The Price of Honesty -- is it too costly?

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I don't know what will happen to Howard Jordan or Andres Reyes. There is always a psychological contract with employees. Most of them have strong opinions. When you get employees who have a lot of expertise in their fields and they come forward with something they consider valid enough to complain about and then they are treated with contempt or disdain and now termination, then management has violated that unwritten contract with them.

When I was working and had a problem, there was no one to complain to. Even in one of my first positions when an incident came up, I put it in writing and gave it to the boss. It was then on his conscience to deal with it in the manner he felt best. You instinctively know the art of survival and don't cause waves. It was either think it through, put up with it or find another job. My bosses through the years never presumed to know more than I did about my job. Perhaps I was lucky. This sort of decision should no longer be in the workplace--shut up or leave. Employees need to feel empowered; they need to feel relevant and not made to feel like another Joe Schmo, particularly when it comes to what they are convinced to be a Homeland Security issue. What could be worse?

I am rather sure that neither one of these employees would have come forward if their supervisors had given them the attention and applied urgency to their concerns that they believed necessary. Perhaps it was given but they were not aware; they got no satisfaction. They, without a doubt, were offended that what they considered a breach of security was treated so lightly and that they were dismissed as meddlers and thorns in the side of management. They have been trained to be aware of unusual happenings and unauthorized access to computers. They knew it could be extremely serious. What they didn't know was all the trouble they would be in for reporting it.

Employees need to know that what they say to management will be acted upon, investigated and a result or solution found. They should never have a fear of being fired or have a fear of being belittled. Not being privy to what happened, sitting down and discussing it would have done wonders. Instead it was left to fester until it got out of hand.

Susan Stanton is now considering an Employee Review Board and this is a positive step to retain highly qualified, professional staff. We all need to be treated fairly and held in high regard by our employer. When we are not, it is human nature to say or do something stupid. No one should end up paying the ultimate price for being honest.

So, to the bully kid in the sandbox, that's my spin on the situation. I have no idea if access to our computers on two occasions was dangerous or not. The real problem is that employees were not taken seriously who thought it might be and who had the good sense to report it. The Mayor would not agree with me, but there should be a better process for employees to report incidents without reprimand and I would like to feel certain that all our employees are treated with respect, whether management feels it deserved or not. That is why they are supervisors to begin with...to deal with these matters in a professional and respectful way.

Our City Manager knows first-hand what it feels like.