Quick! Get all the puns in! Rotten to the core or just a few bad apples? The employee didn't get the fruits of his labor? Something about the other apples not liking the one green apple in the fruit bowl? No, that is too far. Bobbing for discrimination payouts? What happens when you bite into Apple; you see the worm inside? I will stop.
Sharing a post that was forwarded to my account by the excellent employment site HR Grapevine. If you have not been there, I recommend you check them out, as they have fantastic stories, such as the one below, that definitely fall outside of the stuffy or boring image that HR has with non-HR professionals. They offer insights into studies, companies and employment practices that can be funny, commendable, deplorable, or simply unique and interesting to anyone that is in employment!
The story is pretty shocking, and obviously you cannot judge a multinational company on one action alone. At least that is what a multinational company would hope you don't do. My personal opinion is that if this story is true, and a CEO did ignore this type of behavior in his company, then its as damning as it gets.
The "leader" responsibility of a CEO is to act as an example to everyone below them, work to remove any such bad behavior first and foremost, rather than ignore it to pursue other projects (i.e. anything revenue related). Anything else and you then send a clear message; the day-to-day running / making more money for the business is more important than having good company culture, and not having blatant racism towards hard working employees.
Just to be ultra clear, this story is a non-confirmed single case of racism, where the outcome and all the facts my not have come to light yet. And yes, businesses really are only obliged to make money; anything else is a "moral obligation" (or legal obligation), not a "business obligation"....
Thanks for reading.
