In-Class Assignment/ The Mystery Hours

The Mystery Hours

Victoria is a software developer for Smart Solutions.  She has been with the company over 15 years.  As a top performer, she has been promoted several times over the course of her career.  She is now the Head of Software Development for a new division that designs human resource training solutions for mid-level firms.  

Victoria has recently been leading a team through the testing phase of a brand new training program that was supposed to launch in September.  However, the company decided to abruptly move the entire team onlien due to geographic hardships among the members.  Team members are now online and required to meet on Zoom everyday.  Slow internet speeds and the shift to tech-only has negatively affected overtime pay and other perks the team has been used to receiving.

Since August, Victoria has noticed a curious trend.  When her team members submit their time cards, there seems to be extra hours unaccounted for.  Notations next to these mystery hours is listed as "making copies" or "phone calls".  In a traditional office setting, her team sometimes received overtime hours for staying late to make copies or phone calls when they ran past 5P, but does the same overtime pay apply to employees who are already home?  Shouldn't everyone have a personal copy machine?  She isn't sure there is a company policy for this situation.  The total amount of "extra hours" is mounting, and she's pretty sure management will be asking about it.

She decides to have a chat with Carlos, the team leader.  "Things are really bad.  Many of them have given up a large part of their salary due to this reorganization and schedule changes.  I just told them to add those hours to their weekly time cards in order to make up for the deficit.  It sounds like some of them are about to lose their homes because they can't continue to make payments," said Carlos.  "What about the State Economic Relief Package?" asked Victoria.  "Most of the team is considered contract labor and definitely won't qualify," said Carlos.  Victoria was perplexed.  If she doesn't support these mystery hours, it will look like she really doesn't care about the team, yet she realizes that this practice is clearly questionable.  The last time she questioned pay with the VP, she was told to discuss the problem with the VP of Finance.  With several different bosses, she wasn't sure what to do....

In one or two sentences (for each), answer the following questions.

1.  What personality "color" do you think Victoria has?  What color is Carlos?

2.  What Kohlberg level do you think Victoria is operating at?  What level is Carlos?

3.  What would Maslow have to say about this situation?

4.  What would Hertzberg have to say about this situation?

5.  What would Jack Welsh have to say about this situation?

6.  What type of organizational structure do you think Victoria and Carlos are working in?

7.  What type of leadership style does Victoria most likely have?  What about Carlos?

8.  What advice would you give Victoria?