From a legal viewpoint, what do you believe LaConya can do regarding this situation? Discuss
From the thoughts of LaConya Caesar, it seems that she is a good person by heart. Being the HR Director, she has the capacity to either extend the term of Les Partain by five years or assist him in consolidating his retirement paperwork. But it seems that she is not happy with the performance of Les Partain, who has been serving Gazelle Corporation for more than 30 years and has held the post of Training and Development Manager for the past 12 years.
Being human is a different thing but LaConya has to safeguard the interests of the company as well. While talking to Les Partain, she praised his work because she knew he was about to retire and didn’t want him to feel bad or dissatisfied. The only motive behind her praises was to make him feel happy at the time of retirement. Les Partain can only request for an extension but cannot legally force LaConya to extend his term.
Being the Director of the Human Resources department, all employees come under her purview and she has the authority to appraise their performances. If Les Partain acts smart, she can bring out all the previous records and explain to him how bad his performance was. Moreover, there are several better people in the department who can do a better job than Les Partain. This will of course be in the better interests of the company. So I think that LaConya should use the powers of her office and not agree to the extension of Les Partain’s term. But she can always assist him in consolidating his retirement papers.
What actions should LaConya have taken in the past to avoid her current predicament?
LaTonya holds a very important office i.e. the Human Resources department. The HR department is the key to an organization’s success. It is the employees that bring fame or defame to a company. Being the Director of the HR department of Gazelle Corporation, it is the duty of LaConya to ensure that all the employees perform well. She should not neglect even the slightest mistake on part of the employees. The company has appointed her to safeguard the interests of the company and not those of the employees. If any employee is not performing well, she should demand an explanation from him/her and give a suitable warning.
But in the case of Les Partain, she overlooked his under-performance just because she didn’t want him to feel bad at the time of retirement. In her decency and humanity, she forgot her official duties. She should have pinpointed Les Partain’s initial mistakes or under-performance and it might have been possible that Les Partain would have understood and corrected himself. But by praising his performance, LaConya made a misconception in the mind of Les Partain that he was performing well and working in the right direction.
It may be said that she committed a dual mistake; firstly, by not fulfilling her duties and secondly, by misguiding Les Partain. Actually, she should have given a warning to Les Partain at the first instance of under-performance. No one would want to lose a handsomely paying job. If given a warning, Les Partain would have mended his ways and changed his style of working. The company would also have benefitted from better performance.
But in case the warnings didn’t work, LaConya could have sacked Les Partain and the manager’s post could have been offered to a more deserving employee because as per LaConya, there is no dearth of capable people in the Training and Development department.