2010

THE 2010 CALENDAR

OF THE

BIG

BAD

BOSS

2009 has been rich in:

- high Stress levels

- suicides on the job

-massive lay-offs

- illegal confinement of bosses

- offshore relocations

- violent strikes

WORSEand 2010 will be

AS MANY MANAGERS

ARE NOW TRAINED TO

PUSH PEOPLE OUT

WITHOUT FIRING

Mission quarter1

in french:

C’est

Con mais

C’est

Comme

Ça !

Management by the 5 C

Translated :

That’s the

way it is !

JANUARY 2

010

KICKING OUT

THROUGH

PROMOTION

SERGE – Head of an engineering

service (3 engineers) in a large group gets promoted… by supervising a MUCH larger team…

He becomes the...

HEAD OF THE INTERNAL

RESTAURANT

Result : Serge can’t support this situation

and leaves the company 2 weeks later

FEBRUARY 2

010Always HIGHER

« Like pressing an orange… »

Laurent, Director General Services

30% of his pay depends on his achievement

Goal Year 1 : cutting operating costs by 30%Mission achieved with 34%

Goal Year 2 : cutting operating costs by 35%Mission achieved with 37%

Goal Year 3 : cutting operating costs by 40%Failure – with only 34%. Laurent has been fired for lack of result…

MARCH 2

010

THE BOSS

rules the waves

Patrice, Sales director

Implemented an atmosphere of constant war

The 5 sales persons (newly arrived) have to chase new prospects…

But Patrice steals in the end the signature of new contracts…. And it is Patrice who collects all contract incentives !

Disgusted, no sales person finishes his trial-

period

(but as revenue increases constantly… the board

keeps this insane situation)

Mission trimestre2

Seiri = get ridSeiton = get things into trimSeiso = wipe, rubSeiketsu = keep neat Shitsuke = strictness

Management by the(japanese)

5 S

APRIL

2010

FAKE EMPLOYEE

SURVEYS

Hubert, COO has to close a critical subsidiary having a lot of internal

problems

- Solution… execution of an employee satisfaction survey

Conclusion- Publication of a small note, confirming some

of the minor problems but without real explanations…

- Nomination by the group of an extra director (oriented trouble-tracking not operations).

Impact

Team completely unsatisfied and in less than 4 months, all 5 managers resigned !Successful operation as the subsidiary closed 2 months later

THE FOG

MACHINEM

AY 2010

Goal : loose focus

Carlos, GM of a business unit,

receives constantly new goals… (through a very complex matrix-organisation)

- Sales goal changes every 15 days - The SLA he has to respect changes every 2 months (due to restructuring in Europe, EMEA …)- After each European board meeting, the priority of the product portfolio changes radically- He has full P&L responsibility but the group is engaging major expenses he can not refuse

A company without focus or clear

settings… after doing a great job, all GM’s

leave after one year… just like Carlos.

JUNE 2

010

CREATING

OFFICE GOSSIP

Patrick, President of a subsidiary

He is doing well but he has a strong personality and does not necessarily follow the group-rules. Several group executives don’t like him.

Launching of a very negative buzz (articles on a so-called bad performance, sending of tax-inspectors, legal inspectors… ).

Result : the employees have lost confidence in their boss and internal conflicts ignite.

Patrick resigns 6 months later … and the unit is integrated inside the group as a “department”.

Mission quarter3Management by the

Management by stress

3-yearly Mobility plan

Perpetual Move-on (change)

Manipulating Redundancy

Multiply “kick-out” forces (early-retirement, relocation…)

5 M

JULY 2

010

Annual Assesment

= split-up

Sylvain, director of an IT field

service - learned how to use the annual assessment

discussions to destabilize certain people.- his goal : make people leave without firing

“You work hard but you are not efficient”“The market has changed so you need to adapt quickly”“Our clients ask us to work 10% faster… so do it”“We expect you to execute, not to talk…”“The market conditions are not longer present to pay you any training”“The team is filling up your inexperience”

Result:

The number of resignations has …tripled

AUGUST 2010

HOLIDAY BUZZ

TO DIVIDE

Francine, site manager (distribution) –executing a major critical contract (but money-losing activity)

She reads in the written press :- A project to unite several sites- A project to offshore several services

Her site is not impacted… but this has not been written

Returned from holidays, she finds her company on strike. One week later, her critical contract has been cancelled by the client…

Result:- Close down of the site (- 54 people)- The group ended a money-losing contract without penalties

SEPTEM

BER 2

010

ROT THE

ATHMOSPHER

Gérard, director of operations

His mission : divide by 2 his team without firing

He :

- changes the team priorities 3 to 4 times a day- never explains his decisions- does not share information neither forecasts- reduced office cleaning (and decoration)- always focuses on speed of execution and the restriction of resources- is always searching for the person responsible for a delayed intervention…

Result : 50% of his team left in less than 12 months time

Mission quarter4

In French :

Stresser

Sévir

Stigmatiser

déStabiliser

Subordonner

Management by the

5S

Stressing

Splintering

Stigmatizi

ng

destabiliz

ing

Subordina

ting

OCTOBER 2

010BIG BROTHER IS

WATCHING YOU

The eternal monitoring

Hubert, GM of a software house

He ismonitoring everyone

He knows of each person the number of cups ofcoffee, the number of cigarette-breaks, the timespend on the Web, the number of personal phone calls…

It allows him to knock down people by

increasing (in a clever way) their stress-level sohe/she will resign as quickly as possible.

November2010

The CONSTANT

BATTLE for

SURVIVAL

THE ETERNAL COMPETITION

Jean and Philippe, two directors at 2

different engineering offices but in the same group (both working under a fixed term contract)

They both work – without really knowing - on the same files and have to prove their efficiency by delivering to the Group the best products at the best price (and at the shortest delay).

This constant battle is tough … and stressfull.

No director stayed more than 2 years in the company… but the Group got extreme fine products !

DECEM

BER 2

010 THANKFULLY… THERE ARE STILL

SOME GOOD BOSSES

email : interim-executives@lesrelanceurs.fr

@ND YOU C@N FIND THOSE HONEST

@ND PEOPLE C@RING EXECUTIVES

TO @SSIST YOU ON IMPORT@NT

CH@NGE @ND/OR RESTRUCTURING

PROJECTS ON :

All pictures are royalty free and

from :

- www.freedigitalphotos.net

- www.dreamstime.com

All the stories in

this presentation

are real and

happened in

France. Not one

single boss got

legal problems…