Week 2 Case Study Prof: Jon Bryan Russell Ward MGMT410: Human Resource Management DeVry University Date: 03/10/16 Week 2 Case Study 2 Background Facts \"Bettie Page is a wholesale and retail clothing manufacturer that operates high end stores in San Francisco, CA and Las Vegas, NV. San Francisco store Manager Hayley Griffin (Griffin) and the employees often socialized together outside of work. In July 2012, various Bettie Page employees began calling Carla Avila (Avila), the manager of the Las Vegas store, complaining about Griffin and her managerial skills. Avila instructed Holly Thomas (Thomas), a San Francisco store employee, to write down the issues as they occurred and send them to her. On September 12, Thomas sent a message to Avila that was also signed by Vanessa Morris (Morris) and Brittany Johnson (Johnson), two other employees in the San Francisco store. The message indicated that the \"management situation in our store has become extremely unstable, unsafe, and unprofessional.\" The message contained a long description of Griffin's alleged shortcomings, including that Griffin \"used her position to bully, manipulate, and intimidate\" the workers. In response to the message, Jan Glaser (Glaser), the Bettie Page owner, and Avila visited the store and spoke to Griffin and the employees, including Thomas, Morris, and Johnson. None of the employees was disciplined by Glaser concerning the message they sent about Griffin. However, the meetings did not go well. Later that night, the employees posted the following conversation to Facebook: Holli Thomas needs a new job. I'm physically and mentally sickened. Vanessa Morris It's pretty obvious that my manager is as immature as a person can be and she proved that this evening even more so. I'm am [sic] unbelievably stressed out and I can't believe NO ONE is doing anything about it! The way she treats us in [sic] NOT okay but no one cares because every time we try to solve conflicts NOTHING GETS DONE!! Holli Thomas Bettie Page would roll over in her grave. Vanessa Morris She already is girl! Holli Thomas 800 miles away yet she's still continues our lives miserable. Phenomenal! Vanessa Morris: And no one's doing anything about it! Big surprise! Brittany [Johnson] \"Bettie Page would roll over in her grave.\" I've been thinking the same thing for quite some time. Vanessa Morris hey dudes it's totally cool, tomorrow I'm bringing a California Worker's Rights Week 2 Case Study 3 book to work. My mom works for a law firm that specializes in labor law and BOY will you be surprised by all the crap that's going on that's in violation 8) see you tomorrow! The next day or so Morris brought the book about worker's rights to the store and placed it in the break room where other employees looked through it. The book covered matters such as benefits, discrimination, the right to organize, safety, health and sanitation. After management saw the Facebook posting, Morris and Thomas were eventually fired. Bettie Page claimed that in addition to the Facebook posts, many items led them to fire Morris and Thomas including finding emails on the Bettie Page computer from Morris to various competitors seeking a sales position. Johnson was later fired for her limited participation in the Facebook string. On April 19, 2013 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that the Bettie Page clothing company unlawfully fired employees who used Facebook to discuss complaints about their supervisor's conduct and other work-related concerns, rejecting the employer's claim it was tricked into firing the workers.\" (Page April 19, 2013) I agree with this decision. The middle management is severely inadequate at managerial skills. The fact that she was aware of a problem and chose to ignore it vs say try to work it out shows poor leadership. She should have met with other managers to get assistance with how to handle the issues. If she could not take care of them then she needed to inform the boss. It is never good when the upper administration receives mail that is negative and has no idea there is a problem. By the time the boss got involved it was probably too late to calm the waters. The employees put nothing in the Facebook that had not already been said and absolutely had the right to check out the Law. This appears to me to be bad middle management and possibly poor training from upper management to them. I believe that the company could use this as a positive for the future by better educating the middle management on employee relations and allowing the employees to get involved in the process of complaints. It was obviously not a well set up communication effort and that can be changed. Information should be passed up and down regardless of whether it is bad or good. This is a part of the job of managers to protect the administration. Week 2 Case Study I do not believe that you will ever get a positive result by restricting the use of social media. Instead it would be better to organize a major change in the communication lines so that the employees do not feel the need to complain publicly. The company that puts the welfare of the employees first will reap the benefits of positive feedback. The most important relations you have with your employer is communication. If you allow a method of communicating the good and the bad, you will have less problems. You will of course have to address the problems as quickly as possible, but that can be managed by statements such as: \"I am waiting for a decision on that.\" Then of course you will need to follow up on the communication to the upper management. By keeping the lines of communication flowing you will be less likely to get a group of unhappy employees. You will need to keep your boss informed so that you can steer problems in a positive direction. By keeping your boss aware, there should be no surprises and you should be able to keep the problems from getting to the point of no return, which is what happened at Bettie Page. 4 Week 2 Case Study References: Design Tech. Grp. LLC d/b/a Bettie Page Clothing, 359 NLRB No. 96 (April 19, 2013). http://www.arentfox.com/newsroom/alerts/when-complaining-about-your-job-becomesprotected-concerted-activity-nlrb-holds#.VdaHa8tRGM8 5