Incident 1 “I Feel Great” Les Partain, manager of the training and development d
ID: 447350 • Letter: I
Question
Incident 1 “I Feel Great”
Les Partain, manager of the training and development department for Gazelle Corporation, was 64 years old and had been with the firm for more than 30 years. For the past 12 years he had served as Gazelle’s training and development manager and felt that he had been doing a good job. This belief was supported by the fact that during the past five years he had received excellent performance reports from his boss, LaConya Caesar, HR director.
Six month before Les’s birthday, he and LaConya were enjoying a cup of coffee together. “Les”,” said LaConya, “I know that you’re pleased with the progress our T&D section has made under your leadership. We’re really going to miss you when you retire this year. You’ll certainly live the good life because you’ll receive the maximum retirement benefits. If I can be of any assistance to you in developing the paperwork for your retirement, please let me know.
“Gee, LaConya,” said les. “ I really appreciate the good words, but I’ve never felt better in my life, and although our retirement plan is excellent, I figure that I have at least five more good years. There are many other things I would like to do for the department before I retire. I have some excellent employees, and we can get many things done within the next five years.”
After finishing their coffee, both returned to their work. As LaConya left, she was thinking, “My gosh, I had no idea that character intended to hang on. The only reason I gave him those good performance was to make him better before he retired. He was actually only an average worker, and I was anxious to move a more aggressive person into tat key job. We stand to lose several good people in that department. If les doesn’t leave from what they tell me, he’s not doing too much of a job.”
Questions
From a legal viewpoint, what do you belive LaConya can do regarding this situation> Discuss
What actions should LaConya have taken in the past to avoid her current predicament?
What might occur if LaConya begins to evaluate Les in the manner she should likely have been doing all along?
Explanation / Answer
Answer:
LaConya could have very well replaced Les with the more aggressive person years back itself as per her desires and needs and simultaneously asked Les to either improvise or depute him to some other job profile which he would have been better capable of handling.
If LaConya had evaluated Les in the correct and realistic way then there could have been a situation that Les might have performed better in the past years or at least he had improvised. At the same time the Company's interest could also have been safeguarded.