I have this friend, and she was asking my advice about a troubling situation in her workplace. The boss is quitting, and there are two internal applicants for the position. HR wants the input of employees as to who they should hire, to make sure that the new boss with match with the majority of workers. The two candidates have very different agendas. It doesn't matter what the agendas are, but just know that they are pretty much polar opposite. About the only thing they have in common is that they want to be in charge, and they want the company to be powerful and prosperous.
In an effort to swing employees, each candidate for the position has been going from office to office, cube to cube, talking to people to get a feel for what they want in a boss. What my friend has noticed, however, is that the candidate's position changes with each person they speak with. They seem to emphasize whatever the person is looking for. The most troubling part, however, is that the majority of their talks with the employees seems to center around bashing the other candidate. They point out mistakes that the other person has made in the job, times when their projects didn't turn out exactly right. In fact, both candidates are focusing their own campaigns for the job on what the other person is doing, or has done, wrong. They send out emails with pictures of the other in compromising positions, and spread rumors and gossip like wildfire.
Does this seem unethical to anyone else? I'm not sure someone who uses those sorts of tactics even deserves to be in a position of leadership.
Okay, you got me. I totally made that up. But I have to wonder...if the tactics used in the Presidential campaign were used in a business so overtly, what kind of environment would that be to work in? And, even scarier, how often are those tactics actually used on the sly? It's a weird world we live in. Which is why, despite the rampantly negative political campaigns going on right now (thank goodness for the mute button), I still choose to...
Laugh on :)
