Prejudice in the workplace
MEssig
16 Posts
Help. I work for a Cooperative Grocery store with two locations and 160 employees, and I have been with the organization for 2.5 years. There seems to be a pervasive culture here where employees openly criticize and make judgments about coworkers and managers. One prevailing "stigma" or theme is that "corporate" or "upstairs" employees don't work hard, don't understand, have it easy, etc., etc. Now I understand SOME of this, but recently I have begun to get a little "nagging feeling" that we are allowing this prejudice to grow and that we do nothing to protect staff from unfounded judgments or ridicule. We have two retail floor staff members who sit on our Board of Directors (7 member board) as employee representatives. Yesterday one of them announced that "Next year corporate employees are working downstairs cleaning on New Year's Day." Frankly, I don't care where I work, but I know everyone doesn't feel that way, and are we allowing retail employees to create a "subclass" of employees by allowing retail employees to claim they work harder than corporate, are more important than corporate, why do we need corporate, corporate employees are dumb, don't get it, fat, lazy, etc? Separation is not an option, because our large store has 130 employees including "corporate" staff.
This culture doesn't seem to fit the classic discriminatory issues that you can put your finger on, but there seems to be a constant "hazing" of employees who are perceived as different. This includes such things as employees who are not anti-military, associate with police officers, reside in a different part of the County, wear make-up, etc. Yes - we have an extremely liberal environment and culture that expects all employees to adopt that view or eventually face being expelled, ostracized, excluded and/or deemed incompetent. from the workforce.
Finally, I recently read a book about workplace "mobbing" where some work cultures allow this type of behavior and that employment law may deem these environments as a civil liability against the employer, so I am sure this is contributing to my sense that we cannot allow this behavior any longer.
I am anxious to hear your views.
M
This culture doesn't seem to fit the classic discriminatory issues that you can put your finger on, but there seems to be a constant "hazing" of employees who are perceived as different. This includes such things as employees who are not anti-military, associate with police officers, reside in a different part of the County, wear make-up, etc. Yes - we have an extremely liberal environment and culture that expects all employees to adopt that view or eventually face being expelled, ostracized, excluded and/or deemed incompetent. from the workforce.
Finally, I recently read a book about workplace "mobbing" where some work cultures allow this type of behavior and that employment law may deem these environments as a civil liability against the employer, so I am sure this is contributing to my sense that we cannot allow this behavior any longer.
I am anxious to hear your views.
M
Comments
For example, any activities where indivdiuals can join to gether in social activities after work or in joint efforts during work, such charity drives or decorating committees. These may not be "earth-shaking" efforts but it seems to me from what you posted the management needs to start efforts in positively reinforce the concept that the workforce is "one."
Have you suggested such efforts?
Quite frankly, if I get enough replies from all of you, I am going to hand them over to some other folks so that it is not just myself saying hey- we have a big problem here.
The types of discriminations and attitudes you depict are not illegal, just counterproductive and it creates a "workplace personality" that's difficult to work within. There's probably not much you can do to change the culture in your workforce unless you are a highly dynamic motivator with charisma and a propensity to bring about dramatic change.
I worked in a similar setting in my past & I agree with others, the prognosis is slim. In an effort to turn a negative into a positive - I would counter the suggestion that corporate ee's work downstairs cleaning to an overall discussion of job sharing/swapping. Here's what I would expect to happen once corporate folks go downstairs to clean next year - ridicule by the downstairs folks that corporate folks are 'finally working'. Also, I think it sounds demeaning to have corporate folks go down to help out & all it involves is cleaning - it doesn't give the corporate folks any more appreciation for the work the downstairs folks do - it breeds resentment.
A frank discussion is in order with management regarding a job sharing/swapping scenario probably about once a quarter.
Finally, as to strategy, here's my guess, there's probably one very outspoken critic in management that shares every fiasco a corporate ee does with the team members downstairs - hence the prevalence of the mob frustration - there's a leader here somewhere - and then his/her close confidents that help spread the word. Find the leader & work counter to everything they say. Nothing wrong with rolling up the sleeves and helping out - as long as the end-goal, mutual respect & appreciation is observed.
After a while, rules had to be made and the share and share alike attitude was fine as long as it was equal and we had to get together and start drawing up rules to help us live together. The philosophy was fine, but unless you could work out reasonable ways to get along, the whole thing would fall apart.
I know a coop is not a commune, but there are similarities. Those on the floor think everyone else is loafing. Those upstairs understand that their workload effects how the whole thing is run and if the whole thing does not mesh, the coop will fall on its face and fail miserably. The fine philosophies that put the coop in place would disintegrate with the small hassles of day to day operations overcoming them.
Mwilds suggestion of job shadowing is a decent start, but if you do not have someone on the floor and someone upstairs drawing a line in the sand and saying "no more bs," then you are doomed to failure. The BOD needs to be visionary, the operations needs to be day to day. Whoever your CEO or President or Executive Director is, needs to grow a spine and stop the bs. Establish a cooperative culture that values and respects the individual. Have every employee participate in it's crafting, post it on the walls and have every employee sign it.
Value each other.
Pair your retail staff with your corporate staff and let them all learn more about the organization.
We even used time at the next several staff meetings to "introduce" our partner and what we had learned about them. We had good input from the whole activity.
Good Luck!
I would also like to suggest that you do Diversity training. Teach your employees that just because a person's job isn't physical, that it is not just as tough and challenging or that just b/c an employees job does require physical labor, that the ee isn't uneducated an inable to perform more complex tasks.
Right now your employees don't understand that one hand washes the other and that without both parties, your company couldn't succeed.
Do they think that their paychecks just materialize from thin air? That the power company gives you free power and that the company owns the building that it's in? No, there are people who make sure that all of this taken care of so that the company continues to run.
You need to start thinking of not only shadowing, but teaching your employees how a business "works".
I recommend that you start with diversity training so that they realize that different people and different jobs are all at one company with one common goal.
We had a close concern to yours, we began by taking the staff employees and one at a time letting them work on the farm so that the could better appreciate the farm employee's concerns and issues. My HR assistant has been out on the farm and working with the animals and learning the pains and aches. I too have been out on the farm floors and "pulling pigs" and casterating little bore pigs and have even learned to do minor surgery for repair of a rupture. I have done every chore from feeding to washing and shoveling the manure. The purpose of which was to do nothing more than to educate me as to the action life, which makes our "bucks". Where the ___t hits the road I have placed my foot! I learned the language and gained the respect of the ee and the managers. I openly admitted my short comings and ask for their help. I got it and so has ever ee and manager on the staff; we have been their and done that.
Good luck!
PORK
Sigh.
How do you handle lower sales than projected when you don't have enough margin to pay the electric or phone bill? How do you handle repairs and maintenance or capital improvements? It is easy to say, "Oh, no problem, we'll just have a special assessment for the members." Those that look at the short term nature of selling a can of soup often forget the burden of direct and indirect costs that must ride along with the can to achieve non-profit.
While you may not be looking to profit, you are certainly not looking to lose money. Having an administrative staff may be looked at as an evil, but you cannot successfully run your business for long without having someone to keep the lights on, the bills paid, etc.
Education and communication are two easy building blocks to point to, but someone still has to convey the message and lead the people.
I am not one who says your situation is hopeless, but it does look like a significant uphill climb. At least you are confronting some of the issues and not playing ostrich.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Good Luck! I am out of here!
PORK
I sent you a private email. It took me a while to figure out how I got them. There should be a little red flag on the top right of your screen when you log onto the forum, just check that.
I am very familiar with retail co-ops and maybe we could bounce some ideas around.
I am doing good. My UI came through and I am looking for a job. My ex employer just fired another top manager yesterday. Whoooeee!
MEssing post sounds darn familiar
I see two problems here. One is the morale "us vs. them" problem you have stated and the other is the apparent hostile environment that has been allowed to exist that targets employees for political, geographic, or possibly religious reasons.
I doubt someone of my background, faith, and political leanings would be welcome in your organization and that is troubling.
My sense of the situation is that somewhere along the line, management has not had the guts to stop employees when they went over the line with their opinions and actions. Someone needs to put their foot down. Just my opinion.