I let the silence do the heavy lifting. Sam’s rush down the hallway had been intentional, to demonstrate that he was really busy and that I shouldn’t pay attention to the quality of the role description he was about to submit to HR.

“I know, I know. I should spend more time working on this, but I have considerable heat coming from a couple of clients on some field projects,” Sam explained.

“Your project managers aren’t able to handle things in the field?” I wanted to know.

“Well, and we have talked about this before, one PM has only been here for six months and his project is a little over his head. And the other PM is the one I am trying to replace. He was a bad hire in the first place.” Sam’s explanation was turning to protest.

“Just because we have talked about it, doesn’t make it okay,” I nodded. “This is a high level project manager, what is our salary for this position?”

“Seventy-five K,” Sam replied.

“So, you are planning to spend $75,000 and it is not a high enough priority to specifically describe what we expect out of the person that fills that role?”

Sam’s face turned stoic. He didn’t know what to say.

“Tell, you what, Sam. Armand is your manager. I am going to schedule a time with him tomorrow to find out how we can improve on this process. You have one PM who needs to be replaced and one PM who is a little green. Let’s make sure the next PM is someone with the capability to really handle the projects we have. Will you be available tomorrow after 3p?”

Sam’s head nodded up and down, wondering how he was going to get the time to make the meeting.
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