Staff abandonment

17th October 2018

David Bolchover managed get paid for a year by a big London insurance company without doing any work, or even going into the office. He fell through a gaping organisational crack right onto his plush sofa at home.

He didn’t set out to rip his company off. In fact, he was bored in his job so he hatched a plan to do an MBA, which he thought would make him more useful. His boss agreed to pay toward expenses and tuition, and to give him a full-time post when he graduated in a year. So, off he went.

But when he returned, his boss had retired and nobody knew what to do with him. His case was taken up briefly by another boss, and some meetings were arranged, but no position materialised. He settled into reading and lunching with envious friends.

It took 10 months for the division paying his salary to call him in to give an account of himself. There wasn’t much to say. No doubt with embarrassment all round, he was made redundant.

Bolchover told the story in his book, “The Living Dead”, where he argues that slacking off is rife, and is fuelled by employee disengagement.

I’m not sure that’s true so much today, but it’s a memorable story. You need to let your delegatee get on with it, but not abandon them.