Management Lessons from This Week’s Great Quitters

Continuing our series on management: You’ve surely heard about two people who became instant folk heroes by quitting their jobs in high style: A broker’s assistant known only as “Jenny” sent her whole company a series of whiteboard messages which outed her boss as a chauvinist pig, a hypocrite, and (worst of all!) a Farmville addict. Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater let loose a tirade at an abusive passenger, grabbed a beer from the galley, then used the plane’s emergency exit chute to slide away from a 20-year career. While accounts vary about what exactly was said and done on Slater’s flight, and Jenny’s story was actually a hoax, both have thousands of fans because they did what thousands of workers dream of doing.

Wondering how far the employees, vendors, and service people you deal with every day are from “going Steven Slater” or becoming a “whiteboard girl”? We can learn how to prevent such dramatic exits, and the buildup of resentment that leads to them, by looking at the key components of both tales:

Lesson #1: Respect

In both cases, the last straw was lack of respect for the basic human dignity of our hero. Jenny was quitting because her boss called her a HOPA (Hot Piece of A**). “Is that really all you thought of me?” her whiteboard asked. Slater was injured when a passenger slammed a suitcase into his head, and was later cursed out for politely doing his job. Accounts vary as to whether Slater actually swore at the passengers, but according to most witnesses (including Slater, himself), his sign-off speech ended with, “To those who have shown dignity and respect these last 20 years, thanks for the great ride.”

In a busy day, it’s too easy to see someone as just a job description, whether it’s the assistant who prepares your reports, the server who brings your coffee, or the flight attendant who enforces safety rules. Let these stories remind us to see everyone as a whole person with feelings, aspirations, and ideas of their own. Even when you’re their customer—even when you’re their boss—remember that this is a human being who has chosen to serve you. Respect the choice, and respect the person.

Lesson #2: Walk the Talk

The punch line of Jenny’s story is that her boss, who had installed software to monitor every employee’s internet usage, spent half of his own workweek playing Farmville. Flight attendants like Slater (and most people in the service industry) regularly deal with rudeness and cursing because everyone knows that service people are supposed to be polite no matter what. Both stories work because they speak to our need for basic fairness: “You spy on me; I’ll spy on you. You swear at me; I’ll swear at you.”

Lesson #3: You’re Not a Mind Reader

There are roughly 6,909,000,000 people on this planet, each with their own “stuff” going on…bills, work, family, SAT tests, and as in Mr Slater’s case, the eventual loss of his last parent. Just doing simple math tells us that’s a lot of “stuff” going on….and of the 6,909,000,000 minds behind it all, we can only ever really know and understand one of them….our own. We quickly come to conclusions and judgments against people and their actions, and in turn become snarky and rude. When the guy cuts you off on your evening commute, do you assume he is just a rude person? Could it be that he is late for his son’s birthday party because he was on a business call trying to generate a small deal, because he needs to pay his mortgage, and……. you get the idea.

Take a moment to imagine your personal interactions from the other side. Do all of the rules that apply to your employees also apply to you? How would you feel if the people in your life treated you the way you treat them? If you’d be appalled if the tables were turned, it’s time to make some changes.

Posted by: John Cushman on August 12th, 2010 // View Comments
Posted in: News
Tags: Business Tips, Leadership, Management, Quitting
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