Take heart despite heartless employer

Instead, she looked at me with tears brimming just behind her bottom eyelid and asked, “How should I respond to my boss, an executive vice president, after she sent her assistant to tell me she had scheduled an appointment for me to interview for a position with another organization?”

I had just finished making a presentation to a large audience at a national conference in San Diego. Several people were lined up to say “thank you” or ask about the services I provide my clients.

I was not prepared for this question.

Immediately, anger hijacked my brain.

Can you believe it? How rude. How insensitive. How dehumanizing. I wanted to walk into this vice president’s office, slam the door and give her at least three, maybe four, pieces of my mind.

The woman in front of me could have been the worst staff person of the century, but no one deserves that kind of treatment.

Before I tell you how I responded to this victimized woman, I have compiled three realities of what it means to work in this present corporate environment.

These conclusions are just mine. I do not have chapter and verse to back this up. Twenty years of experience in consulting and corporate training have taught me the following:

First, there is not one of us who is irreplaceable. Those words really hurt, but in spite of how special you are, if you are not at work one day, your organization will find another body to warm that chair, click that keyboard or attend the annual picnic.

Now, the new replacement body your organization finds will not be as good looking, urbane, enchanting and smell as fragrant … but there will be a body.

Come on, the epitome of arrogance is, “This place will close its doors if I am not around.”

Yeah, right!

Yes, the uniqueness of your personality and worldview will be missed, but people have a way of getting over you … quickly. After all, what your workplace is ultimately looking for is functionality. If the work gets done, we get used to the new packaging.

Second, especially in large companies, the empty space where you used to be can be viewed as an asset and not a liability. Downsizing is not passé. The practice continues to be very popular.

You cannot fudge with the financials: The easiest way to save money and improve shareholder value is to can a few folks.

If your organization is constantly peering over spreadsheets as if hunting for a hanging chad, you might become the easy answer to balancing the books.

Nice words will be said over your empty desk (“I sure miss his optimism.”) but the grief process in large organizations is accelerated with a quick peek at a profit-and-loss statement.

Third, the mantra “Our greatest asset is our people” can be your company’s greatest joke.

If, indeed, staff is the most important asset, then your organization would openly confront you when you are incompetent, tell you when you did an especially good job, stop looking over your shoulder to catch you doing something wrong and let you know, in a thousand small ways that do not involve money, that you are a special human being.

So … she stood in silence waiting for my response.

I said to her, “You have been victimized. This is a passive, insensitive method of announcing your termination. You have a right to be angry and offended.”

I went on, “You will further lose if you confront your boss. If she chose this method to deliver this information, you cannot trust her with any defense of her actions. I encourage you to move on.

“The only option you have right now is to lead yourself. If you beat yourself up with denigrating comments about your ‘failure,’ or get stuck on ‘How could she do this to me?’ – you will become the victim.”

The majority of bosses would never demean someone like the woman who stood before me at the front of Room 20-A of the San Diego Convention Center. There are a multitude of organizations that do treat people with respect.

But I am convinced there are heartless workplaces.

If you work in a heartless organization, your worst choice is to lose heart.

Cal LeMon of Executive Enrichment Inc. solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting.