Communication barriers in the work setting

After experiencing a co-op in Boston Massachusetts for eight months, there was time for many problems to materialize between upper and lower management. As a co-op, I had the opportunity to view these issues in an unbiased way. The main example that comes to mind when dealing with communication problems occurred between the district business manager and one of the lower financial managers.

Every month, the financial managers are responsible for creating cost reports for each of their individual jobs. Once these cost reports are complete, the business district manager presents the new budgets in the District Operation Review. The new financial manager was unaware of the company policies for creating these cost reports on time and was heavily chastised by the district manager in front of his co-workers. The new employee was never told about the deadline, so it was only assumed that he knew the proper date.

This reflects a poor effort from the district manager as well as the other surrounding employees, who should have been guiding this employee. Not having the data to present at the big meeting made the district manager look bad, but he should have been more frustrated with himself than the employee. After serious thought, the district manager realized he was wrong a gave a public apology to the employee. The District manger made it clear that all new hires in the future will be clarified on these details from the get go.