Course of Action: Marketing Coursework

Rhonda is a Care Manager who's been with Sunrise for over five years. As a Care Manager, she's great with her residents. She anticipates their needs and honors their preferences to ensure they age with dignity while at Sunrise. And it shows! Her residents absolutely love her! However, despite Rhonda's obvious talents as a Care Manager, for some time she's been causing ripples with other staff members due to her negative attitude.

Other team members have remarked that it's not uncommon for their requests for assistance to be met with open hostility or be completely ignored. Additionally, her supervisor has expressed concern on numerous occasions over her seeming unwillingness to help other team members. Earlier this week, one team member told you "Don't get me wrong, she's GREAT with her residents. But if I ask her to interrupt her normal schedule to lend a hand to someone else, she acts like it's a huge inconvenience. And the other day when I asked her to lend a hand, she flat-out told me no."

A week ago, your community hired a new Care Manager. Due to Rhonda’s tenure and success with residents, she was asked by her supervisor to assist with the new hire's training and ensure their onboarding at Sunrise is a success. Rhonda's supervisor was unhappy to learn from the new hire that Rhonda has been less than helpful, if not downright abrasive.

Today, when you ask the new hire how his training is going, he replied "Training has been going okay, and everyone seems nice here, but I'm having a hard time with Rhonda. I feel like she gets frustrated with me easily when I ask her anything. I've been snapped at by her more than a few times. Every time she does show me something or instruct me on how to do something, I can tell that she'd rather be doing anything else."

Based on Rhonda’s perceived rudeness and unwillingness to support other team members, determine:

• What approach and steps you should take to improve her behavior?
• What steps should you take to prepare yourself emotionally for the conversation with Rhonda?
• What logistical elements (e.g., where, when) need to be considered in your planning?
• Who are the appropriate people to engage in the process, and what are the tools and resources required to successfully execute your course of action?
• What may go wrong with your plan to address Rhonda’s behavior?
• What actions should you take to address the process of how new hire trainers are assigned?

After taking steps to help Rhonda improve her performance, she begins to offer assistance to team members more frequently and seems to be exhibiting a more positive attitude. However, after four weeks she starts slipping back into her old ways. Based on her decline in performance, determine:

• How will you employ progressive discipline to address her ongoing performance issues?
• If, following progressive discipline, Rhonda still fails change her behavior, what steps would you take to terminate her employment?