What a Star What a Jerk

Case Report On:

What a Star – What a Jerk

by Sarah Cliffe

Submitted by: Group 1_Section A_2014-16

Introduction

This study focuses on the different behaviors and attitudes we see in the workplace environment. The study revolves around the communication between Jane and her ex-colleague Rick, via email.

Jane has joined a new office and is getting to know her team members. She talks about different behaviors like hard-work, honest, humorous, rude, quite, reserved that are prevailing in her office among the employees.

Caroline has the most experience and a good repo with other people in and out the office.

Tom is the amazing sales guy and the joker of the office.

Jack is a little introvert but an intense, intellectual guy.

Her main problem in the office is “Andy Zimmerman”, who is a very bright guy and the star performer of the office. Andy gets mean with his co-workers again and again, and dominates and bullies them. Jane is having a conflict as to how to resolve this problem as she cannot fire Andy, because “of his numbers”. He is always right and is the best at his job. His main motive is that all the work is done effectively and timely, and when his co-workers slip a bit in doing their work, he lashes out at them and behaves rudely. His intenstions are correct but his delivery of expression is wrong.

Jane has tried to resolve the conflicts prevailing in the office, but her efforts are all in vain.

Now, Jane is frustrated that she has to act like a “kindergarden teacher”, when she is supposed to be more engaged with the business.

Main Issues

Andy Zimmerman is a bright star performer, but his ways with his colleagues are not congenial.

He is a smart person with great insights and energy but when it comes to dealing with people he is not tactful enough rather he’s blunt to the extent of being intimidating, even to his boss Jane.

His entire orientation is towards getting work done and has no tolerance for blunders. He brutally chides people even for the smallest mistakes which may cause them to make even more errors.

He is not at all sympathetic to his co-workers’ problems and in a way he is creating stress on their work life balance, as in the case of Caroline when he writes to her saying he can’t hear her ‘whining’.

Even after Jane pointing out to him politely about his impatience with his colleagues and the need to bring about a change in his attitude, there had been no reform.

He is basically a bully and Jane is caught up in between his topflight performance and his negative attitude which is affecting the overall performance of his co-workers.

Plausible Solutions

After analyzing the case, what comes first in the mind is firing Andy (who has been a constant problem for the other group members); however this solution doesn’t seem plausible because it is not favorable to dismiss a person from a group; especially a star performer who is an asset of the group. The plausible solutions could be: