Dear Seniors..
Pls hear the issue:
Hi,
We have one of our Offices in Bombay, where we have 1 lady admin staff & 7 male engineers. One of the senior engineers have now is in clash with this female staff on silly things & have told lot of abusive things to this lady, who in turn have told a lot of things in the similar way to him. She even cried coz of this. The issue has been leaked out to some of the engineers who have been working under this senior engineer. This has created the issue to be more serious. the senior engineer even claims that this lady has not got a good character (as a lady) & is spoiling the other males over there. This cannot be tolerated, by him. The lady is also a little commanding in nature. this senior engineer himslef was handling the office before this lady had come. Therefore, he also has got a feeling of lose of power when this lady has come.
Now, I dont know whta action I should make as:
- the senior engineer, if i take any action..the impact on business is gonna be very great , as he is on some vry important projects.
-but the lady is also new & she is been accused of very damaging statemnts (dont know if this is true or not)
I tried to solve this telling to both of them that we would forget eveerything & would believe as misunderstandings. but even then, it is not getting solved. I dont know if I should ask other collegues of them about this issue...coz i dont want the issue to leak out from my side & also..dont think if it is right to ask the male staff about the behaviour of a lady is ight or wrong
PLSSSSS GIVE ME URGENT ADVICE AS I WANT TO CLOSE THIS ASAP
ALSO..IF ANY OF YOU SENIORS COULD GIMME UR CONTACT NUMBER, I WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS WITH YOU THE SAME.
Regards,
jm
From Oman, Muscat
1Pls hear the issue:
Hi,
We have one of our Offices in Bombay, where we have 1 lady admin staff & 7 male engineers. One of the senior engineers have now is in clash with this female staff on silly things & have told lot of abusive things to this lady, who in turn have told a lot of things in the similar way to him. She even cried coz of this. The issue has been leaked out to some of the engineers who have been working under this senior engineer. This has created the issue to be more serious. the senior engineer even claims that this lady has not got a good character (as a lady) & is spoiling the other males over there. This cannot be tolerated, by him. The lady is also a little commanding in nature. this senior engineer himslef was handling the office before this lady had come. Therefore, he also has got a feeling of lose of power when this lady has come.
Now, I dont know whta action I should make as:
- the senior engineer, if i take any action..the impact on business is gonna be very great , as he is on some vry important projects.
-but the lady is also new & she is been accused of very damaging statemnts (dont know if this is true or not)
I tried to solve this telling to both of them that we would forget eveerything & would believe as misunderstandings. but even then, it is not getting solved. I dont know if I should ask other collegues of them about this issue...coz i dont want the issue to leak out from my side & also..dont think if it is right to ask the male staff about the behaviour of a lady is ight or wrong
PLSSSSS GIVE ME URGENT ADVICE AS I WANT TO CLOSE THIS ASAP
ALSO..IF ANY OF YOU SENIORS COULD GIMME UR CONTACT NUMBER, I WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS WITH YOU THE SAME.
Regards,
jm
From Oman, Muscat
Hi,
Be very cautious in hndling this matter. You ought to know that there is a decision of Supreme Court on Sexual harassment, and now the same has been incorporated in the rules of every organisation. In case the lady compains of any sexual harassment, the management will have to formally procede by holding an enquiry, which may become very embaassing for every one.
Since you have already spoken to both individually and the same has not been helpful, the best course would be to go in to the root cause and investigate the issue. Are there compaints against the lady by other engineers as well? If not, the statement of senior engineer has to be accepted with a pinch of salt. If there are complaints from others as well, then the lady cannot be allowed to continue in such a responsible position.
If it is possible for you to have a mechanism by which direct communication between the senior engineer and the lady is avoided at least for a few days. Let some one else from amongst the engineers do the talking for some days. After some time has passed, may be the things would cool down.
If not, tell both the persons that a formal enquiry will be made and whosoever is found responsible for spoiling the office discipline, will be held liable.
As far as possible try and settle the issue through discussion.
Cyril
Cyril
.
From India, Nagpur
Be very cautious in hndling this matter. You ought to know that there is a decision of Supreme Court on Sexual harassment, and now the same has been incorporated in the rules of every organisation. In case the lady compains of any sexual harassment, the management will have to formally procede by holding an enquiry, which may become very embaassing for every one.
Since you have already spoken to both individually and the same has not been helpful, the best course would be to go in to the root cause and investigate the issue. Are there compaints against the lady by other engineers as well? If not, the statement of senior engineer has to be accepted with a pinch of salt. If there are complaints from others as well, then the lady cannot be allowed to continue in such a responsible position.
If it is possible for you to have a mechanism by which direct communication between the senior engineer and the lady is avoided at least for a few days. Let some one else from amongst the engineers do the talking for some days. After some time has passed, may be the things would cool down.
If not, tell both the persons that a formal enquiry will be made and whosoever is found responsible for spoiling the office discipline, will be held liable.
As far as possible try and settle the issue through discussion.
Cyril
Cyril
.
From India, Nagpur
Dear Friend,
Tell your engineer that lady is planning a sexual harassment case against that engineer. And you pursued her not to go to this extent . This fake statement will help you to stop him from doing any further miscommunication.
And inform lady that management is not happy with her behavior. She must restrain herself otherwise management was taking decision but you pursued them this will not happen again. And tell her that management will not tolerate indiscipline and both of them will be sacked.
Regards,
From India, Bangalore
Tell your engineer that lady is planning a sexual harassment case against that engineer. And you pursued her not to go to this extent . This fake statement will help you to stop him from doing any further miscommunication.
And inform lady that management is not happy with her behavior. She must restrain herself otherwise management was taking decision but you pursued them this will not happen again. And tell her that management will not tolerate indiscipline and both of them will be sacked.
Regards,
From India, Bangalore
In my opinion get an HR consltant from your HO to mumbai for a month or less dependng on the situation. Let him have a word with both the parties and other staff and give his opinion to you.
From India, Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
Looks to me a case of jealousy on loss of power by the sr. engineer. But that does not mean he should badmouth his colleague and assasinate his colleague's character especially a lady.
I think you should be firm on this count. You have to sit the engineer down and explain the repercussions it can have if he continues slanging the lady's character.
As for the lady, she probably has a strong personality which does go down well (sorry to say this) in a male dominated environment. Maybe since the arrival of the lady, she is able to get work done from the other engineers and this probably is irking the sr. guy. Ofcourse this is all assumption.
You need to have a serious discussion with the sr. guy to begin with and understand the root cause of behavior. Thereafter you should definately try and get feedback from the other members for the lady and the sr. engr and then it would be easier for you to take a decision.
We are in the 21st century and sexual discrimination and/or harrassment is not and should not be tolerated.
From India, Pune
I think you should be firm on this count. You have to sit the engineer down and explain the repercussions it can have if he continues slanging the lady's character.
As for the lady, she probably has a strong personality which does go down well (sorry to say this) in a male dominated environment. Maybe since the arrival of the lady, she is able to get work done from the other engineers and this probably is irking the sr. guy. Ofcourse this is all assumption.
You need to have a serious discussion with the sr. guy to begin with and understand the root cause of behavior. Thereafter you should definately try and get feedback from the other members for the lady and the sr. engr and then it would be easier for you to take a decision.
We are in the 21st century and sexual discrimination and/or harrassment is not and should not be tolerated.
From India, Pune
Dear JM,
For your case following points emerge: -
a) that your staffs have not been trained on Interpersonal skills and assertion skills.
b) Workplace behaviour - how should it be? Has it been communicated to all the employees? Use of abusive language is forbidden by anyone - by seniors or juniors, males or females - by whom it does not matter.
c) The behaviour of the employees is not goal oriented. Have you prepared KRAs for the senior engineer. If these were there, he should have understood that, nothing can he achieve on his own and he needs support from his staffs as well.
d) When this lady Admin Officer was selected, was senior engineer involved in her selection? Was he told that this recruitment was to relieve him of smaller tasks so that he can handle assignments of higher order or which are suitable to his stature.
e) You say that the lady is also commanding type. If that is the case then what steps you had taken to check her attitude while her recruitment? The incident calls for introduction of "Behavioural Interviewing" in your company.
f) Is there a ideal mix of persons of all castes, religion, language of your company or is it lopsided with domination by particular group. Please make note that when persons with specific group work together they end up in fighting too much.
Ok...
Dinesh V Divekar
Soft Skill & Behavioural Trainer
From India, Bangalore
For your case following points emerge: -
a) that your staffs have not been trained on Interpersonal skills and assertion skills.
b) Workplace behaviour - how should it be? Has it been communicated to all the employees? Use of abusive language is forbidden by anyone - by seniors or juniors, males or females - by whom it does not matter.
c) The behaviour of the employees is not goal oriented. Have you prepared KRAs for the senior engineer. If these were there, he should have understood that, nothing can he achieve on his own and he needs support from his staffs as well.
d) When this lady Admin Officer was selected, was senior engineer involved in her selection? Was he told that this recruitment was to relieve him of smaller tasks so that he can handle assignments of higher order or which are suitable to his stature.
e) You say that the lady is also commanding type. If that is the case then what steps you had taken to check her attitude while her recruitment? The incident calls for introduction of "Behavioural Interviewing" in your company.
f) Is there a ideal mix of persons of all castes, religion, language of your company or is it lopsided with domination by particular group. Please make note that when persons with specific group work together they end up in fighting too much.
Ok...
Dinesh V Divekar
Soft Skill & Behavioural Trainer
From India, Bangalore
Thanks for all of ur valuable comments.
The senior engineer is now telling that he cant work with this lady coz he says the lady is keeping telling others that he has tried to misbehave with her.
I am afriad to talk to other engineers, coz i dont think it is fair to ask them if the lady has got a "bad" character. Coz der r chances for her to be innocent.
Jm
From Oman, Muscat
The senior engineer is now telling that he cant work with this lady coz he says the lady is keeping telling others that he has tried to misbehave with her.
I am afriad to talk to other engineers, coz i dont think it is fair to ask them if the lady has got a "bad" character. Coz der r chances for her to be innocent.
Jm
From Oman, Muscat
Dear JM,
As our friends suggested Work Place Behaviour Training is a very necessary for your Staff. Also i suggest that if you take Sachin's advise it will work and give a temporary relief. As a permanent solution you have to give proper training and implement strict actions against those who violate work place discipline.
Regards,
Sree
From United States
As our friends suggested Work Place Behaviour Training is a very necessary for your Staff. Also i suggest that if you take Sachin's advise it will work and give a temporary relief. As a permanent solution you have to give proper training and implement strict actions against those who violate work place discipline.
Regards,
Sree
From United States
Dear JM
This appears to be an ego or personality clash between the Sr Engineer and the lady administrator. The lady must be of independet nature and in the process of taking decisions , she must have ignored the Sr Engineer who himself was looking after this function before. Hence the problem.
The situation is delicate. Both need your firm counselling. The Sr Engineer must not spread slurs and revolt against the lady. This could land the company as well as the gentleman in to some serious legal troubles. Having expressed his dislike , he must behave now.
The lady also needs to lie low. Change of the either of the players at this stage will be counter productive for the company. The Sr Engineer will have proved his nuisance value and will become a bug bear to any new office administrator. So try to buy time and keep a close watch over the situation by speaking to both of them daily.
Regards
Mohan.
From India
This appears to be an ego or personality clash between the Sr Engineer and the lady administrator. The lady must be of independet nature and in the process of taking decisions , she must have ignored the Sr Engineer who himself was looking after this function before. Hence the problem.
The situation is delicate. Both need your firm counselling. The Sr Engineer must not spread slurs and revolt against the lady. This could land the company as well as the gentleman in to some serious legal troubles. Having expressed his dislike , he must behave now.
The lady also needs to lie low. Change of the either of the players at this stage will be counter productive for the company. The Sr Engineer will have proved his nuisance value and will become a bug bear to any new office administrator. So try to buy time and keep a close watch over the situation by speaking to both of them daily.
Regards
Mohan.
From India
Apart from what all seniors have mentioned, you need to also make sure that both of them - Admin officer and Sr. Engg are clear about their roles and responsibilities in the office.
If required, let senior management (to whom Sr. Engg reports) participate in defining role and responsibilities of Sr. Engg.
Having clarity in role of each one will help prevent / minimise such incidents in future.
Ajit
If required, let senior management (to whom Sr. Engg reports) participate in defining role and responsibilities of Sr. Engg.
Having clarity in role of each one will help prevent / minimise such incidents in future.
Ajit
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