Plant Services - April 2008 - (Page 65)

IN THE TRENCHES The scenario presented here is based on a true story; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. What you talk? Acme confronts a severe case of almost impossible communication A cme elected not to participate in the current recession, unlike its high-tech contemporaries. Acme didn’t want to grow just for the sake of growth. Instead, it held back and put its resources into those best practices we’ve heard too much about recently, and put all its effort into improving its market offerings. Had Acme gotten too large, it would have become bureaucratic. At a manageable size, it offers certain perks. Each month had at least one long weekend. Employees start with three weeks of paid vacation. The plant shuts down for the month of August. Employees listen to their choice of media through personal audio gadgets. Acme wants content employees who conquer the marketplace. One such happy camper, Mary Munthomae, has been with Acme for a decade. Rather than work at her family’s restaurant, she wanted a career. An aptitude for esoteric mathematics earned her a quality-control position, where she specialized in statistical process control. She likes being “the decider” when people bring her piece parts for evaluation. An employee shuttling parts from production to Mary’s department is Loh Ren Jai Toos, a young, female Asian immigrant. She’s a gofer because of a limited English language proficiency. Like many immigrants, she thinks one can best learn English by watching television and listening to radio. So she walks around with wires connecting her ears to the music player in her pocket, singing along much too loudly. Even when Loh isn’t singing, one can hear the tinny buzz from her headphones. Her genre is rap and she mimics the lyrics nicely, racial epithets and all. Mary tried to explain to Loh that the words are considered offensive and that she should stop using them. But, Mary found it difficult to communicate with her. Loh came away from these encounters happier because she got some kind of reaction about the music. Later, Loh started using the epithets independently of the songs whenever she interacted with Mary. Mary then went to Herman Dibble, her manager, to complain about Loh’s playlist, the volume, and Loh’s insistence on singing. Mary complained about the racially offensive words and phrases in the course of their work-related interactions. Mary thought Herman was genuinely concerned. But, he admitted he also found it difficult to communicate with Loh because of her limited vocabulary, high-pitched voice, mispronunciations and heavy accent. A conversation with Loh left him exhausted because of the hand waving and finger pointing that was necessary to get his message across. Mary tried to avoid Loh, but that was difficult. Mary snapped at Loh a few times, but any reaction fed the psychic reward Loh sought. After a month, Mary saw that Herman was ignoring her complaint. He made no attempt to discuss her complaint with Loh or to discipline Loh. Herman seemed to hope the entire matter would simply blow away. Mary took her complaint to the plant manager’s office in hopes of getting someone stop the music, the singing and insulting language. That got her some action, but not exactly what she expected. Two days later, Herman simply changed Mary’s start time to minimize the interaction with Loh. It took Mary two days to realize the solution had problems. Mary was the primary caregiver for her invalid father. Her new working hours made it difficult to escort her dad to his doctor appointments. When Mary approached Herman, he started making excuses. Mary demanded that he do something to stop, once and for all, the outrageous behavior. About a month later, Mary and another employee were laid off at the recommendation of their supervisors. The only difference was that the other employee was recalled within 13 weeks. That was enough time for Mary to file suit against Acme for racial harassment and retaliatory discharge. How could this situation have been avoided? Should portable music devices be allowed in the workplace? Should English proficiency be a condition of employment? Should profanity be cause for discipline? Does having too many workplace perks lead to aberrant employee behavior? 65 April 2008 www.PLANTSERVICES.com http://www.PLANTSERVICES.com

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Plant Services - April 2008

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