Friday, August 3, 2007

Civility in the Workplace, #2

Well, today at work was interesting to say the least. A few weeks ago, a couple of us approached the CEO and told him that we thought it was important to improve the environment there. Make it more civil, improve teamwork, and thus improve morale. The CEO didn't seem impressed, and he said for us to give him some examples of what was wrong. It is hard to give examples, because the the negativity there can be subtle and pervasive. And hard to put your finger on. A lot of it stems from one of the managers though. Although he is competent and personable, he doesn't always treat his underlings the right way. And there you have it.

Well, at least we had the conversation and put the issue on the table. Yesterday, things came to a head, and someone at work feels threatened by said manager. So much so, that today, he talked with the CEO and said that he has contacted an attorney about it. To be honest, both the manager and the employee are troublesome and touchy. I doubt the employee really has a case. I talked about him with one of my law professors last year, and that was his opinion. But it is not necessarily out of the question. Like any case, it would depend on the facts and how the facts are spun. But it is problemmatic, and more evidence of the fact that we really do need to work on the environment. I do not see one reason not to.

No comments: