The day my best employee walked out because of a broken chair

I was in my office in Akron last Tuesday when I heard a loud crash from the front. My lead graphic designer, Sarah, had been sitting in that wobbly office chair for weeks. I kept saying I'd order a new one 'next week' to save a few hundred dollars. She'd asked me about it three times. That morning, the whole thing just gave way, and she hit the floor hard. She got up, gathered her things without a word, and left. I called her, but she just said, 'If you won't fix a chair, you won't fix anything that matters.' I spent the rest of the day ordering proper furniture for everyone and begging her to come back. How do you rebuild trust after something so stupid makes a good person quit?

3 comments

3 Comments

piperwhite18d ago

Wow, saving a few hundred bucks cost you an employee. @the_lee is right, it's a test. You basically told her the daily grind doesn't matter until it breaks.

the_lee18d ago

I saw this at my old job in Phoenix. They wouldn't replace a printer that jammed every day, so people started using the one in the manager's office. Then they locked that door. It's never about the chair or the printer. It's a test. When you fail it, people see you don't care about their daily grind. They stop telling you about the big problems because you ignored the small, easy ones.

-1

the_xena18d ago

The Phoenix printer story is a perfect example. I'd only add that it's not always a conscious test from management. Sometimes they're just that out of touch with the day to day stuff. They see a cost line item, not a tool that wastes 15 minutes of someone's time every single morning. That disconnect is what kills morale, maybe faster than a mean-spirited test would.