Do you consider yourself an individual worthy of attention and courtesy? Good, your should…so do your co-workers. When it comes to employees, staff, co-workers, team members, however you refer to them, one size of leadership does not fit all. In a previous section of this series I talked about being firm, fair and consistent and that still holds true…however, consistency does not mean cookie cutter approaches to issues.

Over the years, I’ve run companies/divisions ranging in size from 5 employees to 250 employees, in both union and non-union organizations. In every one of them I’ve found myself having to deal with staff issues ranging from fights in the ambulance bay, union complaints, sexual harassment claims, theft of equipment and even staff having to deal with life-threatening medical problems of their own.

On one particularly memorable day, over the course of a six hour period, our team dealt with a serious ambulance crash severely injuring two of our own, an employee that had to be terminated on the spot for aggressive behavior towards a patient and facility staff, a long time staff member who developed complications with her pregnancy and was worried about having to come off the road, losing her job and her benefits, and a younger employee who wanted career counseling about becoming a paramedic. Read More→