Touching People's Lives by Losey Michael

Author:Losey, Michael
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Society For Human Resource Management
Published: 2017-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

Ollie’s Holiday Pay—A Second Chance!

Shortly after Frank, my boss, and I discussed Ollie’s situation, Frank told me that Bob wanted to introduce me to some of his peers, the other vice presidents. Frank and I went down to Bob’s office at the New Holland headquarters. Once there, Bob separately invited the various officers of the company into his office and introduced me to each one.

Then he invited in J. Paul Lyet, the chief financial officer of our division, who would later become the chairman of Sperry Corporation. He was one of the most respected management representatives in our division. Lyet walked into Bob’s office rather aggressively, shook my hand, and then immediately—and I mean immediately—asked, “If you could change one of our employee policies, what would it be?”

All I could think of was the stupid policy that would not permit Ollie to be paid his holiday pay.

I was very surprised by the question. With my boss and Ressler there, I tried to finesse the situation by reminding him I was new to the company. I told him I looked forward to “reviewing the employee-related policies and making recommendations at a later date.”

Lyet acknowledged that I had been there only several weeks but asked again if I had even an early feeling or opinion about New Holland’s people approach. I looked at Bob who, with squinted eyes, was also looking directly at me, wondering what I might say. I looked at Frank, my boss, who I suspect was even more worried about what I might say and if Bob would approve.

But then I thought the HR God had brought Lyet and his question into this meeting for a purpose.

I started to make my case about Ollie and how New Holland’s holiday pay policy was inappropriate and should be changed. In rapid fire, I shared all of my arguments:

A New Holland employee attending a qualifying family member’s funeral is covered by a separate, rather flexible and generous, funeral leave policy, which provides for a reasonable, not specified, amount of excused paid absence to arrange and attend the funeral.

I told him how Ollie had been denied his Labor Day holiday pay because he was on funeral leave the next day to attend his mother’s funeral—an excused, paid absence.

I emphasized that I knew of no other company that would do this.

I added that if New Holland had a union, there would be no way the company could defend a union challenge on this practice. I added, “If you want a union, just keep up this type of practice.”

I added that Ollie was going to work at the company for many more years. I asked if it was worth applying this aggressive interpretation of the policy only to have each anniversary of his mother’s death remind him of how the company treated him.

I suggested there was a good chance this type of policy could have a significant negative impact on other employees’ opinions about the company, possibly affecting their dedication to quality and productivity.

I concluded

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