Nonprofit HR’s Blog

Have you ever wondered how you, as an HR manager, would have dealt with James Bond’s shenanigans? He is obviously the most talented employee at that organization, but he is also a manager’s nightmare.

Gareth Cartman spent a little time to think through the struggles of managing Bond – James Bond.

“Most recently, in Casino Royale, Bond was seen secretly accessing his boss’s computer in order to get information about a villain’s henchman. He then ignores his orders, and flies off to the Caribbean. Two issues here: first of all, Bond breaks into his boss’s house and accesses secure information using her password, and secondly, M needs to change her password.

At the very least, this would have resulted in a written warning for Bond, and many other employees would have been fired for such misdemeanours. As it was, M’s approach was to follow Bond, and insert a tracking device in his arm. It’s not a tactic that HR managers around the world would recommend, but it worked.

In Licence To Kill, Bond went AWOL again, ignoring his orders in order to pursue revenge against the people who attacked his best friend. As Bond attacked M’s bodyguards and ran off, M decided to leave Bond to his own devices, which was probably — in this case — the best thing to do.

However, imagine one of your employees ignoring his or her own workload, and doing their own personal work during office hours. Far from acceptable, and a performance management programme would need to be implemented to ensure that targets were being met. You can’t spend your time standing over an employee’s shoulder, and if the employee decides to resign — well, sometimes it’s for the best!

Equally, Bond resigned on this occasion, as he did in Casino Royale where he sent M an e-mail. Did he work his notice period? The statutory minimum is a week, but we suspect 007 would have been tied into a much longer notice period, given the length of his duty (50 years now!)”