Money Effects

I’m staying at my sweetie’s parent’s place right now (will write about that story in another posting), and one of the gifts in staying here is that they don’t have a television.  Instead, they read, and listen to the CBC radio, which remains on from morning til late night.  

Upon arising this morning, I was greeted with an interview on the radio of two people — one who work(ed) for a food supply company, and one who works for a hospital (as a janitor) in BC.  The story is around a rat infestation in both of those workplaces, and how it first came to light, how it progressed, what each of the interviewees roles was in that process (ie told their bosses right away, really cared about the workplace, etc).  One of the fellows (in the food supply company) was let go for his role in caring about the problem, and the other fellow was given a very difficult time, but recently received a letter saying they would not pursue the issue any further, and his job was safe.

When asked what the real issue was, the fellow from the food supply company stated it was the money factor — that it was a dollars and cents issue, and instead of spending $200 to fix the problem in it’s infancy, they only felt like investing $50 dollars, and it escalated to the point of tons of food being infested.  Hmmm….

And a lesson to all other staff from that management that if you “whistleblow” about a problem, you WILL lose your job.  The interviewees discussed the fear in the workplace, and that employees were too afraid to say anything, despite the consequences to the workplace and the impact on the consumer, as well as putting their own health at risk.  

Interesting…

To your prosperity,

Sue