Senior Moments January 2024
”Seniors Moments” is a new advice column where the innocent and the guilty shall remain nameless. Send your real or imagined, funny or tragic, but always educational problems to the Seniors team, composed of anonymous ICMA Senior Advisors (who shall also remain nameless to protect their reputations ).
Dear Seniors,
I have a great long term department director who is well regarded in their field and in the community. They have a long history with the community and in public service. This director has something going on. There is a change in behavior, a lessening in work quality, and shortness with colleagues. I have checked on how they are, asking if they need any assistance, then elevated to some direct feedback with a review and suggested use of the EAP. The director will not acknowledge that anything has changed, and states that everything is fine. They are defensive and will not acknowledge any change or decrease in work productivity or change in behavior. They have handed off important projects to others in their department with little oversight, they are snappish and unhelpful at leadership meetings and they are consistently negative.
The governing body and citizens are pretty unaware, as they are sheltered by the size of our organization. The work of the department is getting done. But, for those of us in direct contact, the change is a problem.
I don’t want to end up with a situation where this employee ends up terminated. But we seem to be on a spiral and if I can’t get them to acknowledge there is an issue, I am left with just documenting problems and an eventual ugly end. Do you have any ideas about how to turn the spiral around?
Sincerely,
Can’t we all just get along and do our jobs?
Dear Get Along,
Your concern and respect for this long-term department head is admirable but it may be time for some "tough love." Your challenge is to balance your primary responsibility for the organization with the desire to be as supportive of the individual as possible. It looks like you have taken all of the right steps so far but you may need to be firmer. A few suggestions:
meet with the Department Head, emphasize again the lapses in performance and behavior, give them the rest of the day off to ponder what he/she thinks the path forward should be and meet with you the next day to discuss. It's a last chance opportunity prior to the tough love path
repeat your offer for the department head to tell you what is going on and don't take "nothing" as an answer; tell the individual how much you and the organization value them both professionally and personally but remind them of your responsibility for the performance of the organization; be brutally honest about where the situation is headed if there is no improvement in behavior
mandate a visit to an EAP counselor; perhaps they would be more willing to talk to a trained neutral party
mandate, and have the locality pay for, a full physical, including a drug test
give the department head a week or two off with pay in order for them to think about their situation and if they want to continue on the current path
offer assistance with developing an "exit strategy' for the employee to leave the organization with their dignity intact; this could include support for early retirement; extended health insurance assistance, severance, etc.
This isn't an either/or list of options. Some may make more sense in combination with others. Another thing to consider- make sure that this is legitimately an issue for the organization, and not just an issue for you. Sometimes, we can get ‘sideways’ with a person, but their relationships elsewhere are working. Validate your own perspective.
One last thought that, although it blurs the line between professional and personal, might be helpful if the appropriate relationships exist, would be to reach out to a significant other of the department head to express your concerns and offer assistance.
Good luck,
The Seniors
p.s. As always, if this response seems lacking or raises further questions, feel free to reach out and contact a Senior Advisor directly. We are here to assist you navigate your local government management career and enjoy paying back the support that helped us through our careers.
The full list of Senior Advisors with contact information is available here.