A Kemptville, Ontario, Walmart employee
was fired after urging at a customer to not leave his dog in his car while he
shopped. The story quickly grew legs and amounts to yet another PR black eye
for the company.
Walmart had enjoyed a wave of decent PR
for a while, but now it finds itself back in a defensive posture–both because
of this incident and also for other employee-relations horror stories that play
to a now-familiar narrative. In fact, it’s hard to stay on top of all the
negative stories about the big-box retailer. However, this particular story
might have been avoided had the company weighed its options more carefully and
recognized the value of quality employee-relations.
The lesson for PR pros is to think
ahead. That may seem to be a simple notion, but when you dive into Wal-Mart’s
handling of the situation, it seems clear that management responded in a
knee-jerk fashion.
The employee admits that she directly
addressed the customer who allegedly left his dog in the car. She also
indicates that the customer responded with anger and claimed that he would not
shop at the store again. Later that day the she was called into her manager’s office
and told that such issues should be taken up with him directly. Unsatisfied
with this solution, she instead declared that the next time she would contact
the police. Following that statement, she alleges, she was terminated.
The manager was correct to ask his
employee to openly communicate troublesome situations with management, and to
avoid confronting the company’s stakeholders directly. Where he arguably went
wrong was in terminating an employee who was acting on a humane impulse—rather
than exploring alternative solutions or council from human resources. Not only
that, but the manager’s decision to let his employee go helps reaffirm a
popular narrative that Walmart cares considerably more about its bottom line
than its employees.
Walmart (and others) should consider ahead of time how actions can impact reputation. And that goes for a company's entire personnel—from a store greeter all the way up to the CEO.
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