Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER October 19, 2015 22 INSIGHT JUST KICKING AROUND MARTENSVILLE, SASK. — Tim Hortons probably sees all kinds of customers in its stores every day, but one four-legged visitor raised eyebrows recently. Two RCMP offi cers were called to the outlet when a goat refused to leave, according to the CBC. " ere was a stubborn goat refusing to leave the establishment," said the RCMP. " e employees would ask him to leave and walk him outside, but he would just turn around and come back in through the automatic doors." Employees said the goat walked through the parking lot and took a nap in the drive-through, so they kept an eye on him. e goat was eventually "arrested" and taken into the police vehicle. "He was very unhappy with this so the members decided to take him home instead of to holding cells at the detachment," said the RCMP. It turns out the goat disappeared from a University of Saskatchewan Student Rodeo cabaret being held nearby. "Goliath" was later reunited with his goat companions Sparkles and Billy. EXPENSES INSPECTED WASHINGTON, D.C. — Suspect expenses are always a challenge for payroll, but some Pentagon employees found themselves in hot water recently when it was revealed they apparently wanted the United States government to compensate them for bills they racked up at casinos and strip clubs. The Pentagon inspector general reported over one year, Defense Department employees spent US$952,258 at casinos and another US$96,576 at "adult entertainment establishments" using offi cial travel charge cards, according to Reuters. One case involved an Air Force member who was demoted after spending US$4,686 at Sapphire Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas (he tried to spend an additional US$920 but had exceeded his credit limit). The U.S. Defense Department has about 1.6 million card holders who are meant to use the cards for offi cial travel-related expenses only. TO STRAIGHTEN OR NOT TO STRAIGHTEN? GREENVILLE, N.C. — A week- night anchor saw her Facebook video go viral recently when she asked viewers whether an intern at WNCT in Greenville, N.C., should straighten her hair, accord- ing to theGrio.com. Angela Green, declaring herself biracial, said she straightens her hair because her bosses like it that way, and she recommended 19-year-old Madi- son, also fi lmed, do the same for a school project. Madison appar- ently had been told her full head of hair was "distracting" onscreen. "Distracting, well that is a very in- teresting word," said Green. "But in the world of TV, we see it all. It just depends in what market, what au- dience you're looking for right now and, really, your bosses and what they allow... my suggestion was to just straighten it out just to please everybody." e video garnered nearly one million views. WHY NOT GET A PEDI TOO? PHILADELPHIA — Employers are always worried about the dine- and-dash customers who don't pay for their meal, but a nail salon in Philadelphia had a diff erent kind of problem recently. A man wearing a hoodie walked in and requested a manicure, but after the job was done, the "customer" pulled out a sawed-off shotgun and demand- ed money. Video shows the man leaning over the table, rummaging through drawers, looking for cash, while employees at Rockland Nails try to stay out of his way. e man eventually grabbed an unknown amount of money and ran off , with no one injured. Police are now looking for a black male, about 30 to 40 years old, six feet tall with a stocky build — and presumably very nice nails. BUT DOGS ARE ALLOWED CYPRUS — Restaurants post all kinds of signs in their windows but one in Cyprus raised eyebrows recently, leaving some custom- ers confused. e poster shows the profi le of a woman raising her baby into the air, with a man rais- ing his arms nearby, underneath a ceiling fan. It appears to be warning parents not to lift children into ceil- ing fans, according to the Mirror. Posted on social networking site Reddit, the image left Internet us- ers bemused: "It's a warning not to off er your child as a sacrifi ce to the ceiling fan God while playing bas- ketball with a friend," wrote user ShadowOf eWasp. "Most people are perfectly able to not do this but obviously there's always that one person, so they made a warning." And Reali5t had this to say: "We know children can be a------s and disrupt your dining experience, but there is no reason to lift them to be decapitated by the ceiling fan." W EIRD ORKPLACE THE Vol. 28 No. 17 – October 19, 2015 PUBLISHED BY Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ©Copyright 2015 by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. CANADIAN HR REPORTER is published 21 times a year. Publications Mail – Agreement # 40065782 Registration # 9496 – ISSN 0838-228X Director, Carswell Media: Karen Lorimer - (416) 649-9411 karen.lorimer@thomsonreuters.com Publisher: (on leave) John Hobel - (416) 298-5197 john.hobel@thomsonreuters.com EDITORIAL Associate Publisher/Managing Editor: Todd Humber - (416) 298-5196 todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com Lead Editor: Sarah Dobson - (416) 649-7896 sarah.dobson@thomsonreuters.com News Editor: Liz Bernier - (416) 649-7837 liz.bernier@thomsonreuters.com Employment Law Editor: Jeffrey R. 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Address changes and returns: Send changes and undeliverable Canadian addresses to: SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Canadian HR Reporter One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ❑ From time to time, we make our subscriber list available to companies and organizations whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you do not want your name to be made available, please check here and return with your mailing label. CUSTOMER SERVICE Call: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5082 (Toronto) (877) 750-9041 (outside Toronto) Email: carswell.customerrelations@ thomsonreuters.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com CHRR reserves the right to edit for length and clarity. Todd Humber EDitor's Notes Take the medicine right away W e act with integrity and independence by holding ourselves and each other to be ethical and reliable in all we do. Believe me — no business deal is more im- portant than that." Jim Smith, CEO of Thomson Reuters, wrote those words in the company's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. It's a code every employee of omson Re- uters, publishers of Canadian HR Reporter, must read and acknowledge. I've personally seen the code of conduct cited to back up manage- ment decisions. And at omson Reuters, the code goes beyond general statements and gets into specifi c details. ere are sections about discrimination and harass- ment, proper use of assets, con- fl icts of interest and records man- agement — to name but a few. Is it a guarantee the company's 53,000 employees around the globe will act ethically at all times? at they will never act in an ille- gal or questionable manner? No. But having such a clear document cascaded throughout the organi- zation goes a long way to sending a clear message about the types of behaviours that are considered ac- ceptable and unacceptable. Volkswagen has a similar docu- ment entitled Code of Conduct. It features Scrabble tiles on its cover that spell out the words "rules," "follow" and "know." Upfront, it has the following statement: "Our products help to ensure that mobility is environ- mentally friendly, efficient and safe. In this context, the future obligates us to promote mobil- ity in the interest of the common good, while doing justice to indi- vidual needs, ecological concerns and the economic requirements placed on a global enterprise." It's hard to juxtapose that no- tion with the harsh reality at Volk- swagen that has emerged over the last few weeks. e company used software that allowed its diesel-powered vehicles to cheat on emission tests, according to the New York Times. is appears to have been a con- scious decision, made for fi nancial reasons. Now, the embattled Ger- man automaker is facing the pos- sibility of making very expensive repairs to as many as 11 million vehicles. And the damage done to the brand is even more extensive. e potential fi nes are stagger- ing. In the United States, the En- vironmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said the automaker could be hit with penalties as high as US$18 billion. CEO Martin Winterkorn re- signed last month over the scan- dal, and other executives have been suspended. Given the fallout, there's no doubt Volkswagen would have been far better off to suspend production and fi x the emissions on the diesel engines. at too would have been a hugely expen- sive proposition, and heads would have rolled, but the damage would have been mitigated. And the message could have been spun in a positive way — "We won't put cars on the road that don't meet our standards." Instead, the mes- sage is out of their hands and the company has a tremendous uphill battle to win back the confi dence of its customers. at's the real lesson here for all organizations. No matter how bad the medicine may taste, it's better to take it right away. It's also why codes of conduct can't just be words on paper. Managers at all levels, from the CEO right down to a front-line supervisor, have to live the words consistently and en- force the rules. ere is no small stuff to sweat when it comes to ethics. To bor- row a few more pages from the Thomson Reuters code about discrimination and harassment: "Thomson Reuters has zero tolerance for unlawful discrimi- nation or harassment, whether committed by an employee, su- pervisor, customer, vendor, sup- plier, consultant, visitor or any other person on omson Reuters premises or conducting omson Reuters business, regardless of location." It includes discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, age, sex/gender (including preg- nancy), marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, citi- zenship status, disability, veteran status or any other classifi cation protected by applicable laws or regulations. at means an off - colour racist joke can't go unchal- lenged. It means when someone makes a remark about immi- grants, it has to be addressed. It's the "Broken Window e- ory" applied to the workplace. That theory, developed in the early 1980s and made famous by the New York Police Department (NYPD), states that by stopping minor crimes such as vandalism, an atmosphere of law and order results. erefore, more serious crimes are less likely to occur. At Volkswagen, the culture clearly condoned such a massive error in judgement. And not only was it condoned, it was left un- checked for the better part of a de- cade. Having a code of conduct on its own didn't stop the behaviour. Perhaps it's time for all orga- nizations to dust off their copies and make sure all employees, at all levels, are actually living the words printed on the paper. Credit: Eric Isselee (Shutterstock) Tim Hortons probably sees all kinds of customers in its stores every day, but one four-legged visitor raised eyebrows recently. Two RCMP offi cers were called to the outlet when a goat refused to leave, according to the CBC. " ere was a stubborn goat refusing to leave the establishment," said the RCMP. " e employees would ask him to leave and walk him outside, but he would just turn around and come back in through the automatic doors." Employees said the goat walked through the parking lot and took a nap in the drive-through, so they kept an eye on him. e goat was eventually "arrested" and taken into the police vehicle. "He was very unhappy with this so the members decided to take him home instead of to holding cells at the detachment," said the RCMP. It turns out the goat disappeared from a University of Saskatchewan Student Rodeo cabaret being held nearby. "Goliath" was Philadelphia had a diff erent kind of recently, leaving some custom- tolerance for unlawful discrimi- nation or harassment, whether and make sure all employees, at all levels, are actually living the words printed on the paper. Credit: Eric Isselee (Shutterstock)

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