HR Management & Compliance

Now Your Worst Moments Are on YouTube


What once was acceptable workplace behavior and humor no longer is. And if some in your company don’t know it, there’s a world of Internet onlookers ready to tell them so.


After a trying morning, Jack, usually a calm and restrained manager, lost it at the office. He screamed at his workers, and threw a pile of papers. He later apologized and thought all was well. And it was, until he got home.


Jack’s 10-year-old daughter greeted him with, “Daddy, you really lost it at the office today. I saw it on YouTube.”


Yes, we’re living in an age in which our worst moments can be seen all over the world in a matter of minutes. Take TV personality Dog the Bounty Hunter, whose racial comments in a private phone call with his son were soon common Internet knowledge.


Or Don Imus, the acerbic radio personality whose jibes about a woman’s basketball team cost him his job. The comments were typical of those he’d made for years, but this time they got him fired. What’s changed?


What Are the New Rules?


The examples above help us to understand several important lessons about the new climate of business. They apply to all HR managers and to every manager they train.


–The climate for humor has changed. Jokes about gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation might have been “acceptable” in former times, but those days are gone. Listeners find them offensive, and watchers are organized and ready to pounce.



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–News travels fast. A staffer from a civil rights organization had actually been assigned to listen to Imus’s show. Almost immediately after his comment aired, it was moving over the Internet. There’s also a world of recording devices out there. Just count the camera-equipped cell phones in your workplace. There’s no “burying” bad behavior today.


–Apologies won’t get you off the hook. The public is so inured to apologies from business magnates, politicians, sports figures, and others in the public eye, that an apology just won’t do it anymore.


So, to the old Wall Street Journal rule (Would you like to see this story on the front page of the WSJ?), add the new YouTube rule: (Would you be happy to have the world watch what you’ve done?)


What About My Dinosaurs?


Even if your behavior is enlightened, as it likely is, chances are that your organization has a few “dinosaurs,” as one employment law expert calls them, who want to keep playing by the old rules.


They still tell offensive jokes, usually starting out with, “Well, I know you can’t tell jokes like this in the office anymore, but this one’s really funny….” Others just can’t resist hugging, kissing, touching, and saying “Honey” and “Sweetie.”


Whatever the behavior of your dinosaurs (and by the way, “dinosaurism” comes from attitude, not age), both the law and current workplace ethics say it’s up to you to stop it. Today’s employees are educated, and their sensitivities are heightened. Demeaning comments and behavior will be addressed, if not in court, then in the public eye of the Internet.



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And if the denizens of the Internet find your story worth sharing, count on it being international news in hours! Personal embarrassment will be the least of it. Activists may clamor for boycotts of your company’s products; try to convince clients, suppliers, and customers to stop dealing with you; call for investigations; picket—and who knows what else.


What’s the best way to stop a dinosaur? In a word—training. We’ll talk about that in the next issue of the Advisor, and also share a highly recommended solution.

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