Three Managing Issues: The Fight, the Check-Out, and How to Say No

It's the smallest staff issues that most often demand the greatest management skill.

By Mary Bresnahan
the Bresnahan Group

Those are the issues that don't warrant disciplinary action but can cause an administrator's hair to fall out. Or at least turn white.

Here are three of them that LOA's readers have cited. And here too are the solutions provided by MARY BRESNAHAN of the Bresnahan Group. a management consulting firm in Wheaton, Illinois.

WHEN A FIGHT BECOMES A DISRUPTION

Question: What's the best way to solve a squabble between two staffers, particularly when the issue divides the rest of the staff?

Answer: Start with an investigation, Bresnahan says. Find out what the fight is about.

Meet with the two employees separately and ask for each one's side of the story.

Then put the ball in their court and ask them to solve their own issue. Say to each one "This situation has caused a huge disruption in our work environment. What do you propose we do to resolve it and not let it happen again?"

Afterwards, bring the two parties together, and if the matter is extremely serious, have the attorneys to whom they report attend to emphasize the importance of resolving the dispute.

Begin the meeting with "I've heard both sides of the story. This is not a matter of who's right or wrong. It's a matter of how we work together. I understand your feelings have been hurt, but we have to come to a solution. What would each of you like to have happen?"

After listening to each person's suggestions and recommendations, decide on a middle-of-the-road solution.

Then end it. Point out that the office disruption has to stop. Say "this has permeated to other people, so I want the two of you to tell your friends where you are so we can get back to a productive, function environment."

Don't make the matter a performance issue at that point, Bresnahan says. If the two can resolve their differences, there's no need for it.

However, if the matter doesn't get resolved and the two continue to cause friction, discipline is the only recourse.

THE MENTALLY CHECKED-OUT STAFFER

Question: What about the staffer "who has left mentally but is still in the building"? In other words, the staffer gives notice and immediately stops being productive.

Answer: If the notice is only for two weeks, the solution is simple- "let the employee go with pay," Bresnahan says. True, the office will lose the money, but the loss will be greater if that person stays on, because other staff will pick up the same attitude in the meantime.

Do the same if the resignation has not been made under the best circumstances, because there's always the possibility the individual will sabotage something before the notice period expires.

On the other hand, if the notice is for a month, paying for the unworked hours is not feasible.

There, the solution is to talk with the staffer as soon as the notice is given and before there's time to settle into a state of mental unemployment. Say "I know you're excited about where you are going, but we'd really appreciate your help with the transition."

Put the staffer on a professional pedestal. Ask the person to show other staff where files and information are and to explain to them as well as to the administrator what needs to be done.

Most employees will oblige, she says, and that approach makes them appreciate that the firm expects effort right up to the last day.

What if the staffer is quitting out of anger or dissatisfaction? Take another tactic, she says. The professional appeal won't work, but the threat of a bad reference usually will.

Say "we know you're leaving, but we still need your best effort while you are here." Admit that the staffer has been dissatisfied, but add that "I know you want to end this job on a positive note so you don't burn bridges in your career path."

Again, most employees will oblige because they don't want a negative record to carry over to the next place of employment.

Also, she says, don't take the dissatisfaction personally. According to surveys, 75% of employees find their jobs uninteresting and aren't passionate about the work.

KNOWING HOW TO SAY NO

Question: What's the best way to say no when a good staffer asks for time off but granting it would leave the office understaffed?

Answer: It's difficult to say no to a time off request, says Bresnahan, particularly when the employee is a hard worker and doesn't abuse vacation and sick leave. It's even more difficult when the individual has already received approval from the attorney.

But there's a way to get the words out and the message across with minimal conflict.

First, say no but explain why -- that the office will be short staffed or that the staffer needs to help out with deadline work or whatever. Besides making the answer more palatable, that explanation is good backup for the administrator. That secretary "could go right over the administrator's head to the attorney," she says, and because law firms do have pecking orders, the attorney could reverse the administrator's decision.

Then turn the tables and give both the attorney and the staffer the opportunity to find a way around the scheduling conflict.

Go first to the attorney and say "I know you told Staffer A she could take time off, but our situation is X." Ask if the attorney can suggest a way to give Staffer A the time off but at the same time solve the staffing shortage her absence will create.

If the attorney can't solve the problem, go next to the staffer and take the same approach of "do you have any suggestions for getting around this?" The staffer may actually have a solution or may have arranged for another person to take up the slack during that time.

But whether there is or isn't a solution, "it takes the monkey off the administrator's back," Bresnahan says. It forces both attorney and employee to see that their only choices are to solve the conflict or accept the fact that the time can't be taken.

Moreover, the focus is not that the administrator is "sitting in the power seat" but that the staffer is part of the team.

FOLLOW-UP NECESSARY

if the staffer does work through the time, follow up afterwards with an expression of appreciation.

Say for example, "I know you really wanted to take that time off, and I want you to know I appreciate your staying and doing such a great job."

Even better, take the staffer to lunch and express the appreciate then. Again, that says the administrator considers the staffer an important part of the team.

DON'T IGNORE THE MERITS OF THE CASE

Bresnahan points out, however, that each request for time off has to be evaluated on its own merits.

Sometimes the request is essential. The staffer may have a family obligation or a medical appointment, and the administrator may simply have to allow the absence.

Sometimes the need is not so essential but more a demand from a staffer who says flatly, "I can't be here on that day." And in that case, don't let the remark win the conversation. Follow it with "when can you be here?"

For that reason, she says, it's best not to have a policy on when leave can and cannot be granted. The outcome will be leave no room for exceptions. The staffer can simply point to the policy and say "this is what the book says."

This article appeared in the July 2003 edition of the Law Office Administrator.

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