2. Tell Darius Harris that the employee volunteer program is just that: a volunteer program. Even though the company sees volunteerism as an important piece of its campaign to repair its tarnished image, employees must be free to choose whether to volunteer. He should not ask for the help of his direct reports with the after-school program. Not long ago, Jessica Armstrong, vice president of administration for Delaware Valley Chemical Inc., a New Jersey- based multinational company, made a point of stopping by department head Darius Harris’s office and lavishly praising him for his volunteer work with an after-school program for disadvantaged children in a nearby urban neighborhood. Now she was about to summon him to her office so she could take him to task for dedication to the same volunteer work.

It was Carolyn Clark, Harris’s secretary, who’d alerted her to the problem. “Darius told the community center he’d take responsibility for a fund-raising mass mailing. And then he asked me to edit the letter he’d drafted, make all the copies, stuff the envelopes, and get it into the mail—

most of this on my own time,” she reported, still obviously indignant.

“When I told him,’I’m sorry, but that’s not my job,’ he looked me straight in the eye and asked when I’d like to schedule my upcoming performance appraisal.”

Several of Harris’s subordinates also volunteered with the program. After chatting with them, Armstrong concluded most were volunteering out of a desire to stay on the boss’s good side. It was time to talk to Harris.