What Would You Do? What to Tell the Team?

By John West Hadley

The Stepping Stone, March 2023

Here is our next entry in the “What Would You Do?” series. Write to me at SteppingStone@JHACareers.com to tell me what you would do. In a future issue, I’ll compile the responses received (preserving your anonymity, of course), along with what actually happened in the real-life situation.

Help me craft future case studies. Write to me about your own challenging, surprising or nightmarish situations involving business, leadership, management, or any of the topic areas covered by The Stepping Stone, and what lessons you learned from them. I’ll collaborate with you on turning your situation into a simple case study, being careful to ensure no one is identifiable. And share your own thoughts (pro and con) on the series as a whole at SteppingStone@JHACareers.com.

What to Tell the Team?

Kate was a young actuary with only four months as a manager when Selina joined her team. From the start, Selina was confrontational in one-on-ones, refusing to do certain types of work, and yelling at Kate. Selina’s prior manager hadn’t said anything about performance issues, and Kate worried that perhaps her expectations were too high, or maybe she needed to use a different management style with her.

Eventually, Kate called in a third party to be present when she put Selina on a performance improvement plan. Selina objected to the plan, calling Kate an evil person and a bad manager who hadn’t treated her well.

The next day Selina checked into a facility and went on 12 weeks medical leave.

The rest of Kate’s team was concerned about Selina’s health and kept asking if she was OK, and when she would come back. Selina had been adamant about not revealing her issues, so Kate told them she was addressing a family emergency for 12 weeks. When she did return part time while continuing treatment, she didn’t perform well and Kate found herself now needing to manage the team leader’s desire to push Selina’s work off on others, and to backfill assignments.

If you were Kate, what strategies might you have employed to deal with this situation?

Have you ever experienced a situation along these lines, and what did you learn from it that might inform how Kate should have dealt with this?

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the newsletter editors, or the respective authors’ employers.

John Hadley is a career counselor who works with job seekers frustrated with their search, and professionals struggling to increase their visibility and influence. He can be reached at John@JHACareers.com or 908.725.2437. Find his free Career Tips newsletter and other resources at www.JHACareers.com. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnwesthadley/.