I believe that I have been on the employee end of a sticky case of progressive discipline. I ended up leaving a job because a new manager (an expert with less than a year as a manager) applied progressive discipline toward what I believe were typical mistakes.
I was a PM with over 5 years of PM experience - learning product management and manufacturing liaison skills.
As I read through the mistakes a manager can make approaching progressive discipline - I see that my manager was very very aggressive about it and indicated that she should be considered an expert.
The fundamental issue that I still face is that the mistakes documented were real, but honest mistakes - but to address them as problems of behavior or violations seemed like a grotesque exaggeration.
I have up until that point been considered a stellar employee and PM. Since that point I have been considered a stellar employee and PM.
But that series of events very much bothers me and I would appreciate any feedback. Saving Changes...
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Joe WynneRetired from BankingCharlotte, NC Area, United States
Based upon your comments, it appears that coaching would have been the supervisory intervention of choice. If you are paranoid, you could probably think up a reason why “oppressive discipline” was used instead.
A lesson to project managers: Retain good employees by taking a positive approach to improving performance (coaching), rather than rushing to an approach with negative connotations (progressive discipline).
A lesson to employees: Try not to be oblivious to the impact of your chronic errors or underperformance, no matter how infrequent.
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Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Dear Anonymous, what are honest mistakes..? You didn’t mention what those documented mistakes were in any detail, nor what you did you correct them, so I hesitate comment. I can tell you, however, that at our company we don’t use progressive discipline. But we do espouse quality and seek to make Continuous Process Improvement the way of our work life. Typically, we forgive human errors, but not process errors. Having said that, we have a defect elimination mentality and we simply don’t view mistakes, errors, or defects casually at all. When ever anyone makes a mistake, we view it as our responsibility to not make it again and to help ensure that no one else will make it again. By way of comparison, it seems that your attitude towards mistakes, “honest-mistakes”, is not very serious and that you don’t care. In any case, you and your manager were not on the same page with respect to the documented mistakes. Mr. Wynne’s comments are excellent. Don’t continue to be bothered by what happened, rather learn by the experience. Good luck. – Mark Perry, VP of Customer Care, BOT International Saving Changes...
