Small businesses have a culture. Sometimes that culture is chaos. I consistently argue that any business culture should be a deliberate construction of the owners and managers. A culture will exist regardless if it is a deliberate construction or the product of a vacuum. The latter is the problem and small businesses that do not pay attention to company culture are asking for a negative culture to develop on its own that could undermine the whole business.
A good friend of mine called me yesterday. He was assaulted at work--physically attacked by another employee. The owner of the company refused to call the police and eventually threatened my friend with termination if he called the police or retained an attorney. He was also told that the attack was between two people and had nothing to do with the business and that he had to cover his own medical expenses. My friend went to the ER and had some injuries that were significant. Today, the owner still maintains none of this is his responsibility and that everybody should shake hands and work together.
Oh, where do I begin with this?
The culture in this small business is toxic at best. Office banter is severe and those with thin skin would not make it more than a day there. Crass sexual humor, racial slurs, and over-the-top insults clog the air. I detected long ago that my friend felt he was defending himself every minute of every day while also having to participate in this environment. Well, as the old expression states: "It's all fun until somebody gets hurt." Somebody is hurt and the company did not fire the aggressor. In addition, the owner did not file a police report and tries to disassociate himself from the violence. Now you can see how such a negative culture existed in the first place.
Corporate America has been taken to the legal woodshed so many times, it's no wonder there is zero tolerance for behavior like that at places like Allstate Insurance, Sears, and SBC. Any well-run company management knows they are there to make money and anybody that is not on board with that is a liability. However, small businesses are a different breed of company. Many of them are managed as if profitability and growth are somebody else's problem and professionalism is something from a magazine. As a customer, I would question my relationship with a company that allows its employees to degrade each other to the point that a fight breaks out. In today's business world, who has time for that crap?
In addition, numerous attorneys have used OSHA as the foundation for defining a safe working environment. In spite of the owner's protests, this altercation happened in his company's facility and only a head made of the densest of wood cannot accept the fact that what employees do on company time in a company facility is his problem. Sweeping this under the rug will not do.
Professionalism is not foreign and it should exist in companies of all sizes and shapes. Small business owners should expect nothing less than the best from their people. They should reward professional, money-making behavior and punish immature, risky behavior.
I'm scratching my head today still wondering why my friend's coworker is still there. I'm also wondering how he will handle this. I told him what I would do in his situation, but I'm not him. The one thing to be learned from this event is to pay attention to where you work.
Small businesses should be run with integrity, professionalism, and pride. If you are working for a small business without those, there are plenty more opportunities out there. Use your own self-respect as a guide to finding the right culture. As for business owners, pay attention to what you let your employees do. You might end up on the wrong side of a lawsuit because you let the culture get out of control.
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Wretched Human Mirror by Bloodbath