Posted by denised in Another employee gets fired for telling management something they never want to hear…the truth.
Back in February, Paul Liska was fired from his CFO position at Motorola. A lawsuit filed by Liska claims he was fired the day after a board meeting in which he outlined the problems he saw with the company’s ill performing ‘Mobile Devices’ cell phone division. In his presentation, Liska brought to light the fact that the division missed sales projections for the previous months. He also questioned the current year’s projections and criticized the lack of a forecast for the year 2010. He claims he was fired as a direct result of the statements he made at that meeting. For their part, Motorola says Liska knew he was on his way out, and made the statements at the board meeting to lay the groundwork for a whistleblower case.
The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. But, it reinforces one of the biggest reasons people keep quiet in the face of even the worst management decisions: sometimes telling the truth will get you fired. I’ve talked about this previously with regards to the auto industry execs’ decision to fly a private jet to Washington DC to beg for a bailout. I’m convinced that at least one person in middle management, or lower, thought that the private jet thing was a disaster waiting to happen. That individual may have been bold enough to speak up, but was immediately dismissed, most likely because what he/she was suggesting – that driving the company product might be a great way to promote the brand and the industry, and that flying a private jet might be seen as excessive – made too much sense. Upon returning from the meeting with egg on their face, I imagined a conversation going something like this:
Really Bad Boss who doesn’t listen, speaking to low level employee who suggested executives drive – not fly – to DC : “why did you book a private jet for the meeting?”
Low level employee, thinking, but not saying… ”is he crazy ?!?”, instead responding: “but you said…and when I tried to tell you … but that’s not what you said before…”
But, chances are greater that although many employees realized that taking the jet was a bad idea, few spoke up. You see, when CEOs and executives get together and start speaking “we-are-never-wrong” speak, the air gets really thin and even the wisest among us get a little lightheaded. Afraid of saying the wrong thing – or the right thing with the wrong consequences – we say nothing at all. We fear losing the respect of our peers who never speak up, we fear being wrong, and we fear losing our jobs. So, we say nothing, and our objections, our opinions, our ideas, go unheard.
The problem with trying to save your job by not speaking up is, some of the time, you’ll end up losing your job anyway. Either management messes things up so badly that they’re forced to let people go (as was the case in my situation), or, the people who take over from the previously incompetent management, clean house and get rid of you because they feel as though you stuck around, watched it happen, and did nothing. It’s guilt by association and it’s unfair, but it happens.
So, as Liska sues Motorola over his wrongful termination, and as Motorola denies any wrong doing, those of us stuck with really bad bosses who never listen and never learn will watch the outcome and long for the day when we too can ask , “can you hear me now?”
Source: Associated Press
