It is hard to imagine a 300 pound NFL lineman being harassed by anything – or anyone. However, a story reported by Mike Garafalo of Fox Sports (November 4, 2013) shows that even in the often brutal world of professional sports, organizations have the ability to take an ethical stance – and make it stick.
At issue is Jonathan Martin, a player for the Miami Dolphins, who underwent a long period of harassment and bullying by several players on the team but led by Richie Incognito a lineman on the team.
Football, of course, has a long tradition of hazing incoming rookies. It is a rite of passage and it is expected. It is not unusual that in training camp, rookies are required to pick up the tab for dinners, but among other things, in his second year Martin was “presented” with a $15,000 tab for a lavish meal in Las Vegas he didn’t even attend! He paid the tab, because he was afraid of more harassment.
The harassment of Martin wasn’t limited to meals; it permeated the locker room and was led by Incognito. As harassment always evolves in any workplace, the kidding and idiotic behavior was ratcheted into bullying and developed into “tweets” and finally into a voicemail containing racial and threatening overtones.
Martin turned over the voicemail to the Dolphins front office and Incognito has been indefinitely suspended.
Ethical good guy award
The Dolphins aren’t looking for kudos and in fact, the incident of a player being harassed, bullied and ultimately receiving racist threats is an embarrassment to the organization. At some point the team had to decide on whether to look the other way or to do the ethical thing and send a message to the team and to the league that this would not be tolerated.
Let’s get completely away from football for a second, and indeed, let’s completely turn the tables.
Imagine a person who has been given permission to transfer from one department to another within a large advertising agency. She is 49 years old and has been working in the agency for three years. She joins a creative team that is led by a rising star; a 26 year old woman who has been promoted twice in the past year. Clients love her and she has received many industry awards.
The new woman works very hard, and her advertising copy and work habits have been exemplary. Yet, there is something about the woman that her boss (the rising star) just doesn’t like. The woman often feels isolated and derided. In addition, there have been “joking” comments surrounding the woman’s Asian heritage.
Finally, and quite by accident, the woman overhears her boss making more pointed racist and ageist remarks to another team member. The “transfer” is certain another co-worker has overheard the racial and age comments as well.
She comes to you to ask your opinion, and you are a manager in the Human Resources department. What would you do?
Would you do the ethical thing?
If you did your due diligence and it was determined that the “rising star” did, in fact, make insensitive remarks, how would you handle the situation? Is it any different from what the Miami Dolphins were forced to do? Richie Incognito is a proven commodity. Yet, he is also expendable.
So is the rising star.
There are “sharks” within many workplaces. Bullies and sharks emerge because they are given the opportunity to thrive. They thrive because ethical boundaries have not been defined. Whether the rising star had a problem with the new employee’s age or the fact that she was Asian in heritage (or both), it has absolutely no place within the organization.
It is well and good to say that Jonathan Martin could have assaulted Richie Incognito and ended it then and there. Maybe some might feel that the older, new transfer should have confronted the rising star, but bullying and harassment are highly difficult to overcome. There is a lot of fear involved.
In truth, Incognito needed to be a man and the rising star needed to keep her racism and ageism to herself. In both cases the companies (and a sports team is a company), needed to establish firm ethical guidelines such that the employees were aware of the consequences.
I would have fired or demoted the rising star in a heartbeat. As for Incognito, he needs to grow up and look for a new line of work as well. There is, in addition, one more element.
Incognito’s teammates and the rising star’s team need immediate ethical training. It is not an option. It is not a joke. Unless there are consequences, the behavior would repeat itself again and again.