On March 4th I opened my MSN internet homepage to see an interesting headline in the news section. Woman has 911 meltdown over McNuggets, grabbed my attention and I clicked the link to read more. This feature described a woman who was very upset when she ordered and paid for some Chicken McNuggets at McDonalds, and was then told that the store was out of McNuggets and that she would have to order something else from the menu. The woman apparently had a craving for McNuggets and just wanted a refund. When the cashier told her all sales were final and she had to pick an alternative choice, she apparently panicked and called 911 for assistance. The woman was quoted saying “This is an emergency.” If I would have known they didn’t have McNuggets, I wouldn’t have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble (referring to a sandwich), but I don’t want one.” As you may have guessed, despite calling 911 three times the police didn’t see the situation as one that required their help and left the woman to resolve it herself.
Although this news story seems hilarious and far-fetched, I can relate it to happenings in the workplace. Co-workers often find themselves in the middle of legitimate conflicts and problems. Rather than solving these conflicts and problems themselves, co-workers commonly run to their managers in hopes that they will make everything all better. This occurs for a variety of reasons. Employees may lack the skills to problem solve, they may feel uncomfortable with conflict, or they may lack the confidence to confront issues head on. Like the police, effective leaders don’t come to the rescue. Rather, they arm their employees with the ability to overcome such challenges. Like the police, effective managers have bigger and more important situations to deal with and can’t waste time on situations that can be handled without them. If you are a manager and feel like your employees are constantly dialing 911, you may need to to provide some training or skill development around problem solving, decision making, and conflict management.
