SELFISH STAFF SCENARIO

They say that you can judge a persons real character by their actions when the chips are down; this is a truism made clear by recent events.

The workplace is a place of change and therefore preparation for such changes that may occur is important. A manager needs to plan service delivery in the most trying of circumstances. That’s what I had to do earlier this year when delivery of services had a definitive end date. I naturally placed responsibility and expectation on a core team to enable this.

What if one of that core team decided to have surgery of a cosmetic nature to enhance attributes and as a result be absent from work for the lions share of the end of service? What if one of that core team decided that the time was right to enter themselves into a place of rehabilitation and consequently be unavailable for the entire final weeks of service? What if one of that core team was to be absent for the final weeks of service with a sudden case of stress?

What happened in actuality was that 50% of the core team took it upon themselves to place the needs of others, their colleagues, their employer and their service users, second to their own needs; or more specifically their own ‘wants’. All received sick pay and all knew what they were doing. None have made contact with their former colleagues, none cared to enquire how the 'end of days' went and none considered the morality of their decisions.

Locking the doors on the final day of service after six years with half the team elsewhere in their selfish worlds was a sobering and ultimately disappointing experience and a realisation that when they were most needed, those people I had managed, supported, enabled and nurtured, those people who had left their colleagues short handed, their employer short changed and given their clients short shrift, didn’t give a jot for anyone but themselves. And that unfortunately is part of the society of self -first that they belong to.