Drunk Plant Manager and Hourly Employees

March22Collector

Are you ready for the soap opera? It has come to my attention that our Plant Manager, her husband (who also works for our company), and the plant Supervisor (who happens to be the Plant Manager's son) have been getting drunk after work some nights at a local bar with other employees, who all happen to be hourly. This, in my opinion, is not acceptable. I can see all kinds of problems arising out of this situation. From what I understand, our Plant Manager was pretty well smashed this past weekend while our hourly employees watched on and joined in on the fun. This has been, as you can probably imagine, a very hot conversation piece today around the factory. Word has spread like wildfire about our salaried personnel's behavior. I can already see claims from employees who do not attend these "events", such as unfair treatment etc.

I've looked in our policy manual and the drug and alcohol policy says nothing about the interaction between salaried and hourly people. Nor does it say anything about consuming alcohol while not on the clock (which I'm not sure you could control anyway, although I think you may be able to say something about behaving in an appropriate way to represent the company).

Any ideas, or thoughts?

Don D

(1) You won't find this in any drug/alcohol policy manual, (2) The employees are on their own time and the company has no 'right' to prohibit such personal behavior on the ee's own time (just like smoking) (3) No employee has any cause to file any charge or claim of being treated unfairly since the company has absolutely no part in the activity, (4) Sure, it's unwise and shows tremendously poor judgement on management's part, but all you might do is have the highest company official meet with the manager and discourage it (5) If it were a backyard BAR-B-Que/drunk, would it make a difference? (6) You are wasting your time to suggest controlling personal behaviors away from the worksite on people's own time, (7) The manager's will soon learn that they have created morale and performance and lack of respect problems for themselves. But, I doubt if they care.

WOCO Frank

>(3) No employee has any cause to file any charge or claim of
>being treated unfairly since the company has absolutely no part in the
>activity,

This type of after-hours behavior has provided support for many discrimination claims. Typically, they run along the lines of: "Susie got the promotion instead of me because I wouldn't go out and get drunk with the boss after work." There may not be any actual discrimination, but it's usually a difficult accusation to respond to. Of course, when it comes to light that shortly before her promotion Susie raised her top or sat on the boss' lap at one of these after-hours social gatherings, the company is in trouble.

Those of you who have been in this forum awhile know that I'm generally on the side of having a good time at work... damn the lawsuits, full speed ahead! But in this case, I think the potential legal issues give you the right to put the brakes on this activity.

Don D

You're correct. My comment should have been that "no employee has a right to bitch simply because he is excluded from the after work drinker". Didn't mean to imply that behaviors that result and rewards that follow would not be reason for a charge. The can be, as you say.

Mel in CO

Unfortunately, I think that there is no remedy in this situation as far as the organization is concerned however I will be interested in other's replies to this situation.

We actually had this issue with individuals in a FAC (Friday Afternoon Club). Only for a while was one of our supervisors involved in this FAC until they realized that it hurt their supervisory position. The individuals that participated in FAC viewed the supervisor as their friend, which created problems come disciplinary action time. Other individuals that were not involved in FAC felt "left-out" and as you had mentioned, felt that the others were being favored in the workplace. The supervisor in question became so frustrated that they finally stopped going to the FAC and realized that their life became easier because there was no complaining from either side. Sometimes supervisors just have to learn their lesions the hard way and the HR department usually is the one to guide them through these situations.

At my organization, we have a Business Ethics and Conduct policy that somewhat addresses this issue. My organization works primarily with public sector employees so we always must ensure that we are conducting ourselves in a professional manner. All of the employees at my organization understand this concept however my organization only employs 37 employees at the present time so it is not a large issue. We would hate to have one of our employees go out to dinner with a customer and get “sloshed” – not a very good image for the organization as a whole. Our only remedy would be if an employee acted inappropriate around customers and the customers subsequently left our business, we could reprimand the employee. However I don’t feel that we would have a lot of say in a situation between co-workers.

A bit of fear that you could possibly install in the supervisor is a story that I read a while back either on this web site or another HR web site. Please excuse me if I quote the story incorrect-it has been a while since I have read the story. It concerned a supervisor that went drinking with his/her employees and during the party, a fellow co-worker sexually assaulted another employee. The supervisor didn't know that anything happened (or that anyone of the individuals at the party was a risk) until a few days later. If I remember correctly, I think that the supervisor was held liable for monetary damages because he/she was holding a party for/with the employees and was in someway acting on behalf of the organization. Although I'm not a direct supervisor and only part of HR, this story has stuck with me and I pretty much just avoid these types of situations all together.

Sorry for the lengthy response. Good luck with this situation - it sounds like you have your hands full.

Crout

I agree completely with Don. Someone higher up than the Plant Manager and Plant Supervisor should sit them down and counsel them on the potential damage this behavior could cause to their own credability with the employees. I can empathize with them. Years ago, as part of a management team I was guilty of the same thing, and learned some very valuable lessons. It was fun, to be sure, but did nothing for my career. That aside, I would be equally concerned with having immediate family members working in such sensitive positions. I'm guessing that one does NOT report to the other, (that's the nightmare scenario). However, I think it would be fair to be concerned that their first loyalty would not lie with the company, but each other, and that could be a real conflict of interest.

March22Collector

>That aside, I would be equally concerned with having
>immediate family members working in such sensitive positions. I'm
>guessing that one does NOT report to the other, (that's the nightmare
>scenario). However, I think it would be fair to be concerned that
>their first loyalty would not lie with the company, but each other,
>and that could be a real conflict of interest.


Actually, the son reports to the mother. But, both have been with the company for years and are loyal employees. I'm planning on talking to my boss about this, and possible having a brief meeting with the Plant Manager. I know we cannot control the actions of employee's when they are not "on the clock" (wouldn't really want to), but I would like the Plant Manager to know what this can do to employee moral, etc. My concern is still the possibility that we will have employee's screaming unfair treatment. In our company we can move production employees around to different jobs to meet production needs, and I can just see one of the "outsiders" feeling like they were not moved to a specific job because they are not one of the "crowd". Oh boy. I appreciate the responses everyone has given. I think I'll get this taken care of before the week is over.

Mentel

I have had some experience with this type of incident. I am the HR Director and I would bring the Plant Manager in to my office and have a private, off-the-record talk (friend to friend) about how her behavior reflects on her career and the company. I would be very up front and tell the Plant Manager that her behavior could get her and the company in trouble legally. I would flat out tell her what the grapevine is saying and that she is losing all credibility with the staff. I would tell her that the next time I have to discuss this with her, she will be talking to the HR Director (official) and you don't want to do that. The HR Director is not a nice person! Of course, the President would be informed of this ahead of time but I know in our case, he would rather this came from me than him. I tend to have a pretty stong personality and that is all that is needed. I speak from experience. I have used this before and the employee is now one of our best!