We have probably all seen or heard about the unfortunate rants by Ben Polis, disgraced (now former) CEO of EnergyWatch who’s confessed racist vitriol on Facebook cost his company its sponsorship deals with Melbourne Football Club and Melbourne Victory. Interesting about this scandal connected with sport is that the sponsor created the furore, not the footy club and it was … Read More
There must be a collective conscience about Kony
Unless you’ve been marooned on a desert island you will have heard about the extraordinary documentary made by the film maker Jason Russell and the Invisible Children movement about the ruthless warlord Joseph Kony in Uganda. In a half hour documentary on YouTube, Kony is accused of capturing and brainwashing thousands of child soldiers, many of whom have then reportedly mutilated … Read More
Losing the plot by victimising the victim
Very serious allegations against a Flight Centre Store Manager in today’s Age. The manager is alleged to have engaged in “relentless” mistreatment of an employee and then reportedly victimised the top performing assistant manager for ‘calling’ such behaviour. Executive teams and HR Departments never look for such situations to deal with but deal with them emphatically they must. A tragedy … Read More
Slamming Tennis Prize Money and other EEO Matters
I admit it. I’m ambivalent. In the wake of a history-making men’s final of the Australian Open the debate over prize money predictably reared its head again yesterday in the media. The breakdown in the Herald Sun of how much the women’s and men’s winner won for each minute on court was absurd when you consider that each respectively was … Read More
Perhaps not coincidentally, I have been doing a lot of EEO training in the past few weeks. In some cases, clients and I did this work one or two years ago and they wanted an organisation-wide refresher. In other cases, they want to promote awareness in the wake of recent events or in anticipation of end of year functions. Working … Read More
When the Hunt Becomes the Hunted
Many people would have heard about the furore created when the former girlfriend of Geelong footballer Josh Hunt ‘flamed’ him this week in an email that subsequently went around the country. Notwithstanding my passion for the game itself, the ins and outs of footballer relationships don’t interest me all that much. However there are parallels for my clients, and hence … Read More
The Race that Stops (some of) a Nation
Many of us saw the business survey last week that said Aussies work long hours to the detriment of work-life balance, quality of relationships and health, yet productivity is low. We are a bunch of ‘hard- working’ (read as ‘long working’) time wasters. Think of all the meetings we attend that people freely admit produce poor outcomes! We also blog about … Read More
Employers and Unions- Neither has exclusivity on ethical behaviour
The blogosphere is pulsating with commentary about the Health Services Union and whether or not Federal MP Craig Thomson has or hasn’t done anything wrong. Workers have told me today how they feel about big business and the growing divide between those who have billions and those who belong to the poor working class or worse, tragically and unnacceptably, live in … Read More
Different events, same feelings
On the anniversary of 9/11 there have been lots of experts and lay people talking poignantly about the painful and traumatic memory of past events. It is well known in the profession of psychology how hard it is for those who’ve suffered acute loss around the time of anniversaries and big occasions. At a time when I am working with many clients … Read More
Child sexploitation, maybe. Media misconduct, that’s a definite!
I’ve raised four of them but I’ve not worked with kids except a short stint teaching Life Skills and I’m still recovering. I was disturbed to read about the Northcote Beauty Pageant and the fascination many children had, not just for the pageant, but for their North American six year old “idol”, Eden Wood. Her mother cancelled Eden’s appearance two days … Read More