You've Got to Be Kidding!: How to Keep Your Job Without Losing Your Integrity

Let’s Hear It for Common Sense—and Common Courtesy

This is the time for Cheri to get involved—to tell the guy to cool his jets, take down the calendar, and keep his hands and limericks to himself! As a management representative, she is obligated to speak up to try to remedy the situation. If she witnesses something she believes is wrong but does nothing, the company will be vulnerable.

I suggest that if managers like Cheri (and the rest of us) speak up sooner, we can stop bad behavior before it becomes a legal problem. Yes, I’m serious as a lawsuit: just speaking up can cause someone to change their abusive ways and head off that lawsuit.

Case in point: A VP of sales of a trucking firm once told me his top producer had extremely salty language. Though her clients didn’t “seem to mind,” the administrative staff sitting outside her door objected to hearing her colorful language on the phone. The astute VP realized that “as soon as the first admin complained to me, I had to take action because her language falls under the harassment guidelines.” His solution made me chuckle. He sat down with the VP and told her to clean up her act. She responded: “How can I do that? That’s why I’m so successful with my clients; I speak their language!” The VP firmly replied: “Then, I have one solution, Fran, shut the door!” And so she did! Problem solved.