The Hard Truth About Workplace Tragedies: Why Wells Fargo’s Loss Doesn’t Require a New Policy

Something horrible happened recently at a Wells Fargo office. A woman, Denise Prudhomme, died and nobody noticed. Headlines emphasize that no one noticed for four days, but keep in mind that includes a weekend. If Prudhomme died at the end of the day on Friday, it was really only on Monday that people didn’t notice.

It’s still terrible. Tragic. Traumatic.

It is not, however, indicative of a bad culture, nor does it require a new policy, practice, or HR training to prevent this from happening again.

Yes, Wells Fargo should conduct an investigation and cooperate with the police, as should you if some tragedy befalls your workplace. But this is not a sign of a bad workplace.

Not everyone agrees with me, though. Workplace mental health strategist Natasha Bowman wrote on LinkedIn:

Some of the comments on Bowman’s post likewise focused on how this is a company problem. For instance:

Unbelievable. Atrocious. Workplace disconnect and apathy at its worst. Corporates need to introspect and hold the employers accountable in their own ecosystem at least.

and

This so devastating and unbelievable. There has to been some sort of monitoring systems in place to flag security or staff that the employee had not left the campus. Maybe rounding the parking lot to scan cars that have been parked for more than 24 hours. The employee supervisor or leader rounding every hour to keep watch over the floor. Click Count software in work stations. Hard to believe this could happen in such a large corporation.

and

This story is shocking and very disheartening! I’m left with a lot questions as well and I hope the leaders at this organization will be committed to improve upon their office culture

These people are showing compassion. They want to believe, as we all do, that an employer could prevent something like this from happening. If Wells Fargo had only had better security, special software, corporate culture, or better leaders, this wouldn’t have happened!

Here’s the reality: Bad things happen, and no policy or practice can stop all bad things.

Reacting with misplaced compassion doesn’t solve problems

Sometimes bad things happen. They just do. And we can cry about them, but we can’t fix them.

Often, HR people choose to work in human resources because we are compassionate. We want things to go well. We want employees to be engaged and happy. And there’s an idea that if we just did something different–if we just had the right training or team building–then no one would be left out, and everything would be fine.

It won’t. It never will be.

What type of policy would you implement to fix this? Let’s look at where things went wrong.

Prudhomme died in the office. So far, all indications are that she died of natural causes, and I presume this is true. This happens. We all will die at some point. Not even HR can prevent that. No wellness program in the world will guarantee healthy, death-free employees.

She clocked in and didn’t clock out. People suggested keyboard monitors to assure you that people are working, 24-hour security checks, and, if someone doesn’t clock out, an investigation!

Your employees do not want you to monitor their keystrokes to assess their progress (and this is bad management). Cloaking it under the guise of, “We want to make sure you are still alive!” doesn’t make it a good policy.

Not every business will have 24-hour security. Some will, but I’ve worked a lot of nights and weekends in the office, and I’ve never had a security guard come by my office. Does that mean my previous employers were negligent?

Of course not!

Why didn’t her manager know she was missing for four days? We all agree that no manager should follow up with their employees on the weekends. Can you imagine? No one wants this. Most employees would prefer that their managers never contact them on the weekend.

We don’t want managers who micromanage. Sometimes you don’t need to check in with your team every day. And we don’t know what time Prudhomme died on Friday. Perhaps the manager spoke with her face-to-face Friday morning. But even if the manager didn’t, that doesn’t mean you have to check in with everyone in your department every day.

I love talking, so if I go silent, that’s unusual. However, I know many people prefer to work independently and only communicate when necessary. 

You can implement a daily check-in, but it won’t solve the problem of death. And it puts one more level of work on already overworked managers.

Why was she sitting away from everyone else? I hate to break it to you, but sometimes the secluded spots are the most highly sought-after. If employees can’t have a private office, they might see a cubicle away from everyone else as the next best thing. 

Forcing people to sit right next to everyone else is a huge step backward.

Sometimes a hard-hearted approach is best.

I got called “cold, frozen actually” for suggesting that this wasn’t an HR problem in need of a solution. All of the solutions mentioned above are offered with compassion in mind, but none of them would have prevented the employee’s death. They would have aided in finding her body faster, but at what cost? 

Micromanaging, expensive security guards, invasive weekend contact? It’s vital that you don’t approach tragedy with a significant policy change in an attempt to stop it from happening again.

Again, bad things sometimes happen. They will continue to happen. Focus your efforts on things likely to happen, like preventing sexual harassment and training managers to manage by performance, not the time people spend in their seats or they clicks they make on a keyboard.

What happened was tragic, no doubt. I feel very bad for Ms. Prudhomme, her family, friends, and co-workers. But my approach to general policy is hard-hearted, as hard situations make bad policies.

If you’re faced with a tragedy, take a deep breath and wait a bit before making changes. You may need to, but you may not. You can’t prevent all horrible things from happening.