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Case 26

Wanted: Good Secretary

Background Information

For over three years, Bernard Malinowski had been the manager of the Customer

Service Department at Buford Department Store. After nearly six years working in

various customer service assignments, he still enjoyed the work of responding to the

inquiries, requests, and complaints of Buford’s various retail customers. He felt it

was a way to help the customers and Buford at the same time.

He supervised five service representatives who dealt directly with the customers.

At times, the service representatives would also support different marketing pro-

grams and initiatives. There was one secretary for the department who provided the

administrative and clerical support needed to keep the department running effi-

ciently. Bernard realized all too well how important it was to have a top performer

in that position.

That was why he was so concerned—and surprised—by the recent performance

of his new secretary, Betty Lyons. Bernard’s expectations had been high when he

hired Betty two months ago. He thought she would be the one who might stick

around and solve the “revolving door” problem he had experienced with every for-

mer occupant of that job. But now, he started to think about replacing Betty.

When she started in Customer Service, Betty seemed to be the ideal worker: She

was energetic, cared about doing a good job, worked hard, and got along well with

her coworkers. But here she was, making the same old mistakes all her predecessors

had made. He ticked off in his own mind the now-familiar list of problems:

• Letters to customers always looked sloppy and poorly composed. The recent

addition of word processing software to the computer in the unit had not

resulted in any improvements.

• The turnaround time for producing the letters was too long, often seeming to

take two or three days from the date of submission.

• Filing and recordkeeping duties piled up and never seemed to be completed

on any sort of timely or up-to-date basis.

To make matters worse, recently she had started complaining of being “over-

worked.” Indeed, Bernard overheard her say to one of the service representatives

just yesterday, “Have they ever told you what they expect you to do or what the pri-

orities are around here? I’m so busy and pulled in so many directions, I can’t do

everything. And I don’t know what I’m supposed to do first.”

Bernard knew she was not performing up to standard and that he would have to

act soon. He thought to himself: “It’s funny, but the good ones always seem to have

the most problems. When they do their work well, we give them more to do, and

then bang—their work falls to pieces. The mediocre ones always stay mediocre—

just getting the job barely done.” Bernard felt the people should derive satisfaction

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130

Case 26 (continued)

from completing a job done well—and if not, well, he did give them a pay raise

once a year. “That should be reward enough,” he thought.

And that was all the reward he gave them.

CASE QUESTIONS

1. Is there a performance problem?

2. Describe the issues.

3. How should Bernard respond?