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“Yes,” Mrs. Thorpe says. “Let’s not waste too much time. Please, take the floor.”
I walk to the end of the huge conference table surrounded by bigwigs. However, I’m only interested in the man sitting across from me.
I stand my tablet on the table and place a folder next to it and begin.
“Good morning, everyone. I have been working out ofMed-FieldsInc.for the last month and have observed a few issues that need to be addressed. I have put together a package of my findings—” I touch the folder on the table in front of me and I notice that Glen raises an eyebrow. “—But I’ll briefly take you through everything I have.”
“Great!” Mrs. Thorpe claps her hands together and motions for me to continue.
“Well, the first thing I noticed is that the company has an issue with redundancy. It is my opinion that at least 40% of the people who work here don’t need to.”
“What?” Glen sits up in his chair.
My throat gets tight. I take a moment to clear it then continue. “Yes, I have noticed that in some instances, we have two people doing a job that one person can do. There are even some roles that can be eliminated entirely. In the package, I have suggested which roles those are.”
“We aren’t firing anyone.”
“Glen, we’ve discussed this,” Mrs. Thorpe says.
“We didn’t discuss anything,” Glen says. “You people told me that we were going to be firing people. I never agreed with that. Like I said, we aren’t firing anyone.”
“With all due respect, Glen, that’s not your decision to make,” Mrs. Thorpe retorts.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let you come in here and fire half my staff. How can you even suggest such a thing? These are people you’re talking about. They have families to take care of. We can’t just give them their walking papers after all the years they’ve put in.”
“Do you think I’m making this suggestion lightly?” I ask. “I am well aware that these people have lives, and that this move will probably destabilize most of those lives. However, it is necessary because if things keep going the way they are, I don’t see this company surviving for more than a year, two tops. If we don’t make this change right now,Med-Fieldswill go under and then all your staff will be left unemployed. Is that what you want?”
I can see it in his eyes that he wants to argue back, but deep down, he knows I am telling the truth. He stares silently at me and I return his glare.
“Now that that’s settled, Ms. Stanley, please go on,” Mrs. Thorpe says.
I straighten my suit jacket, clear my throat, and then continue speaking. “Another thing that I have noticed, which is probably one of the biggest issues here, is that staff members are under-appreciated.”
Glen says, “Oh, my God…” under his breath, but I hear it.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
Glen huffs. “That is simply not true. I make it a point to have a meeting with all my department heads every week to make sure that I know what’s going on in their departments and that they are treating their people right.”
“Yes, although that’s true, have you ever checked to see whether your department heads are actually doing what they say they’re doing? Or that junior staff feel fulfilled at work? Because I’ve had conversations with a few of them and they have expressed to me that they feel like their contribution to the company doesn’t matter.”
“Who said that?” Glen asks.
I laugh incredulously. “I am not telling you that.”
“OK, could you explain what you mean a little more?”
“The company retreat for instance—”
Glen throws his hands up quite dramatically. “Not this again.”
“Yes, this again. The younger members of staff here didn’t want to go hunting, but the senior staff forced them.”
“I’m not sure I understand the problem here. Yes, they didn’t want to go initially, but once we were there, everyone had fun. You yourself told me that you enjoyed yourself.”
“That’s beside the point. I’m sure the junior staff members would’ve felt better about going had they even been part of the conversation. Instead, it was just announced to them that they were going hunting. They had no say in the matter,” I explained.
“OK, I’m not too big to admit that we could’ve handled it better, but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
