Should a boss be blamed if injuries occur to his or her employees and production slips? If a factory line has to stop because an employee hurts his hand, it will show up on a manager’s performance report, and therefore the manager will have to take some responsibility. Some may argue that a manager needs to have his team mentally and physically prepared so that workplace injury is prevented, but a manager cannot baby sit his or her employees. Every situation is different, but here is a case study:

Eddie Jordan was the coach of the Washington Wizards for five seasons, and was starting his sixth season when he was fired. His team made the play-offs the past four years, but had always failed to make it out of the first round except for once. The Wizards started this season 1-10, but were missing two of their key players, including their highest paid player Gilbert Arenas. Jordan’s 1-10 start was the worst in franchise history.
 
Is it Eddie Jordan’s fault that the Wizards were 1-10, or was it because they were injury stricken? Did he deserve to be fired even though he was missing his best player in Gilbert Arenas? Apparently the owner of the Washington Wizards thought so, since he did in fact fire Eddie Jordan. Jordan as the coach of the Wizards was like a manager leading his employees. If you are a sales manager, and sales go down because your top seller is sick for a few weeks, should you be fired even though sales have been greater than the overall company average for the past four quarters?
 
A workplace injury can cause ripple effects throughout an entire organization. The injury to Gilbert Arenas may have ended Eddie Jordan’s career as an NBA head coach. If I were to be a owner of a company or a CEO, I would try to see all angles of every situation. For instance, Jordan had some injury problems, but he still had two all-stars on the roster and 1-10 is pretty bad. Sometimes an organization may just need a jumpstart to get it going again, and a change of management could have that effect.
 
Watching how the Washington Wizards respond this year to the firing of Eddie Jordan will be very interesting. Even when poor performance can be attributed to a workplace injury, someone still needs to held responsible. If there are constantly injuries on a manager’s watch, it may be time for a change, but if it is a one-time thing perhaps the manager should get an extension despite the poor performance.