#1. Read the Case Study – Mary Corey (see attached below)
Answer each of the three questions on page 7.3
Double spaced, Times New Roman 12
Use additional resources if needed to answer fully.
#2. Description:
Below is a typical HR Manager’s job description ~
HR Management Job Duties. HR managers can perform a variety of tasks in fulfilling their main responsibility, which is leading an organization’s HR programs and policies as they apply to employee relations, compensation, benefits, safety, performance and staffing levels.
If you were the new HR Manager at your CURRENT job, what would you immediately change and why?
Prepare a 1-2 page paper. Include a cover page with your name, date and label: “Written Assignment #4”
Upload by the due date.
CASE7
Mary Corey
Background Information
Mary Corey recently completed her fourth year with Statewide Services Corporation. In her position as customer support specialist, she consistently received high performance evaluations-until recently. Indeed, her most recent evaluation, completed three weeks ago, rated her as “less than satisfactory.” Her supervisor, Helen Rowe, wondered why this previously strong employee had fallen so quickly.
Helen had just returned from a meeting with her boss, Betty Alden, when again the subject of Mary came up. Betty suggested that Helen look through Mary’s past work-records to try to find some clues about what happened and what they should do now.
Helen closed the door to her office, sat at her desk, and pulled Mary’s personnel folder from her desk drawer. As she flipped through the materials in the folder, Mary’s story came into better focus:
About six months ago, around Christmastime, Mary started taking longer lunch breaks. Given the cramped quarters in which Helen’s Customer Support Department worked and the demanding routines they had to follow, it was easy to notice her stretching her regular lunch period by 10 or 15 minutes. Once she even stretched it for a full 25 minutes. Since it was the holiday season, Helen took no specific action. However, her occasional remarks reminding Mary of the Junch break schedules would produce an uncharacteristically evasive, defensive response from Mary. On at least two occasions, she nodded off to sleep at her desk after. returning from lunch.
In January and February, she was 10 to 20 minutes late for work on six different days and called in sick on four other days. It was during this time that Mary’s dealings with her co-workers deteriorated. Normally quiet yet sociable, Mary became increasingly short-tempered and given to periodic outbursts of anger and belligerence. Since Mary, 36, was a single mother of two teenage girls, almost everyone in the office assumed there was something going on at home.
On February 23rd, though, things took a disturbing tum. Mary left for lunch at her usual time, but did not return. She called in three hours later to say she had gone home because she had suddenly become ill. Her speech seemed slurred, somehow not quite right. She returned to work two days later, with a doctor’s note explaining she had been sick with a stomach flu.
Nonetheless, the pattern of lateness continued. Two weeks later, Helen gave Mary her first written disciplinary notice regarding her attendance and punctuality. During the discussion, Mary confessed to Helen: “I know I’ve been a little different recently. I’m just having some problems at home with my children.” She didn’t elaborate, and Helen didn’t probe.
For the next few weeks. Mary was on time every day and rarely left her desk during working hours. Her level of performance improved, as did her interaction with co-workers.
By April, however, Helen noticed Mary slipping back into her negative habits of lateness and initability. Helen began to notice something else in Mary’s after-lunch behavior: She seemed to have real difficulty completing her work, making decisions,. and solving problems. On one occasion, there was a big argument between her and several co-workers. Mary went home, claiming she was “too upset to work.” She continued coming in late to work and was absent on two successive Mondays. However, after each absence, she produced a doctor’s excuse.
In early May, Helen issued a second written warning, this one concerning not only Mary’s punctuality and attendance, but also her deteriorating work performance. At this time, Helen made it clear that Mary’s continued employment was on the line: “I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re in danger of losing your job. I’ve tried to be understanding, but I’m losing my patience. You need to get straightened up and soon, or I’ll have no choice but to let you go.”
During the following weeks, Mary again improved her productivity and perfonnance. She was obviously concerned about losing her job. By mid-July, it was time for her fonnal perfonnance evaluation. Although her evaluation was “less than satisfactory,” Helen did note that there had been some improvement in all areas recently.
Then, last week, the bottom fell out. On July 23rd, Mary returned from lunch 45 minutes late, glassy-eyed and weaving slightly, fumbling with things, and smelling strongly of peppermint. She sat at her desk for a full 20 minutes, rummaging through drawers, moving paper, nodding, spilling things, and creating quite a distraction among the other employees.
Helen came to her desk: “Mary, what’s the matter here? Something’s wrong, and you don’t seem able to work at all. Are you ill? Can you work? Are you drunk? Tell me right now!”
Mary slowly looked up, taking awhile to focus on Helen. After what seemed like a minute or so, during which time she appeared to be again listening to Helen’s remarks, Mary burst into tears. She grabbed her purse, pushed and stumbled past Helen, and left.
The next day, one of Mary’s children called in, saying she couldn’t work because she was “in bed sick.” Helen checked and Mary had only three days of accrued sick leave left available to her.
She did not return to work until today. She went to the ladies room for an hour. When she emerged, she went into Helen’s office and asked for an immediate transfer to some other department “where the pressure isn’t so great.” She seemed very agitated and would not look Helen in the eye. Helen told her to return to her desk and pick up on her work as well as she could until Helen could look into things more closely.
It was then that Helen met with her boss, Betty Alden. They were trying to decide what to do.
In thinking about where things stood now, Helen knew that Mary’s presence in the unit was becoming a source of contention and disgruntlement. Everyone knew that she had some kind of problem, and most people thought it was due to drugs or alcohol, or both, although no one had ever personally seen her use or abuse either. Since her work was now so erratic, the other employees in the unit had to regularly back up her work by either finishing it or correcting it. She seemed to have no remorse about her conduct and could not presently be counted on to make an effort to correct it.
Helen wanted to fire her. As she explained to Betty: “When she’s here, she fights with everyone, and I’m never sure when she’s coming to work or how long she’ll stay. She’s hopeless. I _hate to do this, but she has screwed up just too much.”
Betty, as unit manager, could see that a previously valued and productive member of her department had for some reason, fallen well below accepted work standards. Both Betty and Helen believed there must be some serious, extenuating circumstance affecting Mary, although they didn’t know for certain what it was. Betty was concerned whether there could be any legal problems in firing someone in this condition. Betty reminded Helen that the Company did have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and wondered whether they should try to involve Mary in the EAP before taking further action.
CASE QUESTIONS 7.3
- Can· Helen terminate Mary without running into legal problems?
- What should Helen do now regarding the Employee Assistance Program? Simulate how you would make a referral to the EAP if you were Helen.
- Should Helen have acted sooner? If so, how?
CASE DISCUSSION:
Mary Corey
Summary
Helen Rowe supervised the Customer Support Department for Statewide Services Corporation. Over the past six months, one of Helen’s top performers, Mary Corey, had fallen into a situation of poor perfonnance. In looking through her personnel folder, Helen reconstructed the history of Mary’s decline, which follows.
About six months ago, at Christmastime, Mary began taking longer lunch breaks. When Helen made some comments, Mary was uncharacteristically defensive. Helen noticed that Mary fell asleep at her desk on two occasions. Then, beginning in January, Mary occasionally came into work 10 to 20 minutes late or did not come in at all because she was sick. During this period, Mary was increasingly short-tempered with her co-workers. Her co-workers thought that Mary, a single mother of two teenage girls, might be having some problems at home.
In late February, Mary did not return from lunch one day. She called three hours later, claiming to have become ill. Her voice sounded slurred. She returned two days later with a doctor’s note explaining she had a stomach flu. After repeated lateness, Helen issued Mary a formal disciplinary notice, and her attendance improved.
By April, Mary was slipping back to lateness and irritability. But now Mary also seemed to have problems completing her work after returning from lunch. In early May, Helen issued a second notice, indicating that this time her job was on the line. Mary’s perfonnance improved again. However, she was given a less than satisfactory evaluation on their perfonnance evaluation shortly thereafter.
Last week, after returning to work 45 minutes late and smelling strongly of peppermint, she created quite a commotion while trying to settle into her work. Helen confronted Mary, at which point Mary burst into tears and ran from the office. The next day, one of Mary’s children called, saying Mary was sick.
When Mary returned to work today, she asked for a transfer to a less pressured area. Helen, concerned about the impact Mary was having on the Customer Support Department, wanted to fire her. The company did have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
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