Marta got a cold heart.

Another corporate tale...

If there was one thing that everyone agreed on was the fact that Marta had a lot of empathy for everyone. Also that she could not hide what she felt: she shows instantly on her face and can not hide what she feels. Marta would smile when she knew about a colleague’s promotion or would get really sad when the company loses one of its talents.

Marta was friendly to everyone, whenever she heard to everyone’s stories and gave good, if not best, advices. It was said that Marta would certainly take over HR one day, because despite being very expressive, she was really a good professional.

The only “but” was Martha being a typical case of showing everything on her face what was going on in her heart.

No filter at all.

Every time the Board wanted a sincere opinion, they called Marta to a meeting. Like the day they created a benefit plan that wouldn’t benefit any employee … Marta rolled her eyes at that and sighed. That was it! They changed the plan.

It was the same thing when they proposed a goal based bonus plan. In this case, Marta giggled, almost mockingly, for the unattainable goals. That was it! They revised the goals.

Also, it was the case when Martha smiled satisfied when they thought of a package for the oldest employees in the house. The program was a success: it reflected great on newbies and company enjoyed a reduced talent evasion.

This is Martha. And the company was doing very well.

Then one day everything changed. The company went through a drastic decline in production, to the point where it paralyzed sales. The company’s decision, then, was to lay off most of the production staff. All would be replaced by machines. It was a very sad day.

Marta was from HR and had just returned from vacation, on her words, “some beautifying holiday”. She was called by the board of directors as soon as she returned. She had been caught off guard by the news, and worse, as the senior HR analyst, she would be giving the bad news. Marta’s boss tried to soften the case during the meeting:

-I know it will be difficult.

But everyone dropped their jaws: Marta was impassive. Without even raising her eyebrow. Marta’s boss was astonished. The Board was almost in tears. What did that mean?

One by one, Marta called for the layoff. Without even an expression of sadness or dissatisfaction. Marta fired everyone on the list, all with a singular coldness. Even Neida, who often asked Martha to give her advice:

-Marta, and what am I going to do now?

-Get another job

Marta said.

Nobody understood. The board called Martha to talk. She told them she was sad, but her face was indifferent. People began to tell Marta that she was not the same anymore. She said she was sad, but her face remained indifferent. Emotionless.

Marta felt isolated. However, he thought:

I will never admit that I used Botox®.

Marta was not perfect. She had her vanity …

About rftafas 183 Articles
Ricardo F. Tafas Jr graduated in Electrical Engineering at UFRGS with focus on Digital Systems and achieved his Masters also in Electrical Engineering on Telecomunications Network Management. He also author of "Autodesenvolvimento para Desenvolvedores (Self-development for developers). Ricardo has +10 years experience on R&D Management and +13 years on Embedded Eystem Development. His interest lay on Applied Strategic HR, Innovation Management and Embedded Technology as a differentiator and also on High Performance Digital Systems and FPGAs. Actually, he is editor and writer for “Repositório” blog (http://161.35.234.217), editorial board member at Embarcados (https://embarcados.com.br) and he is Management and Innovation Specialist at Repo Dinâmica - Aceleradora de Produtos.
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