Compliance Corner – Issue 3.12
Burger Joint Bravery: Teaching employees to say something when they see something
Question: If you were in a restaurant and you looked over to see that another customer standing nearby resembled the FBI’s most wanted fugitive, would you do something? What if you knew that the fugitive was wanted for murder and was likely “armed and dangerous”?
Next Question: If you observed misconduct in the workplace, would you do something? What if you believed that doing so would be dangerous (because the chances that you might suffer some professional setback, through retaliation, were high)?
While the leap from the first question to the second may seem like a big one, it’s a leap that was recently made by Pat Harned after reading a New York Times article about the capture of murder suspect Luigi Mangione. Harned, the CEO of the Ethics and Compliance Initiative and a thought leader in the ethics and compliance space, saw enough similarity between the two situations that she recently wrote about it in a LinkedIn post. Harned focused on the people who spoke up – the two customers who spotted the fugitive and the employee they told and who, ultimately, called the police. She wanted to know more about the conditions under which these people were able to take action, and what had prepared them for this moment. Harned asked some compelling questions :
- Did it make a difference that the customers and the employee had each other to consult as to what they should do?
- Did it somehow help the customers to raise their suspicion to the employee, rather than just call 911?
- Did the employee have some previous exposure to messaging from McDonald’s management about the importance of reporting, enough to know that it is important to do even if one isn’t sure of all the facts?
These questions have relevance for those of us in ethics and compliance (E&C) training and communications, specifically around psychological safety and knowing when and how to report.
Telling Someone Else
Psychological Safety is “a shared belief…that it’s OK to take risks, to express…ideas and concerns, to speak up with questions, and to admit mistakes — all without fear of negative consequences.” While the customers didn’t know the employee, they decided to risk sharing their suspicions with them. Some have asked why the customers didn’t step outside and dial 911 themselves. Was there something about safety in numbers that made it easier to speak up? Probably not. What we know about the bystander effect* would make this seem implausible.
I think the customers knew that sometimes, when we tell someone else what we’re thinking, it validates our thoughts. It’s possible that when the customers spotted Mangione, they wanted to get a second (or here, a third) opinion. When the employee agreed that there was a strong enough resemblance between Mangione and the pictures they’d seen on the news, it validated their desire to report it.
If we make the leap from the McDonald’s to the workplace, have you encouraged your employees to tell someone else about something they’ve seen, even when they’re not ready to make an official report? Teaching them to do this can help them vet or validate their concerns. It can also make them feel supported in stepping forward, and it can give them practice in explaining what they’ve witnessed or experienced. And, if the employee decides not to report what they’ve seen, the person they shared their concerns with can report it. (In fact, if the incident in question involves misconduct, both employees would be obligated to report it under the Duty to Report and Protection from Retaliation policy).
Taking Action
When the customers told the employee that they believed the fugitive was in the McDonald’s, the employee called 911. We don’t know what that looked like – whether they went into the back and used their cell phone, or asked a manager to borrow the phone in the office. Either way, they took action to report the potentially dangerous situation.
If you’re a manager, how have you communicated to your employees what they should do in a crisis? While they are required to take Safety Awareness Training during new employee orientation, have you made that a part of your discussion lately? Do you feel confident that your employees would know what to do?
And when was the last time you spoke with them about speaking up? Though they learned about the VCU Helpline during onboarding and annual training, have you talked about how to do it as a team? Doing this not only ensures that employees know how to respond when something needs to be reported; it normalizes it. For resources on what happens when you call the Helpline, see the Helpline section of the ICO’s Resource Library.
Thankfully, the fugitive Mangione was apprehended as a result of the actions of three people at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. Most of us won’t ever experience a moment when the stakes are as high as they were on that day. But all of us have some stakes in our places of work. By telling someone and taking action, we can keep risks to a minimum.
*A phenomenon in which people fail to offer needed help in emergencies, especially when other people are present, because they assume others will take action. (https://dictionary.apa.org/bystander-effect)
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