Management Case Study. Bad Manager - The Banana Lady
Think you have or know a bad manager, try this one on for size.
In my 45 years as a private consultant doing Business reorganizations, Management and Team training, I met several extreme management examples that I had to sort out. Here is one of them.
The Banana Lady
I was asked to do what I considered was a very tough assignment by the Chairman of a large Insurance Group for whom I had previously worked. I only accepted the job out of respect for the man concerned. His problem was that a well-known IT consulting firm with a notorious reputation for completely taking over and being difficult to move on had seized control of his IT Department. His European head office had appointed the consulting firm to develop new IT systems in Australia. The firm was also costing him a small fortune, and there was an increasing number of problems with a growing chorus of employee complaints. My brief was to find out what was happening, remove the consultants, fix the issues, and restore service.
The day I arrived, I did so unannouncedly. As I was walking down a corridor looking for the office of the head of the consultancy, I overheard a voice say something like, “Run faster this time.” With that, a banana peel flew out of an office doorway into the corridor. This was followed by a distressed-looking young lady who quickly grabbed it and ran back into the doorway. I stood in amazement, and then the whole scenario repeated itself, except this time with an instruction to “Do it faster.”
Again, the banana peel flew through the doorway, followed by the young lady chasing after it. I stood and waited to see how long this would go on. The whole scenario happened one more time, except this time I yelled out, “I’ll get that!” and grabbed the banana peel, then walked into the office. As I entered, I politely asked if the lady sitting at the desk was the manager in charge; she replied, “Yes… and who the hell are you?”
I replied, “My name is Russell Futcher. The Chairman has sent me to find out what the hell is going on here, and now I have a pretty good idea. I will make this quick and easy; you have 15 minutes to pack your bag and leave the premises — you won’t be coming back. If you are not out of here by then, I will have security escort you out; it is your choice.” Her face turned ashen with disbelief, and her mouth was agog, but realising she had been caught red-handed, she started to collect the papers off her desk. With that, I turned to go and find the young lady who had been directed to chase the banana peel, who had overheard the conversation. I took her aside and apologised profusely for the behaviour she had been subjected to. I asked her if she would be forgiving enough to allow me an opportunity to make things better for her and the employees, and I promised that things would be very different from now on and finished by giving her the rest of the day off.
On speaking to the employees, many of whom I knew, as I had originally set up and staffed this data centre, I discovered they too had regularly been subjected to disrespectful and humiliating comments. They were the playthings of the banana lady and some of her staff.
