Ombuds’ corner: responsibility and reporting

In this series, the Bulletin aims to explain the role of the Ombuds at CERN by presenting practical examples of misunderstandings that could have been resolved by the Ombuds if he had been contacted earlier. Please note that, in all the situations we present, the names are fictitious and used only to improve clarity.

Jack* is a new staff member. He joined CERN after having worked successfully in industry, where he had been given considerable responsibility in projects as well as in human resources, despite the fact that he was still young. After a few months, given his expertise, he found himself in charge of part of a project, technically, and also responsible for a few collaborators. That did not present any difficulty for him given his past experience where he was used to handling business in quite an independent way. Also, a high level of respect and ethics had been encouraged by his past employer, which helped him in the interaction with his colleagues. For some time, everything went fine; Jack worked efficiently with his team.

The situation started to change when Sam* - his supervisor - begun to poke his nose into Jack’s project, repeatedly making comments and trying to influence the project's direction with his own ideas. At once, Jack considered Sam's behaviour as an intrusion into his responsibilities and interpreted it as an obvious lack of confidence in him on Sam's part. Jack had previously been used to being left fully in charge of his projects, and interpreted Sam's actions as a direct indication that his hierarchy had unexpressed doubts about him. He felt undermined and expressed his feelings in clear terms to Sam.

Sam listened to him but, in the end, refused to discuss the matter further as he took it as contradicting his position as supervisor. The interaction between them escalated to the point where Sam lost his temper and, unfortunately, went as far as telling Jack that he had to do what he was told. Facing what he took as an uncompromising attitude was a real shock for Jack, and was, in his mind, contrary to the ethical standards he had been used to in industry. Everyone he had worked with had based their management on the competence of the invidual employee, including their skills in human management, and had not abused their hierarchical position. At this point, he came to the Ombuds to express his confusion and disappointment.

After some parallel discussions involving both of them, Jack and Sam agreed with the Ombuds to try to mediate their dispute. On this occasion a correct balance between both of them concerning adequate and necessary reporting on one side and a guaranteed freedom of action within some limits on the other could be agreed and specified in detail.

Conclusion:

People at CERN may come from places where ethics have been practiced for a long time as an essential ingredient of a respectful workplace environment. At CERN it still turns out that, here and there, occasionally, some people may not have yet fully integrated the Code of Conduct. The world is not the same as it was twenty years ago, and neither is CERN. So it is really time now that such values as respect, discussion and listening are fostered by all, with pride.

PS: The 2010-2011 annual report of the Ombuds is available at:

http://ombuds.web.cern.ch/ombuds/links/Annual-report-2010-11.pdf

* Names and story are purely imaginary.

by Vincent Vuillemin