Colleague mucked up but was this handled correctly?

[IkeaJesusChrist]

I'm curious to hear how other managers would have handled this.

On the Wednesday before Easter a colleague was on A/L, whist he was on A/L he was sent an email by one of our internal teams asking for a code for a supplier, this was part of a batch payment for several hundred suppliers. Other senior colleagues were copied into the email and there is an argument that they could have removed the supplier from the batch payment to ensure the other suppliers would have been paid.

Upon their return on Thursday colleague was very ill but they worked from home and did some work, attended a few meetings and pushed to get a report finalised before Easter break, they didn't see the email for unknown reasons.

Over Easter colleague took a turn for the worse, was on pre-booked A/L the Tuesday after and was hospitalised from Tuesday until Saturday. On Monday they returned to work, clearly not feeling 100% and they got called into a meeting by their manager to answer why the email hadn't been responded to and to receive a bollocking as several hundred suppliers hadn't been paid because of this one code. This was done in front of other colleagues who looked as this clearly ill person couldn't even speak properly to answer questions or to ask why the supplier simply hadn't been removed from the batch.

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm one of the colleagues, I feel deeply uncomfortable with what I have witnessed and the colleague who was unwell and had missed the email has been very quiet since.

Has my manager completely mishandled this?

Sounds like a screw-up by a few different people, and your colleague was obviously seriously ill. Did they have an OOO on? Did the team who sent the first email not chase for a response? (An OOO reply might have prompted someone to send it elsewhere.) Did everyone on cc assume it was nothing to do with them? Did your colleague’s manager not review what might be waiting in your colleague’s inbox while they were off sick? What kind of weird system holds up hundreds of payments for the sake of one anomaly?

It feels like an opportunity to review how this could be prevented in future, not an opportunity for a bollocking.

The code should have been supplied by someone else as colleague was on leave to begin with. Secondly this is a really good reason why people shouldn't work when they're ill. Things are missed and mistakes are made.

Again, if the colleague was unwell they shouldn't have been at work, and the bollocking shouldn't have been in front of other people

Manager should have called colleague into a private room to find out what went wrong and what should be done to prevent a reoccurrence. Public bollocking are never okay, even if someone has definitely done something wrong.

Does no one else have the codes? If not, why not?

Was OOO set?
Did colleague feel they had to work, even though clearly too ill? Is it a problem with workplace culture or colleague not sharing knowledge in the hope thry will be indispensable?

Agree with the first two posts. Colleague shouldn’t receive a public dressing down because a mistake was made due to illness. A meeting or review of procedures to ensure something similar doesn’t happen again once colleague was well again would be much more effective and proportionate.

Yes my colleague had set their out of office response, when it became clear they missed the email they asked a senior colleague and was told 'I was hoping you'd see the email '.

There's definitely a problem with the culture, because we WFH it's expected that unless we are literally dying that we work through it when we're not feeling well.

Yes, completely mishandled. I’d raise it with HR. Your manager shouldn’t be publicly humiliating colleagues like that for any mistakes.

The issue to me seems to be that when the colleague was first ill, none of the senior staff bothered to step in to cover when they were included on the emails.

A process isn't robust if it relies on an individual. Your colleague was off and had his OOO on why didn't someone else pick it up? It sounds like others were CCd

Sounds like an unfortunate set of circumstances that would require a conversation with the colleague (privately) to understand what went wrong and then the manager needs to decide if it’s something you learn from or something we need a new, more robust process for (then I’d work with the team to develop that process).

my director loves to publicly humiliate me and the other manager. It’s so ridiculous we both just smile and agree to close her down but the team see it and think badly of her rather than us. My most recent one was “teen mum, why was I not informed sooner, this isn’t acceptable!!!” Screamed at me. I didn’t tell her sooner because I didn’t know the issue (caused by a different team). I later learned it was flagged to the director 4 years ago before my time!

Totally handled wrong from before the colleague went on leave. If a code is needed on an annual leave day by the only person with the code on the day of the payrun, the manager should have made sure someone else could have or generate the code or just hold back that one supplier. It is the managers failing not the colleague's.

Colleague is categorically not at any fault here whatsoever. They werent working, and company knew this. Completely mishandled by the manager.

Edited- sorry I slim read. Ah if colleague could have reasonably been expected to have seen the email when they returned then it is partly their mistake, but still mishandled to publicly bollock them

Wow. So very very unprofessional of the manager. Really bad.

If the colleague was on annual leave he was not responsible for any of it. Colleagues on annual leave are unavailable.

I would like to hope that as you witnessed such appalling behaviour you will have raised a complaint?

Presumably any authorisation processes are delegated during annual leave. Had the colleague put this in place? Why were they checking work email while away, is that against company policy for example?

No authorisation was required, the internal team just needed a code or senior colleague could have removed the supplier from the batch to prevent any further delays.

They weren't checking their email during A/L, not sure where that has been inferred?

I must have misread. But if colleague normally gives a code, someone else should be able to in their absence. Is the timing of the payment run consistent so they would know in advance it was due to happen during their al.

my manager would have been copied into that email asking for the code, would have seen that it was urgent, and responded right away to say xxx is currently on a/l so im happy to provide the code you requested in her absence. it is xxx.

so the manager should have dealt with it. Or one of her colleagues in her team (knowing it was urgent and she was on leave) should have dealt with it.

although i have to ask why did nobody know the code im the first place? knowledge needs to be shared. everyome should have a stand in so when they are off ithers can taje over.

she has been very sick and hospitalised and the culture in your place appears to force sick people to try and work. this is why mistakes happen.
it also seems like the sick colleague has too much work. so her manager should also address this.

basically your office is a shit show and i’d be looking elsewhere for another job.