In managing workers, it's no longer one size fits all

Marcia Heroux Pounds
October 25, 2007

Bob wore the same blue suit to work every day.

As a human resources manager, John Putzier was asked to talk with Bob. Employees were complaining: "You've got to talk to Bob. He's not normal."Putzier, now a consultant based from Pennsylvania, found out that Bob had a half-dozen blue suits. He was wearing a blue suit every day, but it was a different one.

Bob, an engineer, didn't like to think about what he was going to wear to work so he developed a uniform. Since Bob worked in a cubicle and rarely interacted with customers, Putzier told him: "If anybody complains, I'll tell them to mind their own business."

The story is one that Putzier includes in his book Weirdos in the Workplace and told earlier this month at the HR Florida Conference in Orlando. "Weird means high maintenance," he says.

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