You know of that which I speak of…

There comes a time (often many times) in a manager’s career where they encounter the ultimatum. A situation has arisen and an employee has come in to your office to “discuss” things with the manager or HR.

During the course of the discussion when the employee senses the direction management or the company are heading with their role is not where they want it to go and things like compromise just have not worked some employees pull out the ultimatum. It goes something like this:

“You should know if ______is going to happen then I am absolutely going to quit.”

There are variations on the theme but you get the idea. The ultimatum is a threat. It is an employee seeking to assert their value to the organization in order to change what appears to be an impending decision or to adjust the current work place dynamic to something different they would prefer.

I have known employees who have threatened to quit if certain other employees aren’t fired, for example. While certain other employees may deserve firing there is a defined process good anagement follows to make this happen. If employees do not like the circumstance they are in then they should quit. Threatening to quit however is not a great option.

The worst case scenario is that it works. Why is this bad? Because now the employee works for an organization that will ignore sound policy and procedure and allow itself to be held hostage by disgruntled people. This is not a successful management tactic.

There are many ways for employees to express frustration and seek change in an organization – the ultimatum is not one of them (which is ironic given how often it is used).

The soundest advice I ever received on how to deal with the ultimatum came from a seasoned manager. He said “take it“.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He proceeded to explain. When you are presented with an ultimatum accept it as a resignation. Essentially respond by saying that if this is the way you feel then I accept your resignation.

This seems drastic but the point is that allowing the ultimatum to go unchecked severely changes the management-employee dynamic. Once a person realizes they can hold management hostage by simply threatening to quit it becomes a tool in their negotiation bag. The organization is now managed by threat and aggression.

Worse still, the ultimatum reinforces the idea that an organization cannot survive the loss of an employee.

The reality is that there are certain employees who, should they leave, will place the organization in a time of difficulty. However, an organization that cannot withstand the loss of an employee (even the CEO, a director or other manager), no matter how valuable the person is, may not be an organization worth continuing.

This is because people depart jobs for all kinds of reasons all of the time. They win lotteries, they die, they retire, they get sick and go on extended disability, etc. Your organization MUST be capable of withstanding this. You don’t seek it, but never deny it.

That’s why when someone comes to management and says if this doesn’t happen, I quit, it’s likely time to say goodbye. The alternative is far worse than dealing with the loss of experience for a while.