Greed Driving a Culture of Corruption at Wells Fargo

I’ve commented on Wells Fargo in the past. Consequently, I’m not completely surprised by the new information on the fraudulent accounts opened at Wells Fargo. A disturbing trend I’ve noticed in the financial sector is a tendency for companies to push their employees towards unrealistic sales goals – oftentimes leading to some form of illegal activity. The fake accounts opened by bankers on their clients’ dime is a total breach of trust – but I don’t lay the blame solely at the feet of the employees who engaged in this behavior. The culture that encouraged this behavior is rooted in greed and disregard for their customers. Wells Fargo, more than any other of the ‘big banks,’ has been able to maintain a veneer of caring for customers after the financial crisis. However, it turns out that they aren’t any different than their peers in the banking industry – demanding so much of their employees, that many felt they had no choice but to cheat the system. You can get more information on this at The New York Times.

Image: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via NYT

Teaching Empathy Early

This is a truly sweet story, about FSU football player Travis Rudolph sharing a table with Bo Paske, a sixth grader with Autism, at a school visit last week. While it’s important to focus on the positives of a story like this – like the great example Rudolph is setting for the students at that school – it’s also important to keep in mind why Paske was sitting by himself. Isolation can be one form of bullying, and we need to teach children from a young age to accept people who are a little different than they are. Rudolph was simply doing the right thing, and it’s a little crazy that we’re commending him for what should have been a no-brainer for the rest of those students. Both teachers and parents have some serious work to do when it comes to instilling empathy and the golden rule, so these kids don’t continue to shun those who are different for the rest of their lives.

Image courtesy Florida State Athletics

Using an Untapped Work Force to Solve the Manufacturing Industry's Crisis

Encountering this story about the USA’s large pool of unemployed young men almost adds insult to injury after a story I read earlier, about how manufacturing corporations are desperate for skilled workers. I agree with Nicholas Eberstadt that this issue is largely invisible from the public eye, and that it’s a growing economic crisis. It’s a huge problem, but one that carries a gigantic opportunity. Is it too simple to think that this large pool of unemployed young men can be turned into the skilled workers USA’s manufacturing industry sorely needs? I think not. While there may be social or governmental solutions to this issue, I see it from the perspective of the industry itself – if manufacturing companies opened their arms to these men, and invested in them the time and education needed to become a skilled technician, their problems would be solved. I know it is easier said than done, but when employees are truly valued and invested in by their companies, the results are almost always positive. For an industry that has turned its back on young workers for a long time, embracing them now seems like the only step they can take towards saving their businesses. Read Eberstadt's full piece at The Wall Street Journal. 

Art credit: Getty Images via WSJ

Yes, You Should Be Angry: The Manufacturing Jobs Slump

Stories like this frustrate me. Manufacturing companies in the US are having difficulty filling key positions because there seems to be a lack of skilled employees to fill them. The excuse that education systems don’t emphasize the value of trade and manufacturing jobs, or that schools are “not evolving alongside industry needs” doesn’t hold too much water. In my view, the industry as a whole should have been able to anticipate this problem, and should have invested in their employees rather than letting them go. Teaching employees the skills they need to operate more technologically complex machinery is a far more sustainable method of maintaining a healthy workforce, as opposed to assuming that new generations would provide an unlimited pool of fresher and cheaper workers. Workers who have been affected by this situation are totally justified to be angry with an industry that has failed them. Read more in-depth at The Wall Street Journal. 

Photo: Employees install panels on airplane wings at the Boeing Co. manufacturing facility in Renton, Wash., last year. PHOTO: DAVID RYDER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Workplace Culture in Pop Culture

The idea that our popular culture is forming a microcosm of the way we process our work-lives is really interesting. The fact that, as this article points out, every one of this summer’s blockbuster movies was really about workplace issues is reflective of how massively our work impacts the rest of our lives. Whether it’s the new Ghostbusters struggling with starting a business, or Jason Bourne facing retaliation for standing up to corrupt bosses, we’re seeing our work play out on the big screen more and more. It’s just one more reason why we really need to examine our workplaces and their cultures critically – we spend most of our days at work, and spend a lot of time with the people we work with. Building emotional intelligence and transforming our work environments into healthy spaces for everyone seems like a no-brainer, but the resistance to cultural transformation is ingrained into many organizations. Solving problems at work isn’t as exciting, dramatic or easy as it may seem on the big screen – it takes effort, time and an earnest desire to make the organization work for everyone. Read more on this really interesting idea at The New York Times.

A Psychologically Dangerous Workplace

This is one of the most egregious workplace cultures I’ve heard of. Abbott Pharmaceuticals’ operations in India seem to display criminal levels of workplace neglect, bullying and stress. Based on this article, it seems as though almost all of their practices are designed to prioritize profits over employees and customers, to a literally dangerous point. From hosting sham free clinics to have doctors prescribe only their medication, to putting employees through so much strain that they feel the need to commit suicide – this is a seriously harmful way to run a business. Plus, the bullying that’s clearly going on there is insidious – for example, demanding employees transfer thousands of miles from their homes is completely underhanded and no real way to treat anyone, let alone the people who work for you. You can read more about Abbott Pharmaceuticals at The New York Times. 

Photo: Friends visit a place where one Abbott employee committed suicide. Photo Credit: Atul Loke for NYT

Journalistic Integrity Lost?

I’m glad someone is comparing the recent Fox News sexual harassment scandal to the News of the World phone hacking scandal of 2011. In my book, The Bully’s Trap, I make reference to the scandal – mainly because it was apparent that, at the time, the Murdochs were only paying lip service to culturally changing their organizations. The current sexual harassment scandal is evidence of how little actually changed across the Murdoch holdings after News of the World closed down. While there’s still some hope that they may turn things around in the wake of this present scandal, I’m afraid to say that it looks like their journalistic integrity as an entire organization could be lost. You can read a fuller comparison at The New York Times.

Photo Info: Rupert Murdoch with Rebekah Brooks, former chief of News of the World. Photo Credit: Olivia Harris/Reuters via NYT

Is WikiLeaks Just One Giant Cyberbully?

A unique case of “bullying” that’s outside the norm can be found in the behavior of WikiLeaks. Obviously, their organization functions outside of the law, but the argument they make is that their information leaks serve the public good. It’s worth it to weigh that argument without taking either side; however, it’s also important to note whether or not WikiLeaks maintains the same balance that the media should in terms of political criticism and objectivity. In the past, WikiLeaks has both revealed and hidden sensitive information that put people in harm’s way, and the flip-flopping doesn’t exactly speak well of them. However, the most recent DNC leak is problematic. Yes, the information was in the public interest. However, the high probability of Russian involvement in procuring this info, linked with Julian Assange’s close ties with Russia and documented dislike for Hillary Clinton, beg the question – is this the most bizarre form of cyber-bullying in history? If not, I ask the simple question – why has there been no attempted hack of Trump’s campaign or the RNC? I’m not advocating hacks of any kind, but it is interesting that WikiLeaks, which purports to be all about transparency, fails to point that own scrutiny at itself. You can read a well-written op-ed about this in The New York Times by documentarian Alex Gibney. 

Image: Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. Image Credit: John Stillwell, Reuters. 

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

I wanted to take a moment to respond further to the stories of workplace sexual harassment that have been coming forward more and more in the past weeks. Many, from various talking heads to Eric Trump, seem to be suggesting that all a woman (or man) needs to do to dispel sexual harassment is go to human resources. Firstly, this point of view totally ignores the reality that many workplace cultures subtly encourage employees not to file harassment claims. Additionally, as I’ve discussed in my book, in many instances of workplace bullying (including sexual harassment), HR can oftentimes be part of the problem – either because they don’t have the power to effectively resolve issues, or because they are actively taking part in creating issues. Blindly directing targets of sexual harassment to HR is not only foolish, but potentially harmful in the modern workplace. Unless HR is completely trustworthy in the given organization, targets need to gather substantive evidence of their harassment to back themselves up when they finally make their situation known – otherwise, HR can end up empowering the bully or harasser further, sometimes unintentionally. As opposed to encouraging more women to speak up about harassment, which is valuable, I suggest another option: we need to encourage HR officers to grow backbones. In many workplaces like Fox News, where ongoing harassment seemed to be an open secret, where was HR? Where is HR when an employee is showing clear signs of domestic abuse, sexual harassment or mental issues? Many of the workplace bullying cases I see day to day could be avoided – if HR was empowered to help employees effectively, and had the real intention to do so. 

Expanding the Inquiry at Fox News

It seems that in the fallout after the exit of Roger Ailes, Fox News is expanding its inquiry into what others within the organization knew about the sexual harassment allegations. However, it’s worth noting that the inquiry isn’t expanding into a full-scale cultural investigation – it’s still limited to Roger Ailes. While the Murdochs have to realize that they’d appear negligent not to expand their investigation to see who else was aware of Ailes’s behavior, they should open up their organization to the positive changes a comprehensive cultural review would bring to their organization. Not only would many employees probably feel better about the whole situation, but it would portray a positive image to viewers who might feel confused or deceived by Ailes’s harassment and subsequent departure. You can read more on this at The New York Times.

Image: Fox News at the 2016 DNC. Image Credit: Eric Thayer for NYT.