Last week, the Agriculture Department recalled 143 million pounds of beef, the largest meat recall in its history. Prompting the recall was the release of a videotape revealing what the USDA called "egregious violations", according to a story in the Washington Post (USDA Orders Largest Meat Recall in U.S. History).
A) You shouldn't need a hidden camera to reveal what the common practices are at your company.
B) If employees at Hallmark Meat Packing had any faith in their employers, the videotape would have most likely been sent to upper management before the Humane Society.
According to the Washington Post story, Hallmark Meat Packing, a partner of Westland Meat, the distributor who was the subject of the recall, fired two workers as a result of the recall and videotape. As for firing managers, the Washington Post reported a company spokesperson for Hallmark Meat Packing as saying "senior management was not aware of the use of extreme measures to get sick cattle upright". Not aware? Really? If that's true, then here's my question: What's the use of senior manager? And what about low-tier managers? Why weren't any of them fired? This is a reprehensible situation that deserves scrutiny, not just from the FDA and animal welfare groups, but from labor groups and business professionals. Because as much as anything, it is a case of bad management.
Questions that need to be asked:
-One of the most disturbing incidents on videotape involves forklifts to
roll the animals. So how does an employee at a meat packing plant go
about obtaining a forklift and using it improperly? Did the individual
struggle with the idea of how to move a cow and then happen to glance
over at a vacant forklift in the corner? Or did one of the cow rangler
employees have to ask a trained forklift operator, if he wouldn't mind
taking time out from his job to use his forklift to roll some cattle?
-Where was the manager all this time, working remotely from home?
(I bet
they'd notice if someone were talking on the phone for too long,
taking an extra fifteen-minute lunch, or glancing up at the sky.)
-Is the public supposed to believe they were operating a well-regulated meat packing plant where proper designs and procedures are all in place and workers were sufficiently trained to work with cattle in a specified way, but a couple of disturbed individuals who don't like cows fell under the radar?
Most people, even strong men, aren't naturally inclined to mistreat animals unless they're so miserable and angry they just don't value life. And so there's every reason to question the environmental conditions and job circumstances at this slaughterhouse that certainly must have played a substantial role in influencing certain individuals to conduct their jobs with the level of insensitivity that they did.
Surely the workers themselves are as helpless as the animals in many ways, and perhaps, equally mistreated in many ways. While one may think it only logical to assume that a slaughterhouse is going to be an unpleasant place to work in, there are standards and practices that exist to humanize this type of work environment so that the overall health and well-being of laborers, and consequently the animals, are protected.
Incentive magazine, isn't just about motivating your employees to make millions for your company so that you can all fly out to a luxury hotel in Dubai and feel like a prince. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But there's a lot of wisdom in the countless books and studies on good management and employee motivation, health and safety that when applied can actually have a dramatic, positive, impact on the lives of millions of employees, and in the long run, the development of our society. We cover such information every month.
One of the most recurrent themes is good management and it involves much more than a bottom line. It involves respecting your employees, not disrespecting your employees, which means providing them the basics. With power and salary comes responsibility. Senior managers must be held accountable for what goes on at a company, business, and in this specific case, the inhumane conditions of a meatpacking mess.
Unfortunately this recent news item was not a fable, but nonetheless, it does have a moral. For employees, it's great to have a good manager who will oversee the workplace environment so that things do not degenerate into chaos, or worse yet dysfunction, or worse yet low morale, or worse yet misery, or worst of all subhujman conditions. But if you have a bad manager, well you'd better get yourself a new job, and possible, a hidden camera.
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