This Leadership Course is Torture

[mrs.b]

It really takes an act of god to fire someone in the union so managers have to resort to other methods of "getting the job done through others"
I would say that knowing different techniques to motivate employees is beneficial in this situation. Also knowing when and how to use different leadership styles can be a huge plus. Different situations call for different types of direction for the team. Sometimes the non-motivated or inexperienced may need some extra guidance with a more authoritarian type of leadership, other times a simple participative style will do.

Eh. I've seen some union contracts. There are some that do require divine intervention to get anything done, but of what I've been able to put eyes on, they are the minority. Our non-union shop policies are modeled after some union contracts in the corporate effort to "motivate" people to realize that barrier of mgmt./employee interaction is not needed. I've had managers complain that it takes acts of God, Congress, or both to get rid of problem people, but that is not true. Managers just needs to document issues and attempts to resolve them, and therein lies the problem. Some managers are great about it, but others complain they want to get rid of someone for not doing their job (correctly) but won't do their own job to make that happen. Coaching, being firm, being a friend, bribery, begging, and similar tactics all fail to "motivate" the untouchable level to do their jobs, whereas the people under them are often cooperative if someone just makes clear what the expectations are. If I ever absolutely had to stay in HR and absolutely had to deal with a union, I'd be much better suited to work for a union, rather than on the other side of the table. But, that would require aerial pigs and blizzard conditions in Hades.