Reply to peers

Post 1

You see a coworker harassing another employee, or a supervisor harassing or bullying a subordinate – What Would You Do?

I have been put in this position numerous times and from my experiences, I would first pull my coworker that’s being bullied aside. I would let them know that I am on their side and that the bully is not in the right, I would help make them feel better in that moment and encourage them to stand up for themselves. If nothing changes and the bullying continues I would step in and let the bully know that what they are doing is not right and they are being rude. This either causes them to feel embarrassed and stop or causes them to get defensive. If the person turns defensive and aggressive, I will have to involve management. This would be an example of my values, something chapter 1 goes over (Kinicki).

A coworker is consistently late and you know it is because of their home situation, however, they continue to slide into work unnoticed. Do you say something or not?

I would not get involved in this situation. Everyone goes through troubles in life and it is understandable. However, I can see problems arising from this, and might cause other employees to slack as well. It might also create an animosity between coworkers. If this coworker was my friend I would communicate with them and advise them to let managers know about what was going on.

You are in a group setting and everyone is asked to give a verbal vote or show of hands. You do not agree, but you do not want to be the only one to disagree. Do you go along or not?

I would like to show my disagreement with confidence however I think the safer option would be to not go along and suggest a more anonymous vote. This would avoid any discouragement or hesitation from anyone in the group.

Post 2

In order to succeed in the workplace everyone must work together and partake in group activities to reach the overall common goal. Employees must put aside their personal differences and see their coworkers as collaborative individuals. With that being said if a coworker was to harass another employee you should feel the need to speak up and bring this to the attention of HR. It doesn’t matter if that employee is your friend at the end of the day this is a business and its part of your ethical responsibility to make things right. If it is a supervisor harassing a subordinate this is an example of exploitation of power and needs to be handled correctly.

A coworker that is constantly late to work due to their home situation is an example of a situational factor that can we worked around. The textbook states that “Situation factors are all the elements outside us that influence what we do, the way we do it, and the ultimate results of our actions” (Kinicki, n.d.). This should be brought to managements attention so that they can find a way to work this out. In this case managers need to be understanding and try to find a compromise with their subordinate. As long as the employee is able to come into work late and not disrupt the workflow this should be ok.

Being in a group setting where one must share their view point can be scary especially when everyone sides against you. It is important for the work environment to encourage people to speech out on their opinions. If one person disagrees with a crowd it can be intimidating, but that person can bring up valid points in reference to the topic that may cause others to end up agreeing with them. If that one person doesn’t speak out once the changes get rolled out there will probably be many more that also disagree. Problems like these can be resolved easily with the proper work environments.