HR Undercover

I work for a company with a very fun, very young, very techy and close knit culture.  The kind of place where employees might play Rockband in the breakroom at lunch, go karaoke together on a Friday night, or even form their own company band (that’s another blog post!).  The work environment is extremely flexible, with many employees managing their own schedules and working in home offices.  The company is also one that is willing to take risks on employees who might be on the inexperienced side, but who have the high-energy, enthusiasm and potential to take-off in the long-term.  We have employees around the world, but the culture of our organization is consistent across all geographies.  It is the type of place where you can wake up at 6 a.m. on your birthday and glance at your Facebook and already have birthday wishes from around the globe from all the wonderful people you work with.  The first time you visit any of our international offices, you feel as if you’ve known the employees you meet forever.  We work extremely hard to preserve this culture, as we believe it is the foundation of our company.  This story illustrates why…

Three years ago the company hired John as a Business Development Manager.  John tore it up during his first year with the company and was pretty much a rock-star employee off the blocks.  Eventually, he slowed down, and got to a point where he had been in a slump selling almost nothing for quite a long time.  His manager, Ben, was reluctant to let him go because of his prior performance (and the fact that letting someone go from this company always feels like cutting someone out of your family), but after several conversations and no progress, Ben had decided that we needed to let John go.  Business is business.  I knew, as the HR Director, that from a business perspective, this was probably the right call, but it was heartbreaking, nonetheless, as John was a great buddy of mine.  I knew it would be a difficult conversation for Ben, as well.

About an hour after Ben’s call with John was scheduled, I called Ben to check in with him on how it went and how he was doing.  He told me it didn’t go how he anticipated.  I’ve come across enough zany situations in my company to wonder just what this meant…

It turns out, he’d told John that the company had made the decision to let him go, and John had begged him to stay.  He explained that he loved working for this company and didn’t want to go anywhere else.  Ben explained to him that this is a business, and John assured him that he understood and then threw him a curve ball.

“I’ll work for no pay.  You can suspend my base salary for the next four months and I’ll work for only my commission.  If I haven’t turned it around by then, you can fire me, but give me this chance.”  He also showed Ben some information about his pipeline that had just come up recently.  Ben had to think about it, but not for too long.  “You’ve got yourself a deal,” he told John.  How could Ben turn down having an extra sales person for free?  I was also shocked when I heard the story, who offers to work for no pay?  I was also thrilled to know John was down but not out.  I didn’t want to see him go if he didn’t have to.

Four months later, we started a new fiscal year and reinstated John’s base salary.  Not only had John turned it around, but he demonstrated the kind of potential and committment to the company that convinced the management team he was sales management material, and he was promoted.  The promotion was announced at a quarterly meeting when the entire North American team was in town, none of whom knew just how far John had come in the previous four months, with the exception of Ben and myself.  I immediately walked up, gave John a hug, and congratulated him on the promotion.  John just gave me a knowing smile and said “Thanks…it’s been a crazy year.”