LM1194 Management Monday

LM1194 Management Monday

LM, Episode 1194, 3/27/23,(Remaster Episode 150, 4/13/20) Management Monday

I spent 12 years as a hospital CFO and CEO and my favorite Director of Nurses was named Sue Kinder.  Sue had worked at the hospital in Frederick, OK for 30 years, but as a charge nurse.  I made her the DON after being there six months and I never had a better working relationship.

Sue and I both had a temper, but we seemed to get angry at different stuff.  Sue had a nurse just out of school and the nurse spent more time flirting with the doctors than caring for patients and it infuriated Sue.  About the third or fourth time Sue was going to meet with this nurse, she hands me $43, saying, “That’s how much it costs to bail someone out of jail for assault and battery, you may be getting a call.”

Later I called Sue into my office and told her I don’t blame her for being so mad,but it does worry me she knows how much it costs to bail someone out of jail. As I tried to give her $43 dollars back, Sue says, “As long as that nurse works here, you better just keep it.”

But sue taught me one of the greatest lessons of management I ever learned.  

We had an employee, Lisa, who worked in Medical Records and the floor.  Lisa was the ideal employee.  She would do anything you asked her to do, always with a smile on her face.  Lisa came down with a liver ailment and it didn’t take her very long to eat up all of her PTO time.

On the Monday of the payroll when Lisa would not get a paycheck, Sue walks into my office, asking, “Kent, I’m never going to use all of my PTO time, do you mind if I donate some so Lisa gets a check?”

I go, “I don’t care.”

Sue says, “Then take some of my PTO and make sure Lisa gets a check.”  She starts to walk out, turns, and says, “Kent, you’re never going to use all of your PTO time.”  Sue shamed five of us into donating PTO time so Lisa got a paycheck the entire time she was out.

On Lisa’s first day back, she came to my office to thank me.  I go, “Don’t thank me, it was all Sue Kinder’s idea.”  Sue was the epitome of the Golden Rule, she treated Lisa as she would have wanted to be treated and Lisa would have walked through hellfire for Sue Kinder. 

On Management Monday, I want to encourage you to treat your employees as you would want to be treated.  

I am glad to say I never needed to use that $43 and returned it to Sue when I left the hospital.  Thank you for listening and always remember laughter matters.