Chapter 1. Dealing with Workplace Abuse

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Dealing with Workplace Abuse

Activity Objective:

In this activity, you will create your own solution to a difficult relationship problem. You will walk step-by-step through a realistic scenario—critically self-reflecting, considering another person’s perspective, determining best outcomes, and identifying potential roadblocks—and make decisions about how to react.

Workplace relationships and interactions always provide unanticipated challenges. But when supervisors abuse your trust in ways that are difficult to forgive, you must choose between maintaining peer friendships or preserving your own sense of honor. To consider how you might deal with such a situation, read the case study in Part 2; then, drawing on all you know about interpersonal communication, work through the problem-solving model in Part 3.

You take a job delivering pizzas to help pay for school. The restaurant has a supportive climate—workers are friendly and open. The delivery drivers in particular have a tight clique that they welcome you into, and you quickly become friends with several of them.

The only exception to the warmth of your new workplace is the manager, Elizabeth. She is controlling, manipulative, and dogmatic, and tries to run the restaurant “by the book.” The drivers warn you to watch out for her, telling you, “She’s really screwed people over before.” But you get along with her pretty well because of your exemplary work performance and positive attitude.

The most important workplace rule for drivers is to never leave your money pouch unattended. The money pouch is the zippered bag into which you put all cash from sales. For safety’s sake, drivers are supposed to deposit cash after every delivery run, but when things get hectic, drivers often forget—resulting in accumulated cash in the pouches.

One night you’re on a run, but when a customer pays you, you discover you’re missing your pouch. You hadn’t deposited your money all night, and there was over $300 in it. Arriving back at the store, you tell Elizabeth, and she says, “If it’s lost, company policy requires that you cover the missing money from your next paycheck!” This means you’re not going to be able to afford next month’s rent, much less food and gas! You tear your car and the restaurant apart looking for the pouch, and soon the other drivers are helping you search, offering their support and sympathies. But to no avail: after an hour, the pouch is still missing. Sitting in despair, you begin to cry. Just then, Elizabeth walks up, and with a smirk, hands you your pouch. “You left it unattended on the delivery table earlier, so I hid it, to teach you a lesson!” You’re stunned, humiliated, and furious! After months of exemplary work performance, why would she abuse you like that? Your first instinct is to quit in protest, even though you can’t afford it. But quitting would hurt the other drivers—who would have to scramble to cover your shifts—and jeopardize your friendships with them.

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Think about all you’ve learned thus far about interpersonal communication. Then work through the following five steps. Remember, there are no “right” answers, so think hard about what is the best choice!

Question

Visit LaunchPad to watch a video in which Elizabeth tells her side of the case study story. As in many real-life situations, this is information to which you did not have access when you were initially crafting your response in Part 3. The video reminds us that even when we do our best to offer competent responses, there is always another side to the story that we need to consider.

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Think about the new information offered in Elizabeth’s side of the story and all you’ve learned about interpersonal communication. Drawing upon this knowledge, revisit your earlier responses in Part 3 and assess your own interpersonal communication competence.

Question

Step 2: Evaluate Effectiveness

Being an effective interpersonal communicator means using your communication to accomplish self-presentational, instrumental, and relational goals. Rate your effectiveness on a scale of 1 to 7, where “1” is least effective and “7” is most effective.

Step 3: Evaluate Ethics

Being an ethical communicator means treating others with respect, honesty, and kindness. Rate your ethics on a scale of 1 to 7, where “1” is least ethical and “7” is most ethical.

Step 4: What Would You Do Differently?