Section B
Issue 3: Perils of part-time employment

Case Study: Train the Trainable

Sally had made several attempts to bring the factory floor staff, who worked a mix of full time and part time arrangements, together to do the OH & S and Bullying training. In the end she arranged 4 sessions and notified part time staff who weren’t rostered on to work for any of the 4 sessions that they would have to select one of the given times, and claim overtime. One manager who had three staff who fell into this category contacted Sally asking her to have the consultant run a fifth session to accommodate his staff. The answer was no – not possible – to which the Manager replied that he wasn’t paying overtime for them to be trained out of normal hours. Sally had no further access to the external trainer and no extra budget. The Manager wouldn’t budge on principle and in the end the 3 female staff missed out.

Sally also found herself dealing with some hick-ups related to the Sales Reward Development Weekend that month. Offered to the top sales staff, based on their figures over the past 6 months, the weekend away with their respective partners was at company expense. The hick-up emerged when Gabbie Mosset asked if the company could ensure that there was a cot for her 14 month old baby at the resort. Ian told Sally to inform Gabbie that the company was only receptive to new born babies accompanying their parents. “That means dependant breastfeeding babies, not toddlers.” Sally having fed her own son for 14 months took a stand and refused to make the call. Frustrated Ian emailed a response that summed up his views on the matter and concluded that the answer was ‘no’ to the cot. Gabbie filed the email with her copy of the company’s work-family friendly policy, and said she wouldn’t attend.

Sally felt something was brewing. A few months ago when the Gold Day Awards for all sales staff were planned, there’d also been an issue. The Awards comprised a mystery schedule for the entire sales team who had to be on the company bus by 7.15 am. Gabbie’s crèche didn’t open until 7.30 am so she asked where the bus would end up noting she’d drive there after her child care drop off. The manager arranging the exercise flatly refused to disclose the destination. In the end Ian was told by the Manager that Gabbie had a black mark against her name as this was a compulsory team building sales exercise. Gabbie went to work and worked on the Awards day. The incident was raised in her performance review a month later and the specific comments made were critical of her lack of team spirit and her degree of willingness to go that little bit extra for the good of the group. She raised the matter with Sally and noted that she has asked herself “where to from here ? I refuse to be treated like this – it’s family friendly on the terms that don’t reflect reality”

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