Melina Murray

What should the response be to broken promises when starting a new job? I hear this question at times and find there is no easy answer.

Sample scenario: You are hired in a senior marketing role to launch a new product. During the interview period you are told (by all players in upper management) this is a critical position as the new product is redefining the company. The company is 110% committed to the goal and you will have whatever resources you need to get the job done. They want you because your greatest strength is in marketing new products, getting the information out to the masses, eliciting excited responses. Wow, cool.

Then you officially start. Two weeks in, you are told the product isn’t ready yet. Three weeks in, you realize no one even knows if the product will work. There are major technical issues that no one can solve. Still, you believe and start to gather your resources. Oops, the company is cutting back on spending. No tools, team members or other resources. They tell you to make it work with what you have. What you have is no product, no confidence that it will work and no tools to market it. Still, you gather what meager resources you have so you are ready when the time comes. You hope for a change, but all information and conversation point to the reality that there will be no new product. And this goes on for the next few months…

What do you do?

Do you leave, realizing the company isn’t going to launch the new product?

The reason you were hired does not exist anymore- should you stay anyway?

I know there are many variables and each situation is unique, but I would love to hear what you think. Have you been in a similar situation? What did you do and why?

My first job in the corporate world was an interesting set up. I worked at the corporate headquarters of an international staffing agency, as a temp. Shortly after I began working, the manager of the branch office was also given the role of managing my department at the HQ office. Interesting situation.

The people I worked with were fantastic and surprisingly, the work was fun. I learned a lot about a variety of topics, which is always important to me. Also, as I worked hard and learned, by manager paid attention and gave me raises (made quicker and easier because of his dual role). As a low paid admin, the raises were significant for me, in addition to the fact someone was paying attention to my contributions. I was energized and worked even harder.

I often think about how to motivate employees and through the years have realized that each individual has to be looked at differently. Some employees are actually motivated by salary increases (although it is a short term motivation). Sometimes it is an extra day off in recognition of hard work or a great idea. For others, public recognition is the thing that fills them with pride, energy and productivity. In short, there is no one way to motivate every employee. Managers should get to know what drives their team members and find a way to reward accordingly. This, of course, entails talking to each person, paying attention to the small things, discussing goals and expectations. It is not hard to do, truly. And in my experience, the managers who do this have teams who are incredibly successful and more important- individuals who want to be there, who want to contribute every day.