out of it two days later, so Mr. K is certainly no star player. The Shop is already working on an intern mentoring plan.
I don’t know about Mr. CEO, but I personally try to try to let other candidates off the hook as soon as I have hired somebody for a position, so as not to keep them waiting. Unless you have the funds to employ and retain redundant resources, not everyone can keep people waiting in a queue (if there is any alternative practice that allows it, do share it here, maybe the CEO and everyone else can benefit from it).
@Kamran I would have to disagree on retention by pay-raise (the More-Bucks solution) for two reasons:
1- It sets up an example for the other employees. Every time they want a raise, all they need to do is get a higher job offer and wave it in front of the employer’s face. It does work, I’ve seen it work dozens of times, and Mr. K probably used The Shop’s contract to achieve just that. Sure, we are all in the market to sell ourselves, but ethics in my dictionary is knowing where to stop.
2- It shows that the employer COULD have paid the employee higher, but he didn’t bother until he/she was forced to do that. Personally speaking, I wouldn’t want to work for such an employer with a bad taste in my mouth, and would rather move on after outgrowing a certain position.
So the question remains, what is The CEO to do?
If Mr. K says I don’t give a damn what you do, then after picking your brains (thanks again, really), I would have to agree with Mr. New CEO, who brings knowledge from the future…
As long as it does not cost a lot in terms of time and money, Mr. CEO should pursue the matter legally, and agreeing with Kamran that it should start a buzz and at least waste some of Mr. K’s time, and perhaps make him question if what he did was really worth it.
@Neerahi If I remember correctly, a long time ago, P@SHA took (or was planning on) such an incentive where the members could blacklist persons just like Mr. K, so that they had a tough time getting a job with other P@SHA members. Does anybody know what became of that?
5:43 am
punslinger, you are right. I am indeed from a parallel universe called SD439 – just 3 million light years away – we just started receiving WiMax service (though the problems are same as the ones you have ;)).
In this case, the CEO HAS to be decisive. It’s not about ruining someone’s career but about his “authority” as the CEO. Other employees have to know that contracts have a value and if the CEO doesn’t follow up, basically they’d get the signal that the contracts have no value. Myself as the New CEO, I pursued Mr. K and he indeed apologized. We made it clear that there is no personal against Mr. K, but it’s just that if you break a contract, we’ll come after you (remember, I am also in the business to feed my family so Mr. K has no right to jeopardize my ability to feed my family, right?). By the way, this was quite a big contract and we had strict deadlines along with the penalties. So if we weren’t able to hire a new resource, we would have to pay around 30,000 $ as a fine for missing deadline.
By the way, since this had happened before, I did have some backup plans. Actually my HR manager is a great guy – he already had a few people in the queue and we had contacted them the day we signaled Mr. K would back out. We followed up with Mr. K just to make a point that you can’t mess with us.
On a different note, whether your employee “steals” your code, use your portfolio/good will to create and launch his business, or simply break a contract, it’s the CEO’s responsibility to do whatever it takes to snub these actions. For his own sake as well as the sake of the industry.
By the way, regarding raising salary – I’d do it if I had no other choice (remember I was going to pay $30,000 in fines) but I’d fire the employee as soon as I had a replacement.
Lastly, we have a policy of not hiring ex-employees who left for greener pastures unless we are totally and desperately in need of those employees. The reason is simple – I have personal grudge against people who leave us for a couple of thousand more (though I’ll never admit this in public).
10:53 am
Punslinger, as you have started this though very interesting discussion and I would like to add more in to it. But first please clear us, who is the real CEO here ?
4:38 pm
“The CEO” is the real deal.
Even though “The New CEO” has put up some very valid points, but his use of the past tense has created a bit of confusion. Mr. New CEO please don’t confuse us, we are simple-minded folks here – or better, go back to your SD439 universe!
Meanwhile, in our universe, Mr. K has still not apologized or paid up – but thanks to this discussion, Mr. CEO (and the rest of us) are a bit wiser after seeing the different perspectives on this situation.
smunir: This is my first post on GreenWhite, my motive behind starting this discussion was precisely to get people with lots of HR experience (like yourself) to share some insights – so thank you again, and please do add more to this.
4:47 pm
Everyone has a right to better pay and benefits. CEOs are not Bonos and not working for world peace. If they are so touchy maybe they should move to communist countries.
4:53 pm
Also if CEO tries to ruin someone life i.e. play dirty, they should hire thugs and tell them to break CEO’s legs. Just below the knees would be a good lesson to others. Otherwise just put his car on fire.
5:06 pm
aa, sorry to say that you are missing the ethics part completely. May be you “can” not comprehend it.
What about breaking the hands of Mr K; that will teach him a good lesson and also have him out of action for 3 months.
Every one has a right to better pay; but then there are some “minimum” professional rules/ethics that people must observe.
I think money shall not be the guiding principle in the life; else the notorious remark made by the US attorney general about Pakistanis, who had allegedly played an important role in capturing Aimal Kasi, will come true.
5:32 pm
If your CEO can ditch you in a day’s notice so you can dump him.
We don’t live in Victorian times, rules that are lopsided needed to be taken care of. If company plays dirty (e.g. Axact) it is good to return the favor multiplied by 2.
It is great Mr. K ditched CEO for better opportunity, only issue he should say to his face.
6:08 pm
My my my, we are getting blood thirsty. That is the simple answer to all our problems, break someone’s legs or other parts of body, torch the car / the building / the person etc.
Having a reputation for violence is a great advantage in hiring people or attracting customers.
All power to you.
6:14 pm
LOL
6:23 pm
Thank you for your input aa, I think this is probably the other side of the story’ that Kamran wanted to hear.
It looks like you have had some bad experiences, I completely agree with the “right to better pay and lifestyle” philosophy.
I don’t think a CEO can ditch you at a day’s notice otherwise – there is usually an X days notice or the same amount of pay from employer clause in contracts to counter that.
IMHO, Mr. K has every right to “ditch” any company to move on to a higher paying job, if ditching is all he does. I would define ditching as either telling your prospective employer no thanks, after they make the job offer, or, once you have joined, telling your CURRENT employer, sorry, gotta go, have a better offer, here’s your 1 month notice, I’m leaving next month (or, here’s the 1 month salary that I need to pay for leaving the next day).
I am not a lawyer, but failure to do either of the last two things takes you from an “I ditched my employer for a better pay” to a “Haha, see, this is Pakistan, I can do whatever I please” situation.
Similarly, it is tricky to define “playing dirty” and is part of my question. Since our legal system does not work the same way as the USA or European countries (where you can sue for slander), so we need to define:
* ruin someone’s life (would the CEO actually ruin Mr. K’s life by legal action? Would he be the bad guy? Did Mr. K ruin the CEO’s life by breaking a contract?)
* playing dirty (Is using job offers as stepping stone playing dirty? Is stalking someone who ditched you playing dirty?)
I also think we have the tendency to take things a bit too personally, and we are uncomfortable unless we have chosen sides, so it is either the CEO or Mr. K.
A lot of such questions can be asked, argued upon and answered.
Breaking legs is probably A solution, but it is not THE solution we should go for – atleast not until we set up a few dozen wheelchair factories.
6:29 pm
Now for the issues,
a. Abdul Wahid is correct in saying that, don’t leave a bad impression, when you leave. I have offered a lot of opportunities due to ex colleagues.
b. Old CEO, a followup on your comments:
i. Congrats on the damage control exercise.
ii. I think, you did kind of bent over backwards for K.
iii. if we are talking about the same uni, then their grads are famous for switching jobs as often as they change clothes. i don’t think writing to them would make a difference.
c. as far as being a professional is concerned, tell me, who (employer or employee) is a professional here? most of us are clerks / babus. so what do you expect?
d. I hate people, who take contracts & show it to bosses to have their package improved. At the same time, I hate bosses, who can pay more, but refuse to do so. Know a guy, who was in desperate need of a job and was offered one, which he accepted. He later on found that, he was given half the salary, which the HR Dept of the Company had recommended (based on his experience & qualifications), because his boss had said so. it led to quite a few nasty things.
6:47 pm
punslinger,
a. Are you going to ruin someone’s life by taking legal action? K has already ruined his life. This is a small community and word does travel around. Mr K would find it bit hard to find jobs, especially in Companies owned by CEO / Punslinger and their friends. that would be 5-10% of the job market closed to him. the only thing legal action would do is inform the rest of us about K’s identity and close another 20-30% of the job market. it will also harm him a bit financially.
b. both using job offers as stepping stones and stalking someone is dirty. but define stalking someone for me. is enforcing a contract stalking, i dont think so.
7:04 pm
by the way,
an example of what the NEW CEO would do to K. Check out this guy and what happened to him:
“Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua”
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-6488766.html
8:54 pm
Kamran, that is a good point.
I used this real case for my first post here on G&W as it is a classic case of the “This is Pakistan” or (“Yeh Pakistan Hai”) syndrome, a phrase that most of us hate. I really hope we can continue to discuss and think about similar small yet important issues, because bunched together, they make up the Pakistan brand.
I decided not to disclose any identities (The Shop/The CEO/K/his institute) because I wanted to use Mr. K as an example for constructive discussion rather than hijacking Green & White to use it as a propaganda tool against Mr. K.
Given that the management of The Shop belongs to other cities/countries and does not have the connections to block Mr. K’s career paths until he repents (though they may have the connections to break his legs, above the knees or burns hi car (kidding!)), perhaps they can begin by contacting the new employer and we can see if the new employer merely wants a resource or has some higher ethical standards and confronts Mr. K about it. I hope Mr. CEO comes to a decision and updates us via this thread soon.
12:27 am
I am indeed not the real ‘the CEO’ here, however I’ve seen this issue before and I’ve had the opportunity to ruin a career as well. One of the great master mind did this and broke the contract to go for masters, and I had the option to get him deported – but decided not to do it … though everyone in my company knew we could do it.
@aa, you are sure welcome to get the legs of CEO broken but just remember your limitations and connections. Don’t get emotional and think that you can get away with it. Just realize what connections and resources you have and what your CEO has. If your CEO isnt resourceful enough, he’ll probably not do anything in the first place, and if he is.. then you’d be quite foolish to do this. Two of my friend-CEOs had issues where their employees tried to resell the code base, in one case the employees ended up in jail and in other, the family was harassed by the police until he returned from the US and settled the matter!
The bottom line is, when someone acts unprofessional there is no kindness… you act decisively as the captain of the ship. It’s what your job is! Other team members, clients, your team members’ dependents, your own dependents look up to you to act decisively.
Everyone is expected to act professionally if you’ve signed a contract you’re expected to fulfill it and yes you can be fired with a single day notice with advance month salary (or whatever is decided in the contract or company policy). If the CEO/employer break the contract, well then their reputation will be destroyed and you could take a legal action as well (but I guess that’s not really practical). In that case, just move on and avoid similar companies in future.
10:22 am
hmm sounds like companies are hiring thugs for CEO’s positions..i guess some people miss the capitalist doctrines here :-)..greener pastures are always there.. contracts are also there..but hey companies backout of multi million dollar contracts and nuthin happens.. what happens is that they DO MOVE ON!and focus on business rather revnege..but i guess some CEO’s have alot of time here to go around playing “V for Vendetta” ;).. neway interesting to see some1 regards ethics as useful.. although i really don’t think it exists..
12:24 pm
@Rashad, please come to the real world.
When you miss deadlines, you pay fines.
When you break contracts, you pay fines.
When you scratch my back, I scratch yours – Plain and simple.
It’s not about being “thug”; it’s about being professional. I have nothing against you or your family and expect the same from you. However, if you hit me below the belt and back out of contract in which I’ve invested my VERY HARD earned money (I work 18 hrs a day to build a company that I have) and if you think you can get away with demaging that – you’re mistaken. I’ll be ruthless because I love my team members who do comply with contracts, and above all my family who is supportive when I am working 18 hrs a day. So sorry about being harsh, but you CANNOT get away by breaking contracts. You can call me thug, but all I care for us making sure everyone acts professionally – we are not a kindergarten group of kids – you can’t just walk out and say “mein naee khaylta” – unfortunately!
Personally I dont care about “ethics”. I care about people keeping their contracts, and playing it fair. You go out of your way to damage my business – rest assured, I can hire people to go out of their ways to make your life miserable (and I have the financial means and WILL to do it!).
The reason I am writing this here is because I’ve seen this before, I’ve acted decisively, my friend CEOs (btw one of whom is CEO of a VERY famous online service locally and I am sure a lot of people already know the story) have gone through it and I just wanna use this platform to make everyone aware that now people don’t move on. You can’t say that contracts have no value in Pakistan – that time is over for good. This is Pakistan, whoever has the money has the power and the contacts so when you think about breaking contracts and commitments, think many times over. Play it straight and you’ll grow professionally and otherwise. Simple.
12:33 pm
By the way, no one is against greener pastures. Everyone has a right to move on to better opportunities and hence improve their life. However, all we expect from people is to keep their contractual commitments, and work honestly until the contract lasts so that they can make a simple “halal” living if nothing else.
People have to realize that when you break your commitments which also includes delaying salaries, not fulfilling promises made at the time of hiring etc., they are basically harming the individual(s) on the other side. So it works both ways.
1:08 pm
I fully agree with ‘The new CEO’. He has some very good points. We all should see both sides of the story. Commitment is everything, but if you are committed but your employer do this to you.
I would like to have your comments from all of you one another scenario? You work for one company, gain good enough confidence with everyone, every one appreciate your efforts, you try to relax the immediate supervisor and take all his burden on your shoulders, and stays 16-18 hours a day. You get appreciation from you supervisor, and your CEO suddenly, your supervisor starts feeling insecure and start person grudge with you. Now, as being a good gentleman, what would be the act. You’ll opt to work on your normal tasks and let the supervisor do his tasks. Which means, you are working less number of hours now (10-12). Supervisor assumes that you are not working up to the mark (working on his 60% time), as he felt insecure in the past and starts blaming that person for being not productive and force him to leave the company. If you ever tries to get him back, what would be his response ?
Any comments (‘punslinger’, ‘CEO’, ‘The New CEO’) !!
2:39 pm
The CEO again..
Here is the deal that I have offered to Mr K, to which he has not replied..
Come to the office and apologize
Second if you cannot do this than we will sue you and claim damages…
Thirdly you don’t want to apologize by coming to the office , please pay the damages as per the contract….
Each employee expects raises and benefits (and they have a right) , but each individual has a responsibility not just to commitments but the organization also…..
In this country there are a lot of people whom we call educated, but getting a degree is not education….. Because with education we ought to be better, better citizens better professionals, have sound moral values. This country needs education and knowledge to break free from the crisis we face….. However education is incomplete without ethics.
Let me add more here, the individual is a graduate of LUMS. Very correctly highlighted above that there graduates change jobs very frequently, but it should not be at the cost of any one.
As CEOs we have to take care of our teams because they are not mere employees …
As CEOs we are bound to pay people we fire a months salary or serve a months notice, and we do so…..why not those who opt to leave do the same …. Parting should be in a manner that tomorrow when you come across you meet and extend a hand to each other.
2:53 pm
punslinger: the way we did it was quick action. in general, people expect a call for the job upto 3 weeks after the interview. we did all our interviews on one day (a total of 18), made our first selection in the first week and kept the joining date within the next two.
by utilizing speed, we were able to head off two people agreeing to join, and then quitting on us and finally hire the third.
4:01 pm
@the CEO, if mr K doesn’t reply it’s probably because he’s too arrogant to reply. He probably thinks “kya patt lay ga”.. excuse the language. You need to be as decisive as you can. Do whatever is in your means.
The legal problem in this is that all of this comes under labor law, and in our country if someone breaks a contract its not same as breaking the constitution
or killing someone. So the judges give it lesser priority. so you need to get the local thana inspector involved. Will cost around 20k but you can effectively make the life difficult for the other party.
If you dont have time for all of this, just sleep over it..
but i strongly recommend to do whatever you can.
4:04 pm
@mButt, as a CEO usually I don’t have too much access to the team – at least not to the developers.
In this case, however, the developer should keep working hard and sooner or later the ceo will realize it. If he doesn’t he’ll lose a star team member – his loss.
11:27 pm
@MButt Since you’ve invited comments, so let me take a stab at that (sorry if I sound cruel but I’d rather be honest):
“gain good enough confidence with everyone”
and “every one appreciate your efforts”
-> makes sense – that’s part of job satisfaction.
“you try to relax the immediate supervisor and take all his burden on your shoulders”
-> Whoa, hold on a minute! this does not make sense – it does make that person a suck-up, especially if his aim is to “relax his supervisor”. Does he also give massages?
“and stays 16-18 hours a day”
-> why, can’t he sleep on the office floor? Any stock options?
-> What do you mean ‘free tea?!”?
“You get appreciation from you supervisor”
-> finally!
“and your CEO suddenly”
-> He has probably come to hear about the great massages
“your supervisor starts feeling insecure and start person grudge with you.”
-> He’s probably just tired, as all the person’s time is spent massaging the CEO now. Insecurity, on the other hand, seems to be the person’s problem.
“Now, as being a good gentleman, what would be the act. You’ll opt to work on your normal tasks and let the supervisor do his tasks.”
-> Why, after all the investment?! and what does chivalry have to do with it?
“Which means, you are working less number of hours now (10-12).”
-> I guess from 16-18 to 10-12 is certainly ‘less’ relatively speaking.
“Supervisor assumes that you are not working up to the mark ”
-> Such nerve! after all the person has done for him!
“(working on his 60% time), as he felt insecure in the past”
-> that’s the 2nd time you’ve used the word “insecure” – you… I mean, the person, must be thinking a lot about security.
“and starts blaming that person for being not productive”
-> 18 hours a day in the office – how can that person be ‘not productive’? the supervisor is just jealous – and misses his … yep… massages.
“and force him to leave the company.”
-> Ouch! didn’t see THAT coming!
“If you ever tries to get him back, what would be his response ?”
-> I would say his response would be, “Oh thank you, master!”
I mean, seriously, dude! Ever heard of the term ‘self-respect’? What about ‘deadwood’, or ‘life’?
What I don’t understand is why someone would ever try to get that person back – unless they wanted a massage, ofcourse.
12:48 pm
Hi All
i know this blog has been closed but just to clear the misconception here, I am a friend of MR K, just to let you know he was told way in advance by some trust worthy one that Shop has maximum life of next 6 months, though the information came very late, even then a sensible decision would have been what he did, he never joined the SHOP, just to add more SHOP has been closed down some weeks ago.
just let me ask this question to every one out here, Considering you get to know that the company you are going to join is @ verge of extinction, would you put your career and dependents life in jeopardy,
THE SENSIBLE ANSWER IS BIG NO!!!. some one really has to be crazy enough to get drowned with sinking ship, every body has right to earn a safe career if some one has problem with it then LET IT BE!!!!.
to add more, the learned graduates thinks twice as much even before taking the last step, one advice to all employers out here:
“avoid giving false picture of the Company, because truth will eventually flow to the candidate and they would decide accordingly”.
10:17 pm
Blog closed?! My gosh no.
You probably meant that the conversation on this blog post is over… I guess so.
5:34 pm
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10:14 am
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