“
“Please Stop Working So Hard!”
Matt Platt is a recent university graduate, with little work experience and no previous management experience. Evan Saunders is a hard working employee who consistently goes above and beyond his job description, without being asked or compensated for it. While Matt does not want to punish Evan for being a good worker, it is causing some tension and morale issues among the shift employees. The company has developed a fragile and stressful work atmosphere causing the workers to complain.The employees have distrust, low morale and valid concerns about job safety; they are protesting that there is unequal treatment given to Saunders as they see him not following union mandated break times. Evan Saunders over enthusiastic work ethic has sparked sitewide layoffs; management is now beginning to expect the same dedication out of the other staff. They figure it takes fewer employees to do the same amount of work. The previous round of layoffs created a very tense and stressful environment among the employees. The real problem is an inefficient and misdirected leadership; Matt’s reliance on Saunders for guidance on day-to-day operations has caused an uneven distribution of objectivity.Matt is not taking control or dealing with the difficulties; he appears to be favouring Saunders above the other team members. Saunders also demonstrates inefficient leadership by missing mandatory meetings and by, not listening to his line operators. Matt must figure how to solve this issue in a manner that will consider all of the parties involved.
We believe that Matt should begin by changing his ethical conduct from a Self-Interest ethical stand to more of a Utilitarian ethics model. We feel that if the utilitarian approach had been adopted from the beginning there would be no current issues. The Self-Interest approach is defined as follows: “It is considered an easy way out and implies laziness because the person is relying on his or her own beliefs without a more complicated analysis.” (Sexty, p. 101)
Matt has never worked in this type of environment before and sees the situation through only his perspective and experiences, forcing him to rely on his beliefs and morals. He sees a helpful, dedicated employee that makes his life easier, what harm could that possibly do?
In order to resolve this issue, Matt must confront Saunders regarding the other workers complaints and concerns, without damaging their working relationship or diminishing Saunders’ morale. However, Saunders is not the only employee Matt is responsible for nor are his needs the only ones that need to be met here. Matt needs to approach Saunders about how his actions are causing the line operators to raise concerns regarding him continuously staying beyond his shift, and helping others without permission.
Matt and the company need to uphold the Union directives and regulations like breaks times, start and finishing times, and job duties and responsibilities. These should be adhered to, and non-negotiable. Matt must strive to build trust while respecting all employees; this will result in higher morale and will enable the make the business to become more efficient and profitable.
The following are our suggestions to Matt to re-instill team unity: 1. Ask the plant manager to move Saunders to a different shift or another area of the factory. 2. Suggest starting a group meeting with other team leaders/supervisors for open discussions on how to improve the relationships between the company and the workers. 3. Promote good leadership so it can encourage and generate real task behaviour, membership behaviour and citizenship behaviour in the company that can accomplish for employees to feel job satisfaction, motivation, and organisational identification. (Long, 2014) 4. Talk to other supervisors to gain much-needed knowledge on how to gain respect and get advice concerning the situation. 5. Learn new skills to be a more effective leader so the employees can feel more secured, can produce higher morale and form a balance between working hard and overstepping

In conclusion, Matt needs to become the leader he was hired for. As long as he puts Saunders up on a pedestal as his mentor, he will never be able to lead him efficiently and will always be unsure of his abilities. Matt is not the only problem in this scenario; it should be addressed to Saunders, that he needs to be more aware of how his actions affect other employees and the situation. Setting a good example means more than one person is doing all the work; it is also listening to the subordinates and working actively to resolve issues. Having the union agreement in place makes Matt’s job a bit easier as he can set union rules instead of employees perceiving personal attacks. Matt could also initiate a program to recognize employees like Sam Smith, offering to train him into a Team Leader since he is taking initiative to be involved with his co-workers. Team building exercises with the employees are always a good option.

Bibliography

Long, R. J. (2014). Strategic Compensation in Canada (Fifth Edition ed.). NelsonEduscation Series In Human Resources Management.
Please stop working so Hard! (2009). In F. C. Business, Workplace Issues and Ethics (p. 8 & 9). London, Ontario: Richard Ivey School of Business.
Sexty, R. W. (n.d.). Ethics, Responsibilities and Sustainability.