The Trouble With Hillary

The Trouble With Hillary

MGT 350 Critical Thinking

Abstract

As more and more of the nation’s workplaces become diversified with respect to age, race, gender, and lifestyle, harassment and inappropriate behavior is quickly becoming a problem throughout corporate America. The ideas and concepts that critical thinking encourages are of the utmost importance when dealing with these types of problems. This paper examines one of these types of situations that has cropped up in a team member’s workplace, and makes a rational attempt at identifying the problem and suggesting possible solutions.

The Trouble With Hillary

Scenario

A Fortune 500 company in the Southwest United States employs the team member in question, who will be referred to as “Barack”. The workplace of this corporation is very diverse, employing personnel from all walks of life, education levels, gender, lifestyles and race. The company goes to great lengths to stress diversity in the workplace and offers many programs to ensure compliance and a non-hostile environment.

One of this team member’s peers, a female who will from here forward be referred to as “Hillary”, is well known for her rough demeanor and abusive language. Many rumors have surfaced about her work ethics, and her accusations of filing of false complaints have run rampant for many years. Barack has worked with Hillary for many years, and he has witnessed severe language and suggestive behavior on many occasions. It has never brought a conflict into play until recent months, as Barack was promoted in September. This promotion brought with it a responsibility to his peers, as well as those under him, to promote a non-hostile environment and report or correct any violations of company policy.

Hillary is a woman in her late forties that has never minced words. She is direct, hard working, and knowledgeable. These virtues may be the driving force behind the trouble with Hillary’s behavior going unchecked for so long. The trouble with Hillary relates to her directness, aggressiveness so profound it is abrasive and offensive at times. Hillary regularly uses four letter words with no regards to audience, berates superiors and underlings in a public manner, and has little regard for the sensitivity of those that work with her.

On one recent occasion, Hillary proclaimed loudly for more than thirty minutes that if she had possessed male appendages, she would have been promoted already. This brought several complaints from many employees, male and female alike. It was said in the presence of several other management employees, including Barack. Nothing was said to Hillary at the time of the occurrence.

To further exasperate the situation, this behavior has gone unchecked for many years. Hillary was moved to the night shift approximately eighteen months ago at the behest of upper management. This same upper management is well aware of Hillary’s behavior, as her move was expressly to remove her from the day shift and the heavier concentration of female employees that worked this shift. Hillary has had counseling sessions with prior managers, but never any formal improvement plans or admonition.

Venn Diagram

The Venn diagram was used as an aid to frame and solve this problem. (Attachment A) First and foremost, the three most critical elements were identified: How the behavior affects her interaction with peers and the workplace environment, how her behavior affects the well being and efficiency of the employees and what is the effect on personal performance. All factors considered Hillary must make some serious steps in the area of self-awareness and how her actions affect others.

Venn Diagram

Company Problems

The problems that could occur for the company from the employee’s attitude could affect the company ten-fold. Hillary could report to the civil rights division or equal employment organization. Hillary could report to civil rights that her rights to being promoted with in the company had a lot to do with her being a female. Hillary has mentioned several times in references to her gender of how it stopped her from moving up in the company and how her performance and seniority should have made it possible for her to have a chance at higher management or other positions. Hillary could, in fact, use this to eventually file a gender discrimination suit against the company if civil rights find her complaint to be warranted. Equal employment opportunity can hold the company also at fault if they find that Hillary was held back from higher positions in the company.

The term, “Nip it in the bud,” can be a very self-explanatory term. The organization should start to hold Hillary accountable for her actions, as all management should for other employees. Statements and documentation needs to take place for every statement or reference deemed offensive that Hillary makes in the future. Documentation and job attitudes need to be recorded and brought to Hillary’s attention on each occurrence. It would be in the companies’ interest to reprimand Hillary for her actions, if this does not start to take effect. Hillary’s antics will leave the organization at a loss if Hillary ever decides to file a complaint with the EEOC.

If this issue is never brought to Hillary’s attention then she could in fact use this in her favor later. Her job performance is a plus and the fact that Hillary has been with the company for so long play a major factor in her assumptions and her reasoning for filing a complaint with civil rights or EEOC. If Hillary is not held accountable for her juvenile actions there could be some adverse reactions for the company and the companies’ employees.

If Hillary’s coworkers are feeling more and more uncomfortable with Hillary’s attitude, some valuable employees could be lost and job performance of her coworkers may decline. If Hillary’s reaction to her disappointment happens to get to more women in the company this could become an epidemic so to speak. If Hillary filed a lawsuit with the company and won, then other females that are looking for an easy