Another Day in the Office It’s Monday morning and you are wishing that there was

Question

Another Day in the Office

It’s Monday morning and you are wishing that there was one more day to your weekend. Over the weekend, your family out voted you and dragged to you a family camping excursion in the Adirondacks. You were thrilled when you returned to civilization.

As you walk to the office break room to get a morning snack, you hear what sounds like a few employees having a good time. There’s laughter and loud talking, almost to the point of yelling. Out of curiosity--and an interest in delaying the start to your work day--you decide to check out the excitement. As you walk into the break room, you see David Crew, an employee who could easily be voted, “Mr. Unpopularity”, “Mr. Killjoy”, or “The Trouble Maker” yelling at a few co-workers. Over the years, David has been the self-appointed champion for employee rights--e.g., flex-time schedules, paternity leave, and academic reimbursement from the employer. While his co-workers enjoy the benefits of his advocacy work, they have shied away from confronting management. They are too afraid of also being labeled “Troublemakers.”

David has embarked on a new mission: unionizing his workplace. David comes from a long line of union members and he feels that it is time to have a union in his workplace. However, when he tries to convince his co-workers about the importance of having a union they simply laugh at him. During these hard economic times, his co-workers are more concerned with keeping their jobs than with anything else.

As you enter the break room, David continues to argue with his co-workers. One co-worker whispers to you, “Aren’t there any policies in the office against this kind of harassment? Based on that harassment training we had last week, I could say that I’m working in a hostile work environment.” He says with a chuckle, “David never lets up.” You simply smile, and say, “I’m sure that as an adult you can stand up to David. He’s more passionate than harmless.”

The next day, as you enter the company parking lot, you see a throng of police officers and television crews. As you get closer to the scene, you ask an officer, “What happened?” The officer explains, “One of the employees is holding three of his co-workers hostage. We’re not sure why but he keeps yelling something about the ‘Unions Forever.’”

Questions:

1. What actions would you have taken if your role in this scenario was human resources manager?

2. Which employment-related laws may have an impact on this scenario?

3. Briefly explain how each law is related to this scenario.

Explanation / Answer

As my role as a human resources manager, I would have talked to the person who is holding the other persons as hostage and would ask him to release the persons whom he has held as hostage. Three employees life is more important than anything in that situation.

Rules of employment says that you cannot physically harm any co worker for any reason and also hold anybody for ransom. Here he has already harmed them by having them as hostage.

One of the first major laws here is that the organization should have already had in place a formal workers union. They must have recognized that union. So whatever the problems that the employees are facing would be put forward to the management through the union.

The second thing is that the organization has not kept its employees happy during their working hours. Some people were working and only one person was involved in the union activities daily. Work allotment was not done properly.

Finally it comes to a stage as one of the employees has captures the other employees as hostage to accomplish his aim of creating a union.

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