Aunt Nell was furious with you. Over the objections of the board you went ahead and commissioned a new program to implement political correctness. After spending almost half a million dollars on your plan, the new employee job satisfaction surveys have come in. Good Lord! Aunt Nell pointed out that despite the money spent productivity is no higher and surprisingly, employee satisfaction is flat in some areas and down significantly in others. “All you’ve done is introduce our employees to tyranny cloaked in the appearance of manners,” she pointed out. When you stated that we’re now in the 21st century and political correctness was the dominant approach, meaning the company had to consider the feelings of people, she slammed her hand on your desk. “You’ve forgotten our history,” she said in a frosty tone of voice. “You’ve just told me that treating people with dignity and respect is obsolete. When your grandparents started this company people were hired on the basis of their qualifications. We didn’t care about their race, sex, color or creed and we still don’t. We don’t even care what they do in the privacy of their own homes as long as it’s not illegal. What matters is that we created and maintain a business where people feel valued for their contributions. You’ve created an atmosphere where people can’t even talk with one another about issues or behaviors, for fear of being labeled a racist, bigot, sexist or whatever.” She got up to leave. “Since when have the demands of a vocal tyrannical minority been more important than treating everyone with dignity and respect? All of our employees matter, not just those who want to promote their own agenda. Give me one concrete example where your political correctness has built a cooperative sense of belonging to a team that truly values you as an individual. You need to take a good hard look at what you’ve done to this company. More importantly, take a hard look at the message you’ve sent our employees. You don’t listen to what our employees have to say. Instead, you hide behind some fad set of policies. You think I’m a meddler because I frequently visit with our employees. What’s the name of the foreman in our Branch #2? How’s his wife doing after her surgery?” Aunt Nell walked to the door. “We don’t need your political correctness. We need to continue to treasure our employees because at the end of the day, they’re the foundation of our success.”
