You are the supervisor of 20 people in a subunit of one of Central Hospital's service departments. Three of your employees are titled as working group leaders, but they are usually involved in doing the work of the department rather than overseeing others. The busiest of these, a group leader named Sally, is expected to spend 60% of her time on regular work and 40% supervising. Several times in recent months Sally has mentioned that her group's backlog was growing and that she needed more help. She has never been more specific than saying more help was needed, and her gripes seemed to have been no more than passing remarks offered without preparation or forethought. You have been under pressure from a number of directions, and Sally's complaints seemed to represent no more than chronic grumbling, so you have not felt compelled to add her concerns to your list of worries. But today, Monday, first thing after starting time, Sally sought you out and confronted you with "I need one more full-time person, and I need her now! I'm tired of waiting and tired of being ignored, and I'm sick of being overworked and taken for granted. If something isn't done about it by Friday, I'm out of here and you can find yourself another sucker."

 

Instructions

1. Describe how you will initially address Sally's outburst.

2. Propose two or three possible solutions to the problem and describe the potential advantages and disadvantages of each.

3. The situation places you in something of a trap. Describe this trap, explain why it is a trap, and explain how you might proceed toward a solution in view of the hazards inherent in the situation.