In the wake of what is clearly a horrible, systemic and organizational-wide problem, the Canadian Armed Forces’s attitude towards sexual misconduct and assault is leaves room for cautious optimism. After years of encouraging an attitude of indifference towards sexual violence, the Canadian Forces’s new initiative has created a confidential reporting system that operates outside the chain of command, giving it the latitude to investigate and follow up on cases that in years past would be brushed under the rug. Most of all, the cultural changes that need to happen seem to be taking initial steps – instilling the idea that sexual misconduct is not just a “women’s problem.” I’ve found that in organizations where inappropriate or illegal behavior is condoned by employees, targeted individuals do not come forward for fear of retaliation. The steps the Canadian Forces’s leadership is taking should be closely followed, but if the culture successfully adapts to better serve targeted persons, it could serve as a model for other organizations seeking to make similar changes. Read more about the steps being taken at The Globe and Mail.
Response to Takata Airbag Scandal
“It’s bad enough to have a faulty product, it’s even worse to cover it up.” The overwhelming evidence that safety airbag producer Takata covered up data showing that its airbags have the capacity to “maim and kill” people is extremely troubling. What’s even more troubling is the fact that the cover up seems to have taken place over the last sixteen years. According to this article, Takata was aware of potentially catastrophic problems present in its airbags as early as 2000. What kind of workplace culture discourages anyone to speak up in the interest of public safety? I think that question answers itself. Read more on Takata at The New York Times.
Photo Credit: Hyungwon Kang for Reuters
Protecting Whistleblowers
The troubling truth about whistle blowers is that too often, established structures in society are better equipped to silence criticism than whistle blowers are equipped to expose wrongdoing. These letters to the editor about agriculture industry whistle blowers being muzzled by laws that allow large corporations to sue individuals who uncover misconduct into oblivion is evocative of a huge problem, both in the agriculture industry and the business world at large. As long as law takes the side of corporate interests over whistle blowers, our industries will never improve and bad business practices will continue to go unacknowledged. Read these letters to the editor at The New York Times.
ThyssenKrupp Shifts its Corporate Culture
ThyssenKrupp's headquarters in Essen, Germany
This article shows a great example of a company shifting its corporate culture to great benefit for its business and employee well being. In addition to other modifications to their business model, Heinrich Hiesinger’s focus on “strongly reducing” hierarchy “so that truth has a chance to move up from bottom to top” has certainly changed ThyssenKrupp for the better. Read even more about this in The Wall Street Journal.
Photo Credit: Christian Richters for ArchDaily
Response to IAAF Corruption
Sebastian Coe, President of the IAAF, photographed by Michael Dalder
“With so much corruption in international sports, there would be no guarantee that Coe’s successor would be blemish-free.” Using this as a rationalization to keep Sebastian Coe as the head of International Association of Athletics Federations is like saying you’ll let the fox guard the henhouse to avoid involving wolves. According to the report discussed in this article, there’s no way he could have been unaware of the corruption – in fact, there’s a good chance he was involved in the corruption. The message that there isn’t one clean sports official to put in charge of the IAAF is a shameful one to send to our youth, who are growing up in a world where trust has been eroding in nearly every aspect of society. Read more on this story at The New York Times.
Photo Credit: Michael Dalder for Reuters
Response to Levinas NYT Op-Ed
“… Levinas has taught us that our responsibility for others is the foundation of all human communities, and that the very possibility of living in a meaningful human world is based on our ability to give what we can to others.” This article is moving, and while the lessons that the philosopher Levinas can definitely be applied to refugees, as the piece suggests, I also see parallels for the modern workplace. Bystanders who witness the abuse of others need to become defenders, resisters and activists against harsh treatment. Read the full story at The New York Times.
Photo Credit: Sergey Ponomarev for NYT
Thoughts on Yahoo's Workplace Culture
Gregory Anderson, suing Yahoo for manipulating the rating systems that cost him his job.
Earlier this year, a NYT article by Vindu Goel called "Brain Drain Shows Level of Faith Lost Inside Yahoo,” outlined how CEO Marissa Mayers, in attempting to quell the growing tension at Yahoo, promised employees that "the bloodletting was finally over and shortly thereafter, she changed her mind and demanded more cuts" to save her own skin.
In a follow up article in the NYT on Feb 2 called “A Yahoo Employee-Ranking System Favored by Marissa Mayer is Challenged in Court,” Goel outlines how a performance rating system introduced by Mayer is used to get rid of employees. I am very familiar with this system and I view it as discriminatory and easily manipulated. Yahoo is rationalizing their layoffs as culling out poor performers, when it is a systematic way to get rid of employees without having to give statutory notice.
This system, developed by management consulting company McKinsey and Company, has proven to have had a "corrosive effect on productivity and employee morale." Interestingly enough, Amazon, a rat’s nest of workplace culture toxicity, also uses this model.
Mayer is a dismal failure who has proven she cannot be trusted, and will continue to ruin the lives of employees to prove to her investors that she is able to increase the enterprise value. At this point, the only way for the enterprise value to go up is for her to go down!
Photo Credit: Gregory Anderson by Laura McDermott for NYT
A Tale of Two Corporations
GM CEO & Chairwoman Mary Barra
GM’s CEO and Chairwoman, Mary Barra, provides a completely alternative way to handle scandal when compared to the recent VW emissions disgrace. When faced with a grave safety crisis that cost 124 lives, 2.6 million recalled vehicles, and over $900 billion, Barra focused on apologizing to the public, owning up to faults and rectifying cultural issues within GM that allowed the safety issues to go ignored. Contrastingly, VW has been doing everything it can to sweep details and news of their wrongdoing under the proverbial rug. Read more about Barra's appointment as GM chairwoman at The New York Times.
Photo Credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Response to Maureen Sherry's NYT Piece
The behavior described in this article is appalling. Besides raising awareness about harassment in the financial workplace, a big takeaway from Maureen Sherry’s brave article is that continued indifference to sexual harassment in the workplace does just about as much for its victims as it does for the company – that is to say, indifference solves nothing. Victims of workplace harassment will continue to suffer, and corporations will continue to hand out settlements and have unmotivated employees. The idea of banning obstructive in-house arbitration is one way to help rectify some of the issues presented here – and something that governments should seriously consider pursuing. You can read Sherry's full article at the New York Times.
Art Credit: Jasu Hu for NYT
Response to BBC Scandal
This story is harrowing. The Jimmy Savile sexual assault scandal at the BBC is one of the worst ways a harmful workplace culture can manifest itself. The report described in this article cites a culture at the BBC that “discouraged young women from filing complaints” about “sexual misconduct or harassment in particular.” Just as upsetting is the idea presented in the report that the atmosphere for whistle blowers is even worse now than it was when Savile was there. What explains the gross negligence at the BBC? Was it a culture of indifference, a lack of knowledge or a lack of belief? Considering the ample evidence amassed (over 400 witnesses to Savile’s abuses were interviewed to compile the report), it’s easy to believe that the truth was willfully ignored by those who didn’t have the courage to stand up to the worst of the worst kind of workplace bully. You can read more about the scandal at The New York Times.