9:40 p.m. - 2002-10-26
Corporate Challenge
I've been trying to sort out in my own mind what is reasonable to expect from an employer, a business, or a supervisor. When is it that one's own expectations are out of whack.
My Dad has owned his own small business for 44 years. I grew up seeing what was necessary to keep an enterprise going and knowing the consequences personally when customers or employees don't carry out their part of a contract - means no food on the table. My brother-in-law's business went bankrupt strictly because his partners and his clients didn't pay their bills or stole from the company by not doing their job or not meeting their obligations while collecting a wage or benefits.
As a Returning Officer for the Federal Government, I have to secure and furnish an office. Then I hire and train a staff of about 60 full time people for about a three month period to administer an election in a non-patisan manner. I have about one week to do all that. Then those 60 people help me prepare and carry out all the logistics necessary to train 700 election day workers and secure polling stations so Canadian citizens can exercise their franchise. We must administer all advance voting. Prior to election day, they also must help me ensure that all new eligible constituents are registered to vote, that the information is entered correctly into the database to generate the voters'lists, that all voters receive their balloting information by mail, cover all the accounting procedures for the event, and answer all the questions from the public. After the election there are mountains of paperwork (government - remember) that all has to be done within a very short period of time.
In addition, I personally must look after the candidates' needs, ensure all legal requirements are met including adhering to deadlines legislated to the very hour of execution, and respond to the press. I also carry out any troubleshooting, directed by Elections Canada, in my constituency or in the city. I must ensure communication between my office and the central agency in Ottawa, several thousand miles away, is accurate and time sensitive. I must work with and support other Returning Officers in nearby constituencies. I administer any discipline necessary whether to candidates, political parties, or staff. If there are security or criminal issues those are my responsibility too. I have had to deal with people who have threatened or become violent in our office or at a polling station. This past election I had to gather, secure, and prepare evidence on a criminal matter, then present it to an RCMP investigator working for Elections Canada. Expectations are very high and performance levels must match them. The budget for just my constituency (1 of 301)is about $.5 million, so taxpayers rightfully would be very unhappy if a misstep on our part - ie missing one of those legislated deadlines - forced a by-election.
Therefore, when I hire my key people I make certain I have observed them under similar work circumstances so I know their strengths and weaknesses. Most are individuals who I've volunteered with. If they are willing to take on tough jobs and do them well for free, then I am reasonably certain that they will do just as well when they are drawing a pay cheque. They need to be creative and self-directed as well as able to work with a team. They need to trust and respect each other as well as me. Very tall order. My staff and therefore, their personal welfare, are critical to me if I am to have any hope of doing my job well and surviving the 14 to 16 hour days - seven days a week. All of us must be able to cope with nearly living together non-stop for the full event and yet work as a unit under intense pressure and scrutiny.
I try to find a balance so that I can ensure their comfort and safety while administering the election, but given the tasks and the nature of politics it can be very difficult to always be on top of everything. For example, my number two person had two family medical emergencies arise in the first and second week of the last election. I told her to take whatever time off she needed but had to make certain her tasks were covered as well. I also assigned someone to support her if they noticed she was struggling. Then I focused on what I had to do. I also had one male with very strong religious beliefs who found some of what he saw of the politics very difficult to cope with; he also had trouble with the idea of female supervisors to the point where he confronted one based on her gender. He was an exceptional worker and support in a number of ways so I disciplined him as was necessary, made certain my supervisor was cared for, and then worked with him on his issues of conscience trying to help him find a way to reconcile the differences between faith and legal responsibilities. I mediated when there were personality conflicts, tried to ease work loads, answer all work related questions in a timely fashion, and ensure tasks matched skills and dispositions. Sometimes I didn't have the resources or the information necessary to do that because the central agency hadn't provided it. Sometimes that meant some very creative thinking had to occur first before I could respond to my staff, the press, or candidates because of the legislative/legal implications. I had to let some election day workers go where attitude or behavior were unacceptable. And on and on.
In short, when thinking about my current work situation, I try to see it from every point of view so that I can be fair and honest in my behavior as an employee too.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for my supervisor; I have learned a great deal working with him. He has always encouraged me to express my views freely and I have never been punished for opposing a decision of his or disagreeing with him. Very rare in the industry I work in - usually you are fired or threatened - authority trumps expertise. Instead, we have discussed problem issues until resolution was achieved. On the rare occasions when there was no consensus I have respected his decisions because of that. The exception, of course, was the time between this May and September. However, I believe there must be an explanation for that that I haven't been privy to since it was very out of character for him. As soon as he realized what had happened to my co-worker, he made sure that she received an assignment at another worksite that would ensure her vacation wasn't ruined.
In thinking of the firm we work for was their corporate behavior acceptable? No not entirely. Docking my co-worker vacation time for circumstances that were beyond her control and not providing me with sufficient support or direction in a very difficult situation was a dereliction of their duty to us. However, the actions of the liaison and the resulting circumstances we were subjected to were not readily predictable - not normal business practice. As long as the data management company uses the experience as a learning and planning tool for future reference, hopefully with input from my co-worker and me, then our employers have done the best they could.
The contracting company and their liaison? It appears to me that senior management may have brought us in because they knew there were some serious problems but couldn't determine their source(s). Apparently it was known that nearly 20% of their data was missing overall. What wasn't known was what data and why. No action could be taken until some of the necessary details were determined.
Our supervisor hadn't received our voicemail or e-mails from the afternoon before because he had been working off-site, but he stopped in first thing Friday morning to see how we were. When we explained what had occurred the evening before he stayed for the meeting requested until some resolution appeared to be reached. The liaison? She blamed her lack of response over the past month on the most junior contract person in the company during our meeting on Friday.
I don't know how it will all turn out.
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