my employee quit over a misdirected email
A reader writes:
I have two employees who can’t stand each other but they’ve managed to be civil and professional. Sarah is a mid-top performer with a consistently good work product. She’s not a superstar but she is dependable. Dani is temperamental, doesn’t always listen to peers, and has created problems for her teammates when her part of projects either missed the mark or missed the deadline. Dani is on a PIP for performance issues but has been making an effort to improve.
Last week, Sarah had apparently had enough and fired off an email to a friend at work listing all of Dani’s shortcomings. She intended to vent to a friend but she sent the email to Dani. Dani, understandably hurt, came in the next day and quit. While there’s a part of me that’s glad Dani is gone (she was difficult to manage and struggled to get along with anyone), she was leading a critical project with a tight deadline. And now the project will be delayed. I’m asking myself if there should be consequences for Sarah. On one hand, she was just venting and didn’t intend for Dani to see the email. But on the other, her actions have created a serious business issue. She seems to alternate between being upset that this happened and celebrating that Dani is gone.
I answer this question — and two others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.
Other questions I’m answering there today include:
- Chronic nail biting in meetings
- My boss wants me to hire her friend
