Managerial Death

Occasionally I hear of a manager bad-mouthing their company. Sometimes executives ask me what to do about that. My advice is always crystal clear. No employee, in any company, should bad-mouth the company. The employee must be warned, counseled and ultimately dismissed if necessary. The same is true for a manager, although the situation is far more serious and needs to be corrected and corrected now.

No matter what their level (group leader, supervisor, assistant manager, first-line manager, and so forth up the management hierarchy), the manager is part of the management team of the company and is always held to a higher standard. Some behaviors that may be occasionally tolerated from non-management employees cannot be tolerated from a manager. This is one of them.

If you are on my management team and I find you bad-mouthing our company, you will be immediately warned. That behavior is not acceptable. Don't let it happen again. If you are unhappy with something we are doing in the company it's your job to bring it up so we can try to change it. If you are not happy working here, then perhaps you should leave. But as long as you are working here you will not bad-mouth, diminish, undermine, sack, or otherwise detract from our efforts as a management team. A team of which you are a member.

Usually that is your first and final warning. No executive can afford a member of the management team who cannot be trusted. And if you are bad-mouthing the management team you cannot be trusted. For participants in my supervisory management training programs, I am always quick to point out that "bad mouthing the company leads to managerial death."


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