Recently in HR in Baseball Category

At the time of this article, details still continue to come in on the scandal at Penn State involving Jerry Sandusky. Years of alleged indiscretions by Coach Sandusky have been all over the news, the internet and water cooler discussion.

What makes this case so disturbing is the apparent years of coverup or lack of followthrough by several members of the community who knew of the alleged incidents but either didn't see the need to followup on whether they were being investigated or whether the alleged perpetrator was involved.

After watching this begin to play out, it made me reflect on far less severe allegations that I have seen companies turn a blind eye to because they are afraid to make a decision to let a top performer go, or because they feel they'd rather let people settle their issues themselves.

I really am starting to think however, given the heightened awareness of HR indiscretions with the Penn State situation, that many companies are going to take allegations of impropriety much more seriously to avoid this type of public relations disaster. Whether it is something as severe as sexual indiscretions or something less severe as a boss who is a tyrant and biased, companies may begin to take complaints more seriously given how a multi-year pattern of bad behavior seems to have affected the reputation of Penn State.

Think of the terrible boss you may have had at one point who runs person after person out of the company because no one in HR or administration believes the allegations; for years, these kinds of people get away with their attitude, indiscretions, and poor leadership because no one is afraid to take a stand.

It's time for organizations to have some temerity and do something about these situations!

In baseball, the term "clubhouse cancer" is used to describe a player, coach or member of the team who seems to destroy the team chemistry from within. For the Boston Red Sox this year, a "mole" reported to the media that players were drinking during games, that Terry Francona was facing addictions and marital troubles, and assorted other players had basically lost respect for the team.

In your social life and in your business relationships, upon reflection you may find that there is a need for social life chemotherapy or business relationship chemotherapy. In these cases, the only way to cure these ills is to address the relationship or address the person; sometimes that means removing people from your life or fixing the relationship flaws to keep the relationship strong.

Recently, I did a small bit of social life chemotherapy by eliminating some people and situations from my life that were causing me too much angst and not enough benefit. I challenge you this week to look at the changes you need to make; very often, they are subtracting situations and people from your life versus adding anything that is missing.

Very few pitchers go undefeated during a baseball season; many pitchers go through slumps where they don't have their best pitch working, where they can't throw strikes, or can't get hitters out. The very best pitchers pitch through these woes and do the best they can given their physical, mental, and emotional abilities at that time.

Similarly, in the workplace, one can't be on 100% of the time; there will come days where you'll need to work a longer day or a shorter day to meet your limitations head on. You may have to make decisions after a sleepless night, during a physical ailment, or after having an emotional roller coaster of a day. The important things to remember are to shut down when you need to, work through the difficult times, and rely on your support network to give you the kind of attention you need to work through the tough times.

One of my colleagues today pointed out how disgusted she was when the guy at Dunkin Donuts wouldn't change his gloves after he made a tuna salad sandwich. It appears I'm not the only one affected by the tuna salad sandwich...

I've been driving around Albany disturbed by giant pictures of tuna salad and chicken salad sandwiches on billboards. I don't want my coffee and donuts anywhere near these sandwiches!

From an HR perspective, I often wonder if marketing departments of companies take into account the implications of their marketing campaigns on the people who have to work every day. I can only imagine the pain that employees have to go through to upsell or recommend the tuna salad sandwich or that have to face people like my colleague who are disgusted at the sight of tuna near their bagel with cream cheese.

How has marketing affected your team? I'll share more stories next week when I return from a few days away...

The past week has seen a flurry of activity as major league baseball teams have scurried around to find that one or two missing pieces they feel they need for a run to the playoffs. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cleveland and Texas proved to be some of the big players in this years trading frenzy. Many teams stayed out of the trading race this year as the cost of trading prospects was too high or there was no one on the market who was better than what the team already had in its minor league or major league rosters.

In business, when it's time for the holiday rush, a sales blitz, or other peak in business, it's often easy to get caught up in the game of landing that flashy new salesperson or hiring extra staff to get through a peak period.

Sometimes, the best solution for amping it up during peak periods is to value your existing staff even more; reward them with overtime, sales performance bonuses, or some other perks to give them the opportunity to meet the goals you seek. Indeed, sometimes right at home is where you can find the talents and people you are looking for outside.

I was down at Citi Field last night for a hot night of baseball. Getting there early after my last appointment, I was pretty amazed that there were no vendors outside the stadium (even as late at 90 minutes before the game started). The only way to get a drink was to go over to the bar on the far side of the stadium.

Perhaps there are zoning laws I am unaware of, but to me this stinks of poor HR and operations management. By an eyeball count, there had to be at least 500-1000 fans outside the stadium about 2 hours before game time. Even if the Citi Field crew hired two staff people to run carts on each side of the stadium to come in at 6pm instead of game time, they could have sold hundreds of water bottles and hot dogs before people went in the door.

Do staffing decisions like this affect your bottom line? What can you do to stay open a few minutes later or start a few minutes earlier to get some sales that you would have missed?

I can recall many instances where even staffing one person 15 minutes early or 15 minutes late helped capture sales we never would have if we were so strict with our staffing.

So my message to the Mets and Citi Field; put out a water cart before the game, please!

As Roger Clemens reached the end of his career, he returned to the Astros (and later the Yankees) later in the season to contribute to the team in a full-time role for about 2/3 of the season. Similarly, Pedro Martinez did the same thing for a couple months with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Was it injury that made these players opt to do this? No, it was opportunity and teams willing to work with their needs. Clemens wanted to spend more time with family. Pedro wanted to contribute.

With past experience and precedent as a guide, I think we will see Andy Pettitte return to baseball mid-season. He retired to spend more time with family, but he still had some life left in baseball. The Yankees have a need with injuries and reliability issues, and there could be an appropriate match for both the Yankees and Pettitte to come to an agreement for a June or July return.

In business, many companies will overlook someone because they are only available part of the year, part-time, or for a limited role. Baseball's situations above remind us that if there is a need and a talent to meet that need, reasonable accommodations can be made to enable both parties to benefit.

I can tell when the baseball announcers are bored when the conversation turns to "Well, if they take out the catcher here, and the backup gets hurt, what do they do next?" Rarely, if ever, have I seen a situation where this needs to be addressed by the manager of any team.

This year, the Yankees have Russell Martin and Gustavo Molina, as well as former catcher Jorge Posada on the roster. This gives the Yankees that "third" option in case the announcers start worrying again.

Where in your organization do you need to worry about having a "third catcher"? Are there succession plans in place in the event of an unexpected emergency? As much as I vomit in my mouth when the announcers go on and on about third catchers, they do have a point; there needs to be readiness, even if someone is only needed once a year to fill a role.

Workplace bullies and incompetent, tyrannical bosses cost companies millions in lost productivity, decreased morale, and turnover.  Robert Sutton has written two great books called The No A**hole Rule and Good Boss, Bad Boss.

Sutton describes in these books just how toxic environments can become when people spiral out of control and become tyrants who thrive on nothing but making others miserable.

A couple of the most telling quotes from these book are as follows;

"To qualify as a certified a--hole: a person needs to display a history of episodes that end with one "target" after another feeling belittled, put down, humiliated, disrespected, oppressed, de-energized, and generally worse about themselves." Robert Sutton

This next quote resonates with me - I've worked with people a few times in my career who match this description exactly!

"Two-faced backstabbers like my colleague, those who have enough skill and emotional control to save their dirty work for moments they can't get caught, are tougher to stop - even though they do as much damage as a raging maniac." Robert Sutton

Businesses need to be more keen on weeding out these type of people BEFORE they join an organization.  Once they are in, its hard to extricate them unless you can document, discipline, and then dismiss them.

"The difference between how a person treats the powerless vs the powerful is as a good a measure of human character as I know." Robert Sutton

I get annoyed every time I hear baseball announcers say "well, he's up to 100 pitches now, I wonder when they are going to get someone up in the bullpen."  No pitcher is created equal, and I find the arbitrary number of 100 pitches to be one of those statistics that is used inappropriately to assess the wear and tear and ability of a pitcher to continue to perform at a high level.