What Would HR Do With Barry Bonds?
Would you want Barry Bonds on your team? He’s either one of the best baseball players of all time, or he’s one of the biggest cheaters of all time. He’s a high performer, or he’s a player who learned to break the rules to make himself look good. How would you handle a “Barry Bonds” in your organization? Is winning the only thing?
I’m going to see Barry Bonds play tonight against the Philadelphia Phillies. I’ll be there with my family, sitting just a few rows behind home plate, and I’d imagine that the boos will be raining down on Bonds like a Philadelphia monsoon. (This is, after all, the town that once booed Santa Claus.) And I’m imagining that my teenage boys will join the chorus of fans expressing their disdain for a man who, through steroid use, is on the brink of breaking Hank Aaron’s home run record of 755. It’s funny how teenagers “get” the cheating issue, but baseball commissioner Bud Selig, a man in his 70s, doesn’t seem to. Why is that? Ticket sales?
Do You Have a Barry Bonds On Your Team?
I once worked at a firm that had a female Barry Bonds. She sold more than anyone else. She had lots of sales records. She was insolent, tore down highly-qualified people, and played only for herself (all the while saying she cared about the interests of the firm). And she got away with it.
Why would a company let someone tear down people and teamwork? Is, “She (or he) is our best salesperson” enough of an excuse? When does doing the right thing enter the picture?
I’m not talking about Barry Bonds being a butthead, though. I’m talking about Barry Bonds cheating. Yeah, it’s easy to say you wouldn’t put up with illegal activity. I’m sure that’s what they said at Enron, Arthur Andersen, and Tyco, too. But Barry Bonds-style cheating is a little more subtle. It’s about “producing” while everyone winks at how he got results.
What Would HR Do?
I know what I would do about the Barry Bonds of this world. I don’t think that a company can talk about employee engagement with a straight face when they have a Barry Bonds on the team. I don’t think a company can credibly talk about a performance-oriented culture and a balanced scorecard and then reward, for the most part, only financial “results.” I don’t think that turning a blind eye to institutional cheating and then talking about “teamwork” is worth the paper that the PowerPoint is printed on.
So, WWHRD? What would you do? Would you send Barry Bonds up to the plate with the idea that “it’s a zero sum game” and “everyone is doing it”? Or would you send him packing?
Next Up: HR and Morality
There’s a morality tale here, too, folks. I’m going to ask a friend of mine, who is eminently more qualified than I am, to write a guest post about that topic — the intersection of morals and business. That’s not something you hear about every day from management. Or, come to think of it, in my former corporate life…pretty much ever.
Technorati Tags: Barry Bonds, baseball, human resources, ethics
When HR Knows What Makes a Family
Congratulations to HR and management in companies that recognize that “families” come in all forms. And for those of you who are working on partner benefits, I’d suggest that this graph tells the story.
[via Jessica Hagy's fabulous Indexed]
Just Because You’ve Been Diagnosed as Paranoid Doesn’t Mean That Your Company Isn’t Watching You
Note to employees: Your company is watching you. And as much as I personally dislike that (and many of you do, too), it’s their equipment and they’re paying you to work…not play. So, you might want to think about sending notes to a co-worker who isn’t your wife that says, “I think about us together all of the time. Little moments like watching your face when you kiss me.” Oops. That’s what USA Today reports in a story called Wal-Mart alleges sex, misdeeds in counterclaim to firing lawsuit.
Lots of Inappropriate E-Mail: The Repercussions
If that Wal-Mart story isn’t enough to remind you of how to use company e-mail (as in, if you wouldn’t want your grandmother to read it, or if you wouldn’t want to see it printed in USA TODAY, then don’t send it), then I’ve done a public service and added a couple other cautionary tales for your reading pleasure.
Rep. Mark Foley and the White House Pages. We all know about this one, but the Rep. Foley story tells about e-mail monitoring and how hitting delete doesn’t work.
I once witnessed an incredible e-mail faux pas a long time ago, sort of at the early entry point of e-mail in business. A guy in a group I worked in, which was very few men and a LOT of women, wrote up a detailed report of partying and debauchery at his bachelor party…in Las Vegas. And somehow, instead of sending it to the group he wanted to (I can’t imagine why he’d want to send it to anyone) he accidentally hit “All Group” in Lotus Notes. And before you could say ruh-roh in your best Scooby-Doo voice, over 100 people were reading his e-mail. And what happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. Not once he hit “send.”
Use Your Own Equipment for Your Own Business
Here’s what my dad would have said: Don’t be a bonehead. If you have personal business, either on the phone or by e-mail, use your own stuff. I’ve seen it happen all too often that people get caught up with what they think is private communication when they might as well have written it on a flying banner over the Super Bowl.
Got Ethics?
Here’s an alarming statistic from M.B.A.s. The Biggest Cheaters: more than half of MBAs report having cheated in school in the last year. And, “Many of these students reportedly believe cheating is an accepted practice in business.” Um, Got Ethics? This is scary for those of you out there providing ethics training. Some of your new employees are starting in a deep hole.
Seeing (Product) Red
Here’s an idea your HR department and your company can get behind: (Product) Red. One of the products on the promotion is the iPod Nano Red, which in addition to being a great music player will also mean that “Apple will give $10 of its purchase price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.” Apple’s promotion for the idea is “Sounds good. Does good.” Lots of other companies are joining the (Product) Red Revolution, including Verizon, Gap, American Express, Armani, and Converse. When you buy or use their “Red” products, those companies will donate a portion of their profits to buy and distribute anti-retroviral medicines in Africa.
If you have a minute, read the Red Manifesto. If your HR team is looking for a way to get involved in an issue on a global scale, going Red is a way to go. We’ll be doing that at KnowHR. Red is the new black. And I’ll be making those purchases with a Red card.
-
-
SUBSCRIBE
-
-
-
