I had my first experience of "management nightmare" at the end of the work week. And it's hit me rather hard cos it was not something I saw coming.
You see, I have this new staff... who is a transgender. He's been with us for 2 weeks now and while we all love him, I have had to put my foot down on the gay-slurs that were used to refer to him. Mind you - these were coming from managers and not his peers.
Anyway, the incident was he was seen on the building's CCTV as using the ladies' room.
Needless to say, when I got out of my meeting and heard about it, I dropped my tea-lunch and ran 5 flights of stairs to where he was being held and questioned. But I was too late. In a society where Mel is an abnormally and a person no one wants to take on board, the wheels of social-corectness had started to turn. There was nothing I could do about it.
My MD brought up the matter at yesterday's company meeting. He calls it a no-brainer. And yes, I do agree with him. But it doesn't mean that it should stop at that. And shortly after, I was asked yesterday by one of my colleagues - where I stood on the matter.
It was a tough call. Sure Mel should have had better sense ~ what we do not comment about on our floor, does not necessarily represent the thoughts of the whole building. Every person's brain differs from the other. What is acceptable and common to you, may not be the same to me.
But as I state that, I cannot help but also ask ~ If I am merely the minority, does it mean that I should adopt a "thought-transposition" stand so that the minority slowly disappears?
And as for management ~ should it be that management would have the wisdom, experience and book learning to look beyond ~ was there malice in the act? Afterall, juries get sequestered away for hours, days, weeks and months just to decide if it's murder or manslaughter. Did management give the whole matter just thought?
Anyways, I can rant and rave about it. I can ring you up and ask you if you had SOPs that dealt with issues like this. And I sit and bemoan the injustice at the mamak stall. But it doesn't change anything.
Come tomorrow, Mel is gonna be brought down to HR and be told that the Director of Facilities wants him removed from the staff force. And we would not be able to fight her for it. Needless to say, this incident is just gonna make me dislike her even more than I already do.
But for today, this woman - who thinks she's Wonder woman, is the last person on my mind. It's Mel that I am thinking about and I wonder how he's held up - going thru the weekend, wondering if he's still gonna have a job come tomorrow.
And yes - I do feel responsible. I was the only one within my department who interviewed this chap. And I choose him cos of his work abilities and potential, despite the HR reps giving me the quizzical eye.
Maybe I was not the best person to represent the line. Cos my views of the world are skewed. I saw further than the fact of him wearing a spot of blusher and a trace of lipstick to the interview. I saw a young'un who wanted to be a chef.
Maybe I could have taken better care of this lamb of mine.
Maybe I should not have given him the job. At least that way, he would still have some place of his own come tomorrow.
You see, I have this new staff... who is a transgender. He's been with us for 2 weeks now and while we all love him, I have had to put my foot down on the gay-slurs that were used to refer to him. Mind you - these were coming from managers and not his peers.
Anyway, the incident was he was seen on the building's CCTV as using the ladies' room.
Needless to say, when I got out of my meeting and heard about it, I dropped my tea-lunch and ran 5 flights of stairs to where he was being held and questioned. But I was too late. In a society where Mel is an abnormally and a person no one wants to take on board, the wheels of social-corectness had started to turn. There was nothing I could do about it.
My MD brought up the matter at yesterday's company meeting. He calls it a no-brainer. And yes, I do agree with him. But it doesn't mean that it should stop at that. And shortly after, I was asked yesterday by one of my colleagues - where I stood on the matter.
It was a tough call. Sure Mel should have had better sense ~ what we do not comment about on our floor, does not necessarily represent the thoughts of the whole building. Every person's brain differs from the other. What is acceptable and common to you, may not be the same to me.
But as I state that, I cannot help but also ask ~ If I am merely the minority, does it mean that I should adopt a "thought-transposition" stand so that the minority slowly disappears?
And as for management ~ should it be that management would have the wisdom, experience and book learning to look beyond ~ was there malice in the act? Afterall, juries get sequestered away for hours, days, weeks and months just to decide if it's murder or manslaughter. Did management give the whole matter just thought?
Anyways, I can rant and rave about it. I can ring you up and ask you if you had SOPs that dealt with issues like this. And I sit and bemoan the injustice at the mamak stall. But it doesn't change anything.
Come tomorrow, Mel is gonna be brought down to HR and be told that the Director of Facilities wants him removed from the staff force. And we would not be able to fight her for it. Needless to say, this incident is just gonna make me dislike her even more than I already do.
But for today, this woman - who thinks she's Wonder woman, is the last person on my mind. It's Mel that I am thinking about and I wonder how he's held up - going thru the weekend, wondering if he's still gonna have a job come tomorrow.
And yes - I do feel responsible. I was the only one within my department who interviewed this chap. And I choose him cos of his work abilities and potential, despite the HR reps giving me the quizzical eye.
Maybe I was not the best person to represent the line. Cos my views of the world are skewed. I saw further than the fact of him wearing a spot of blusher and a trace of lipstick to the interview. I saw a young'un who wanted to be a chef.
Maybe I could have taken better care of this lamb of mine.
Maybe I should not have given him the job. At least that way, he would still have some place of his own come tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment