On The Team

My team had a staff meeting this morning. Two-thirds of our team behaved like children: throwing balls to each other, telling inappropriate dirty jokes, not listening to our new manager talk. The manager had to tell them several times to stop this nonsense,. but they continued on. The rest of our group just remained silent. There is a problem: the unprofessional employees are African-American and Hispanic-American. The other one-third who remained silent are white. Our new manager is white. What can we do? Should we tell Human Resources?

Give them one free pass. If the behavior continues into further meetings, complain to the manager about the behavior only. If that doesn’t do it, go to HR. Just leave race out of it–you don’t want to open that can of worms.

4 Responses

1. Logan Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 5:57 pm

   Give them one free pass. If the behavior continues into further meetings, complain to the manager about the behavior only. If that doesn’t do it, go to HR. Just leave race out of it–you don’t want to open that can of worms.
   References :

2. kelliekareen Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 6:21 pm

   Well, the manager needs to bring it up to those individuals and give a written reprimand. If they do the same three times its out the door. No unemployment checks for them.
   References :
   I managed a few hairstyling salons and I will never manage any business again. I hate telling grown people to show up on time to their job. The race card was always played.

3. Vicki D Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 6:55 pm

   There could be a couple of things going on. Do you think they viewed their behavior as unprofessional? Was this a new thing or has the group always acted like this? It sounds they are comfortable around each other and are just having fun. If this is a new behavior and you have a new manager they might be seeing what the new boss will do — just like kids when there is a substitute teacher. It could also be that the behavior was always there but the old manager had the team’s respect and could get it under control without much effort.

   Before going to HR I would try to talk to one of the trouble makers who I get along with and point out that they were being disrespectful. The other option is go to the new manager and give him or her some info about the company’s culture and ways to gain respect of the team.
   References :

4. cwald888 Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 7:37 pm

   I don’t know that you can do anything about it, if your not he manager. If you have the guts, you may want to do what I suggest below. Or you may want to talk with the manager after the meeting about it. Your Manager needs to learn how to handle that kind of BS. Tell them straight out what the consequence will be for their behavior, if it happens again. Tell them what behavior is expected. If they don’t comply the manager needs to enforce the consequence immediately. Race or nationality has nothing to do with it.
   References :

Leave a Comment