TALKING THE WALK

Case Scenario

TALKING THE WALKCONVERSATIONS FOR ETHICS & COMPLIANCE TEAMS

Case 13

MARCH MADNESS

© 2019 Ethics & Compliance Initiative

It’s been long enough, Maya concludes. I can check again. He’s bound to have written something by now. He said that this project was a priority. Otherwise, I might not have stayed so late on Monday getting it done. But it’ll be worth it. I’m sure he’ll have lots to say. Or maybe he’ll just say ‘thanks’ and set up a time for us to go through everything. That would be great. I’d love to get some solid feedback. Refreshing my Inbox in 3,2,1…

“Seriously?! Does he even care?!” Maya fumes after checking her email—yet again. Without realizing it, she’d vented aloud this time.

“You doing OK, newbie?” Susanna asks, unsure whether Maya’s having a personal or work crisis and even less sure which she’s hoping for.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to disrupt you. It’s just that… Well… I never have any idea if I’m on the right track. I work so hard on a project, and it seems like I never hear anything back. No ‘thank you,’ no ‘well done,’ not even what I need to do better next time. Sometimes I wonder if the work I do even matters at all.”

“That would be frustrating,” Susanna responds. She remembers what it feels like to be the youngest, the intern, with the least experience and zero clout. “But it won’t always be like this. You started at a bad time, I guess. Nick and the boys are all kind of checked out. More streaming college basketball than checking email.

“But it’s good in some ways, too. It’s pretty mellow right now. Not like the craziness of year-end or Q1 budget planning and projections. March is when everybody coasts. When I first started, it seemed strange to me, too. But it won’t last forever. In a few weeks, it’ll pick back up, and you won’t believe how intense this place gets. You should use this time to rest up,” Susanna finishes with a small chuckle before reengaging with the crazy cat video she was watching.

THE CHARACTERS

Maya: an intern working at the company as part of a program for her master’s degree.

Susanna: an employee with a few years of experience under her belt.

Nick: team lead and Maya’s designated internship supervisor.

Case 13 continued

This is definitely not what I was expecting. Considering that I’ll be paying off school loans for the next decade, I’d like to actually be getting some decent experience. To be learning something. I can’t believe I’m getting credit for this!

And I definitely shouldn’t have stayed late. I should have been working on my Econ paper. Speaking of, there was that article I’ve been meaning to read. I guess no one would mind if I did that instead of pressing on with “important” work for Nick.

Before settling in to her schoolwork, Maya goes for coffee. On the way back, she sees “the boys” in the conference room, intensely focused on the game. She’d totally forgotten her alma mater was playing today. She timidly steps into the room. Nick sees her out the corner of his eye, then invites her to take a seat, “Glad you could join us.”

For the first time, Maya feels like a part of the team.


© 2019 Ethics & Compliance Initiative

FROM THE ECI DATABANK

The average employee is productive less than 3 hours each day.1

On average, workers spend 25.5 minutes per day monitoring college basketball during the NCAA tournament.2

The loss of productivity in the opening week of March Madness could cost employers

nearly $4 billion in lost revenue. Each hour of the workday wasted on building brackets or watching games will cost employers $1.3 billion.3

1. https://www.vouchercloud.com/resources/office-worker-productivity

2. http://fortune.com/2018/03/01/march-madness-2018-worker-productivity/

3. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/14/billions-of-dollars-lost-due-to-march-madness.html

TALKING THE TALK

1. What advice would you give Maya about reasonable expectations for her internship experience? Making the most of it?

2. Susanna says March down-time is part of the rhythm of their company year. What do you think of that attitude?

3. If you were Nick’s supervisor, how ow would you feel about Nick’s performance as a team lead? Employee? Mentor to Maya?

_____________________________________________

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WALKING THE WALK

1. How likely is something like this for our E&C team?

2. What are our expectations of each other in terms of work that we submit: acknowledgement of receipt, a quick thanks, substantive feedback, etc., and what’s the timetable for each?

3. How do we manage the expectations of new members of our team?

4. Nick and his team are taking it easy after an intense period at work. What are the benefits of such an approach? The dangers? Is it wrong? Why or why not?

_____________________________________________

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Questions for Discussion


FROM THE ECI DATABANK

paying employees for non-work activities, but the net benefit is equal to £120 billion in improved productivity.4

4. http://www.marginalia.online/the-productivity-paradox-uk-econ-omy-gains-120-billion-per-year-when-employees-slack-off/

5. https://techtalk.gfi.com/survey-81-of-u-s-employees-check-their-work-mail-outside-work-hours/

6. UltimateSoftware and The Center for Generational Kinetics (2015). Is there really a generational divide at work? Retrieved from https://www.ultimatesoftware.com/Contact/hr-whitepa-per-is-there-really-a-generational-divide-at-work

7. Gallup (2016). How Millennials want to work and live. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236450/managers-millennials-feed-back-won-ask.aspx

Most employees (53 percent) expect a response to work email with a question within an hour.5 1h

UK companies spend

£108 billion

MILLENNIALSof Millennials want feedback every week. 42%

This is over twice the percentage of every other generation.6

of Millennials whose manager holds regular meetings with them

are engaged, more than twice as many as those (20 percent) who are engaged but do not meet with their managers frequently. Similarly, 43 percent of non-Millennials whose manager holds regular meetings with them are engaged.7

or only about one in five Millennials

meets with their manager on a regular basis.7

44%

21%

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TALKING THE WALK