BeaF (Virginia)
Posts: 3
Posts: 3
Posted:
Recently our board met in a closed meeting to discuss the possible termination of an employee.This was a closed meeting without the presence of the employee to which I am refering. There was not a majority of votes to terminate. After the vote, the employee's job was secure...End of discussion until a future incident causes us to revisit this topic again.
The employee was scheduled to meet with the board after the closed session at which time we asked questions about the practices and judgment used to complete assigned tasks. Nothing was said in the meeting with the employee that there had been talk of termination.
The following day, another employee, who had no knowledge of what our meeting was about, notified some of the board members that she was told by the employee, that a board member had called immediately after the meetings of the previous night and gave descriptive details of the termination meeting right down to the way the votes were cast. This, to me, is unexceptable behavior on the part of the board member, and raises these questions; How is this board member to be trusted with confidential information? What good could be served by telling the employee such things...I suspect personal gain at the emotional expense of that employee. I feel the board member is befriending this employee to gain information about possible land deals, and by befriending and making the rest of the board members seem like the enemy,win the employee's confidence and loyalty for personal gain. Telling the employee was a hurtful, callous thing to do, and in an effort to share that pain, the employee is now telling members of the community, and anyone who will listen, how badly the board's treatment is. It's not the board as a whole or even those that voted to terminate that are treating her badly. It's only one that is responsible for delivering a blow to cause pain. The rest of us, whether we voted to terminate or not, are content with the democratic outcome of the vote.
This lack of sound judgement on the part of the board member will divide our board, and drive a wedge of mistrust, further dividing our community which had made positive steps to bridge that division following a scandal that deeply hurt this community and from which we are still healing.
Shall we ask this board member to resign, and if that is not an option they want to take, do we then have the duty to bring her lack of sound judgement before the community members in open session?
The employee was scheduled to meet with the board after the closed session at which time we asked questions about the practices and judgment used to complete assigned tasks. Nothing was said in the meeting with the employee that there had been talk of termination.
The following day, another employee, who had no knowledge of what our meeting was about, notified some of the board members that she was told by the employee, that a board member had called immediately after the meetings of the previous night and gave descriptive details of the termination meeting right down to the way the votes were cast. This, to me, is unexceptable behavior on the part of the board member, and raises these questions; How is this board member to be trusted with confidential information? What good could be served by telling the employee such things...I suspect personal gain at the emotional expense of that employee. I feel the board member is befriending this employee to gain information about possible land deals, and by befriending and making the rest of the board members seem like the enemy,win the employee's confidence and loyalty for personal gain. Telling the employee was a hurtful, callous thing to do, and in an effort to share that pain, the employee is now telling members of the community, and anyone who will listen, how badly the board's treatment is. It's not the board as a whole or even those that voted to terminate that are treating her badly. It's only one that is responsible for delivering a blow to cause pain. The rest of us, whether we voted to terminate or not, are content with the democratic outcome of the vote.
This lack of sound judgement on the part of the board member will divide our board, and drive a wedge of mistrust, further dividing our community which had made positive steps to bridge that division following a scandal that deeply hurt this community and from which we are still healing.
Shall we ask this board member to resign, and if that is not an option they want to take, do we then have the duty to bring her lack of sound judgement before the community members in open session?