Leadership and Crises: Some Companies Disgust Me!
by Lois Melbourne
How a company adapts during a crisis or problem can give you a true sense of their leadership. Policies are important to be created and followed as a framework when issues pop up. But when an unprecedented crisis occurs, leadership is tested. I have to say I’ve been disgusted by many employers’ choices during the European travel crises due to the Icelandic volcano. Because so many of the stories I’m referencing are sourced from blogs and cnn.com ireports, I’m not going to reference them with links, as I cannot verify the criticisms of specific companies. But the lessons are still real.
A man from Minnesota is on vacation with his family in Germany. They were scheduled to come home on Friday because the man had a big presentation on Tuesday, and he wanted to allow for travel delays. The volcano ash shuts down travel from Europe, with 18,000 flights cancelled on Saturday alone. The man called his boss to alert him of the delays and began implementing several back-up plans, including securing high quality video conferencing time for the Tuesday client meeting at this own expense. He was fired for missing the client meeting. This example of leadership in crisis gets a big FAIL vote from me.
Many companies are forcing people to take vacation days for the time off work, while suffering the insulting blow of living with thousands of other people in airports for days on end. Several people have reported the lack of acceptance of work conducted from airports and hotels, despite the herculean effort travelers are going through to get internet access and phone time to work in a flexible telecommuting environment. These people are working hard not to let down their employer, even though these employees are sleeping on cots and eating airport food. Come on, bosses – cut them some slack – work with them! If your employees are putting in the effort to be productive for you – don’t add more harassment by declaring those days as non-working.
I won’t even get started on the price gouging issues – because this is a blog more about workforce decisions – but that disgusts me, too.
Policies are there to help you make decisions, but if you have any type of leadership skills at all, you’ll work with these stranded travelers and allow them flexibility, especially if they’re trying to work for you. If you don’t, you will lose your best internationally traveled employees as soon as they can find a more humane employer that respects them.
I wish them luck on their job hunt – because if you are not working with them in this odd, off-balanced time – you don’t deserve them.
Cheers,
Lois
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