Paula and Bubba: A Cautionary Tale for Family Business

Paula Deen has a “long row to hoe”.  The former Food Network star and her businesses are involved in a lawsuit brought by a former General Manager of a restaurant owned by Paula’s brother. Because Paula’s holding company owns part of her brother’s restaurant, she and her businesses, were named as defendants.

The complaint alleges that Paula, her brother, Bubba, and other senior employees exhibited inappropriate workplace conduct, regarding race, sex, and gender.  Among other things, the alleged conduct included employment practices, comments and jokes that were discriminatory based on religion, race, gender, and sex.  The allegations go on to state that Ms. Deen and other senior managers were aware of complaints about Bubba specifically but failed to take appropriate action to stop his conduct.

From her recent appearance on the Today show and from her deposition, it sounds like “big sister” Paula loves her brother and hasn’t accepted the fact that he could have engaged in inappropriate conduct around employees.  If the plaintiff’s allegations are true, Paula as CEO and part owner in Bubba’s restaurant, knew about and failed to address Bubba’s behavior as an employee.  Whatever did or did not happen, it sounds like a family issue impacted the business, now seriously affecting Paula’s livelihood.

Ahh.  The joy of a family business.

Can your family peccadilloes withstand workplace standards?  Some behaviors that are tolerated at home may be unlawful in the workplace.  Just because it’s your company doesn’t give you and your family members freedom to do whatever they want.  As with any other business, your family business is held to the same workplace laws as other businesses.  So, it’s important to be clear with your employee-relatives (and yourself) about what’s expected when they step into their work roles.

If your family dynamics include sexual innuendo and jokes about religion, race, sex or gender, and you carry on this way at work, watch out.  Non-family employees might not share an appreciation of this sense of humor, and state and federal law will back them up.

Are you willing to address the workplace conduct of family members?  Working with family is often a delicate balance that lends itself to avoiding conflict.  How difficult will it be for you as “little sister” to address an issue with a parent or sibling who exhibits inappropriate conduct around employees? And you might get grief from other family members (inside and outside the company) for addressing an issue with a family member.  Are you and your family members prepared for that?  When all is said and done, the CEO and other senior leaders must ensure that touchy issues are addressed, whether it involves family or not.

Drafting a family employment code of conduct could serve as a road map.  To clarify family-employee expectations, you could draft a family code of conduct, which could include standards for performance, behavior, promotions, and accountability for family members working in the business.  Use the standards you would apply to non-family employees as a minimum and have higher expectations for family members. Include language for the process for handling family member conduct violations and poor performance.  Finally, you can include a conflict resolution process and appeal procedures.  The type of appeals process chosen is not as important as the fact that you have one.

As with any investigation, take all complaints seriously – especially those again family members -- and follow up with prompt remedial action as necessary.  It’s hard to take seriously some of the issues employees bring to you, especially if issues are brought to you by those who have a reputation for being “whiners” or “complainers”.   Nonetheless, it’s wise to listen, interview witnesses, and address any wrong-doing through disciplinary action or training.

While we don’t know exactly what happened in Paula Deen’s situation, it’s possible that she wouldn’t be in her current circumstances if she had been better able to separate her feelings as family member from her responsibilities as a business owner.

Are You Managing or Bullying?

“I feel like you’re intimidating and bullying me.”  These are the words of a female employee during a meeting with her male supervisor, who intended to set expectations with her. The supervisor was taken aback and started to question his behavior.

With stories of bullying of children frequently in the news, it makes us stop and think.  So, how do you know whether you are managing or bullying?

Keep in mind that a few employees will attempt to deflect attention away from themselves, especially when a work issue is being addressed.  One thing they may say, whether they really believe it or not, is that you are bullying them, especially if they believe that no one – not even their supervisor – has a right to dictate terms to them at work.

Also, employees may use the word “intimidation” when describing what it felt like when they were called into the boss’s office to discuss a performance deficiency.  Well, sure, it’s intimidating, especially when you know you’ve failed in your work commitment.  But that doesn’t mean the boss was purposefully intimidating and is a bully.

According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, bullying is a “laser-focused”, “systematic campaign of interpersonal destruction” that has nothing to do with work itself and that negatively impacts the employee’s health, career and job.  It

targets the employee for no good work reason, causing an employee, who otherwise does acceptable work, to feel hopeless about the situation. Bullying targets tend to be good workers, who are “independent” and not easily “subservient”.  G. Namie, TheChallenge of Workplace Bullying, Employment Relations Today, 2007, 34(2), pp.43-51.

To help clarify, these are examples of when your behavior could be “bullying” as opposed to “managing”:

Bullying	Managing
On a performance review, the supervisor is intentionally biased or gives inaccurate feedback because he doesn’t like the employee even though the employee is a good performer.	On a performance review, the supervisor shares honest, substantiated feedback with the employee, whether he likes the employee or not.
The supervisor deliberately excludes an employee from workplace meetings and activities for no good reason or for a concocted reason when other employees in the same job classification attend.	The supervisor includes an employee in workplace meetings and activities that other employees in the same job classification attend, even if the employee is not the best performer.
The supervisor instigates or fails to stop others from spreading malicious gossip, jokes or rumors about an employee which are not true.	The supervisor refrains from joking about, gossiping or spreading rumors about any employees.  Instead the supervisor addresses any problematic conduct or performance with employees directly and privately, giving the employees an opportunity to give their version of the situation.
The supervisor pesters, spies, or stalks the employee with no business reason for doing so.	The supervisor monitors all employees’ whereabouts if there is a business reason for doing so, and documents and addresses any issues of attendance or productivity privately with employees, giving the employees an opportunity to give their version of the situation.
The supervisor criticizes or belittles the employee persistently or allows others to do so without saying anything.	The supervisor speaks privately with the employee if there are documented conduct or performance issues, getting the employee’s explanation during the conversation.
The supervisor metes out undeserved or unwarranted punishment to an employee.	The supervisor addresses only work related issues, gathering all relevant information regarding a situation, including the employee’s version of events, before deciding whether or not to discipline an employee for workplace misconduct.
The supervisor consistently gives an otherwise good performing employee assignments that are beneath his position to create a feeling of uselessness.	The supervisor holds employees accountable to job performance standards and documents/addresses sub-standard performance with interventions such as re-training, job shadowing, etc.

The manner in which the supervisor interacts with an employee in any situation can increase or decrease the employee’s perception of being bullied, even if the supervisor’s behavior is not out of line. So, know when you have a right to address a situation with employees and do it professionally and respectfully.

Are Your Meetings a Snoozefest?

What is the difference between a newsletter and a meeting?  You think this is a trick question?  It’s obvious, right? Apparently not so obvious to a lot of leaders.

Like a memo or newsletter, many meetings end up as simply a way to disseminate information.  Those attending go around the horn and update the others in the room about what’s going on in their respective areas of responsibility.  Or maybe during the meeting someone “trains” you on a new procedure, product, or service.  Thus, many meetings are simply newsletters in disguise.  If you are gathering others in a room or in a virtual meeting space to merely disseminate information, send a newsletter or memo instead.

In contrast, you should use a meeting format when there is a topic to discuss that is critical to the long-and short-term success of your organization.  As proposed in Patrick Lencioni’s Death by Meeting, every good meeting needs “conflict” . . . something that will spark all kinds of thought, discussion and disagreement, allow enough time to dicuss the issue(s), and not mix administrative, tactical and strategic topics.

With multiple options for interfacing and communicating with others available today, it is even more important to determine whether or not a meeting (whether virtual or face-to-face) is really necessary. The main reasons to have a meeting:

1.       To check-in daily with those working with you.  This is a short 5-10 minute administrative meeting where a supervisor and her direct reports briefly huddle to exchange information regarding their top priorities of the day.  It allows for quick updates, coordination and coverage if needed.

2.       To report back on the progress of tactics that are being implemented and are based upon the goals generated during a strategy session.  This is a weekly meeting where an entire team meets to report on individual efforts to impact team and organization goals and to make new commitments for the coming week.  In addition to Lencioni’s book, I recommend The Four Disciplines of Execution by Chris Chesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling for a practical structure to these types of meetings.

3.       To discuss the current strategy related to the organization’s current business goals and the progress being made.    These can be held monthly or as needed and usually last from 2-4 hours.

4.       To do more in-depth organizational planning, including to review strategy, industry trends, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  This can be a two- to three-day meeting held offsite and may include department heads and other senior leaders, who gather to brainstorm, analyze, prioritize, and discuss where the business is going with respect to its market, products, service, or structure.  Sometimes they also discuss internal talent and succession planning.

All of these meeting types require the participation of the attendees around a meaningful topic.

So reflect on the meetings you convene or attend.  If you lead the meetings, what can you do make them more engaging for the others in the room? What topics, central to your organization, need to be discussed more and would lend themselves to lively discussion and analysis?  Assuming little or no discussion is required, what straightforward information currently shared at your meetings can be shared in a way that doesn’t take meeting time?

In short, instead of holding a meeting where others are dragging in a few minutes late, dreading the time they will have to spend listening to the same old irrelevant information and hoping there will be someone else in the room they can text with under the table, what can you do to your meetings, so others can’t wait to come and participate . . . ?