Archives for May, 2009

Simon Potts wasn’t happy with his job. He was what they call a ‘disgruntled employee’. After ten years working for KPJ Industries, as a loyal employee, he has rarely been recognized for doing a good job. He has been passed over for promotion, and this year he knows that his raise was smaller than other employees. He was mad that co-workers were showing up late for work, taking on much less of a workload, and still getting a bigger raise than he was. He deserved more, but his boss had it out for him. Bob, the office manager, always seemed to resent Simon’s ability, and Simon was sure he spoke ill of him to other managers. Simon realized this was a dead-end job, and his days were numbered. It was time for him to take what he deserved, and then quit. That would be satisfying, and when he sold the customer database to a competitor, it would teach them a lesson. At least, this was the rationale Simon used when he decided to steal a sensitive customer database, with credit card numbers, from KPJ Industries in November, 2008.

Simon Potts was viewed by his management as a nice guy, but they didn’t feel he was motivated. He took on a lot of work, but had a hard time completing projects on time. So, when the new year came along, Simon was given a score of “meets requirements” in his performance review. His manager tried to explain how Simon could do better, but he felt that no matter what he said, Simon took it too personally. There were signs that Simon was a disgruntled employee, but the company had no training for managers on how to identify and deal with disgruntled employees. Read More