Part Ten - An Interim Assignment

Within ten minutes Rob and Scott entered my office. They both sat at the table between Paula and myself.

‘Paula could you fetch Chris please.’ I nodded to Paula and she left the room.  Both Scott and Rob looked at each other. I sat with both of them, biding time until the others appeared. I had one piece of paper in front of me.

‘Thanks for coming Rob. I’m trying to get a way through on the incident that happened with Nadeem several weeks ago.’

‘Yes, Scott said.’ Rob’s demeanour was cold and distant, a man of few words now it would see.

Chris and Paula walked into the room. Both sat at the table so I waste no time in getting to the point of the matter.

‘Well Rob I have heard from all concerned and would like to create an environment that both Nadeem and yourself can work together.’ As I was talking Rob head was shaking in a negative.

‘Nadeem made me look like a proper idiot and undermined my authority, I cannot have him back on my shift.’

‘Do you not think if you took a different way this could have been avoided? I mean clicking fingers and making someone pick up some else mess needs to be handled with a bit of tack? Especially in front of your peers’ colleagues?’ Rob folded his arms and said nothing, just shook his head in denial.

Silence filled the room and it was clear Rob couldn’t see what he could have done better. I picked up the A4 piece of paper and screwed it up.

‘Ok well we can’t seem to move from this impasse.’ Chris looked shocked, Paula confused. I then threw the screwed-up piece of paper across the room deliberately missing the waste paper bin. I turned to Rob clicked my fingers and said aggressively.

‘Pick that up!’ Rob looked at the piece of paper so I continued. ‘Do it now Rob, come on.’ clicking my fingers again. He actually began to rise from his seat to follow out the instruction but then paused and looked at Scott, his direct manager, the HR manager and the shop steward.  ‘Wait you can’t talk to me lik…..; he stopped talking and sat down.

‘Yes I can Rob, because I am your manager, I can make you do anything.’ Rob took a breath and I immediately got up and walked across the room picked up the piece of paper and dropped into the bin.

‘Not nice is it Rob?’ Rob lowered his head.  ‘I’m sorry I did that and made you look subordinate but I wanted you to have an idea how it feels.’ Rob looked up at me. ‘Rob, you can’t talk to people like that, and click your fingers and expect your team members to obey and command, you have to treat people with respect.’

‘Yes, I understand now.’ We all adjourned and Nadeem came in for his overtime in the warehouse.

One of the biggest challenges on this assignment was Scott Mullen, The Production Manager. A driven man who always had the best for the business at the forefront in his mind. or so, he thought and believed.

His outwardly aggressive stance and lack of communication to colleagues was a huge obstacle and I needed to overcome it. My head and gut told me he was worth saving,despite the opinion of others.

I was still working on the assumption that he, like so many other people, was not deliberately sabotaging the business through his actions and inactions. I began to wonder whether he was only responding to the pressures that production was causing.

I was looking forward to attending his Production Meeting at nine tomorrow morning.