(Published September 21, 2009)
I heard a line of dialogue on the television the other night that had me giggling. A couple of co-workers were battling, and I do mean battling, over a procedural question. One of them had the other by the shirt collar up against the wall, as she verbally assaulted him with all the reasons why the procedure needed to be changed. Unseen by either of them, their boss came up behind them and said mildly, "Strictly speaking, throttling the staff is my job."
"I have got to turn that into a blog," I thought.
As companies go global, mergers and acquisitions are common, and smaller companies are gobbled up by larger ones; sometimes the lines in the chain of command get blurred. Or, as employers are downsizing, senior members of a team are given the responsibility of overseeing a junior member, without being given actual supervisory responsibilities. I've frequently had dotted-line reports, both with people reporting to me and people that I reported to. My very first supervisory assignment, more than 20 years ago, covered three people; one reported directly to me and two were direct reports of someone at our regional office, but had a dotted-line report to me since I was on-site.
So, who gets to throttle the staff?
In a case like my television example, where a junior team member was being overseen by a senior one but with both members being supervised by the same person, any disciplinary action needs to be taken by the supervisor. Under no circumstances should discipline be made on a lateral basis. If there are problems, the senior member who is doing the overseeing should notify the supervisor, and then back off and let the supervisor do his or her job.
It's a little more complicated when there are "dueling supervisors." You shouldn't be surprised if the supervisor tries to push the issue off on HR, or at least come to HR for guidance. Asking for guidance is fine, but don't let your line managers push their responsibilities off on you.
It's my opinion that when there is an "official" supervisor and a dotted-line supervisor, the official supervisor should be the one who handles all disciplinary issues. Just as with a senior team member checking up on a junior one, any issues should be reported to the managing supervisor so that he or she can take action. Now, if the managing supervisor chooses to include the dotted-line or "unofficial" supervisor in the process, that's different.
If the employee in question has two direct supervisors, then I would say it depends on the offense. If the offense is related to one specific supervisor, such as a performance issue with one supervisor's work, then that supervisor should be the one to address the question. But if it's something that affects both supervisors, such as an excessive absence issue, then both supervisors should be involved. I'm not saying that they should gang up on the employee, but the employee should be aware that the two supervisors present a united front.
Of course, it goes without saying that actually throttling the staff is a no-no!
Catherine Bannon is an HR consultant in Marshfield, MA (catherine.bannon@gmail.com). Bannon worked for 10 years in HR management before starting her consulting practice.
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