If you’re director, you’re one step below the VP of sales. What does the VP of sales want you to do? Sure, he says it’s up to you, but if you made it to director, you must know his feelings pretty well.
If the company culture (read, VP’s wishes) is to have her disappear, then it would be pointless to try and get her back with the company. If the VP wants to support company morale and would have your back even if her territory took a small hit while things blew over, then find a spot for her. Even if she is only a 65%er, as director, you know that even finding a 50%er is tough and she knows the business, so even a small hit should be acceptable to a growing company. Now, on the other hand, if the VP is going to squeeze you’re balls (maybe already is) if sales are not expanding at the rate he thinks is acceptable, well, like I said, trying to keep her is pointless. The result would be both of you are out of a job, and director jobs are not easy to come by.
I sit down with Abigail and her immediate boss. I offer my sympathies for her recent problems, and tactfully explain that the good of the company comes first, and that I have heard that putting her back into the field in her old gig, given her reputation, would make clients unhappy and probably hurt the company. I offer her an inside sales job, if she wants one, as her immediate boss suggests. If she declines, I offer her retraining for another suitable job that would not bring her into contact with clients.
If she declines this, too, I say it’s probably for the best that she seek employment elsewhere.
I would ask her what she wants. I would also contact her former sales accounts directly and see if they’re really reluctant to work with her or if her replacements have been shading the truth to keep their new positions,
If the accounts are willing to work with her (and she can easily be painted as a heroine now), and if she is willing to take her previous position, then I would give her the position again. If there are issues with the accounts, but she wants to return, then I would find an internal role for her. There is always something in “planning”.
I would offer her an inside job where she did not have to deal with the public. Or if she wanted to relocate outside the area, help her do so.
Sometimes there is a thing called “The appearance of impropriety”. Not anything done wrong, but it looks that way to others. That alone is enough to be forced to leave a “dealing with the public” job. (Or smart to leave that job.)
Id retain her and put her on client facing projects where making the client uneasy and fearful was a good thing. Eg accounts receivable deadbeats. Contracts that were unprofitable but if we pulled out wed be penalised. Etc.
I’d do something like these two propose. I’d essentially treat her like the ADA demands an employee who acquires a disability and can no longer perform their current job be treated: laterally transfer her to something she can do. The one difference is that I wouldn’t worry if the lateral transfer was whatever HR came up with at the moment, and came with as much as a 20% pay cut. She’d probably need training, but at least she wouldn’t need new employee orientation, etc., etc.
That means I’d probably need a meeting with the head of HR before I did anything else. HR doesn’t have to bail me out with this solution, but with any luck, there will be several positions at a workable pay level that don’t require specialized education-- say, Abigail has a 4 year degree in something, and many positions require a 4 year degree, but aren’t really fussy about the field of study-- a college graduate is wanted, that’s all.
Maybe I will even be able to have three or four openings she can choose from, and give her the option of re-applying for the sales job in a year after the publicity blows over. I mean, she did do it, it wasn’t like she was falsely accused by means of mis-identification or something. It may have been technically self-defense, but it sounds like she put herself in a dangerous position where self-defense was needed. I can see why some people question her judgment; others, who want her back, may want her for the wrong reasons. Any client who seems just a little too excited to have lunch with the cop killer will make me squirm.
Anyway, after I make the offer, the ball is in her court.
I remember Allied Transtators when the company was called Consolidated Interocitors.
I suggest you make a strong recommendation to a different region of the company to place Abigail in a field rep position in their region - she’s got strong sales skills, and might well appreciate the chance to make a mark in a new area, and no matter how notorious a crime is, people pay much more attention to local news than to a story from somewhere else.
“Google her name now, and the top results all have the phrases “cop killer” and “kinky sex” attached.”
If she’s married have her start going by her maiden name (or husband’s name if she wasn’t already). Problem solved. If she’s not married, (or doesn’t like using the other name) she can come up with a “pen name” to use.
If she refuses, well, then it’s her fault if you have to fire her, you can’t have her costing you sales. I’m not saying she has to LEGALLY change her name, just what name she’s using professionally at YOUR business in regards to dealing with clients.
Whatever else, you absolutely do not want to fire her. Given her story thus far, if she calls any media outlet for an interview, they’re going to give it to her, and if the topic of that interview is “my company fired me for being found not guilty”, it’s going to do a lot of harm to the business.
Some persons (not including me) won’t agree that she’s been found not guilty. She never went to trial; it doesn’t even sound like the DA went to the grand jury. The DA declined to prosecute. But she DID kill the cop (albeit in self-defense), and there’s a segment of the population who’ll call the prosecutor’s declining to prosecute her a technicality. I think somebody said so upthread.
Abigail is a sales rep. If this affects her in the real world, it will be reflected in her sales numbers. If her sales numbers go up because people want to buy from the hot lady who killed in self defense and likes kinky sex or they go down because she’s a pariah, regardless: her sales numbers will tell you what to do.