Employees quitting in dramatic fashion via a video message that quickly goes viral is certainly nothing new, but I wanted to share this example with you.
Aside from the obvious lesson of remembering your employees always have access to social media, there are three other lessons in this video (quotations are from this article about the video):
1. People quit bosses, not companies
In the video, [Marina Shifrin] labels Next Media Animation an ‘awesome company,’ but also complains that her boss only cares about the quantity of videos and how many views each one gets.”
This is not a new lesson by any means. We all know this to be true. But think of the loss to this “awesome company” of a creative talent who didn’t value the relationship with her boss.
2. Lack of recognition fuels discontent, disengagement, disaffection
I do care about views, because advertising pays the bills … but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about quality,’ her former boss, Michael Logan, told NBC News.”
Clearly, only one message was being heard by Marina – only number of views (results) matter. Think what could have been avoided if this manager had also understood the importance of recognizing and valuing behaviors that achieve results. Marina may have felt the quality of her work was also appreciated and not left in such spectacular fashion.
3. Clear, fair communication matters
She initially only shared the video with family and friends, but then decided to post it on YouTube and emailed the gossip site Gawker about it after a disagreement with her boss.”
We’ve all had disagreements with our bosses in our careers. There’s no information about what the disagreement was in this case about or the severity of it. But I think many of us have also experienced the “straw that broke the camel’s back” – a minor disagreement that was the last straw in precipitating action.
How else could the disagreement have been handled to avoid the very public dissemination of this video? More to the point, what could the manager have done throughout the relationship to avoid this scenario entirely?
Have you ever resigned in dramatic fashion (or fantasized about it)? Why?
You can find more from Derek Irvine on his Recognize This! blog.