In: Operations Management
Case study: Danté
After months of searching for a weekend job, Danté, who is Black,
finally got an interview with the owner of a busy car wash and gas
station. The owner seemed reluctant to hire him, but Danté managed
to win him over. The owner gave him the job, saying that he would
be working on a weekend shift with seven other young men, all
students from the local area. The shift manager would train him on
the car wash equipment.
On Danté's first day, the shift manager gave him only a few minutes
of instruction on the equipment. Dante watched what the other men
were doing, but when he asked questions, they were not very
helpful.
Over the next few weekends, Danté concentrated on his work but
because of certain events, he increasingly began to stay by
himself. A few co-workers invited him to join their little group
for lunch or breaks, but others consistently cracked ethnic and
racial jokes, often within hearing of the shift manager. One day
Danté overheard the manager say that Black people were responsible
for increased violence in the community. This statement encouraged
some co-workers, who had previously eaten lunch with Danté, to tell
a couple of jokes about Black people. When they glanced at him as
they told their jokes, he got up and walked away.
One busy Saturday afternoon, a whole section of the car wash
equipment broke down because someone had allowed the system to
become overheated. Danté had worked on that section until his
break, when a co-worker took over. The system had broken down at
some point after that.
The shift manager was furious and accused Danté of negligence.
Danté replied that he believed the system was fine when he left for
his break. Although Danté insisted that the equipment failure was
not his fault, the shift manager fired him. Danté believed he was
discriminated against because he is Black, while his co-workers and
managers are White.
Group discussion questions:
1) Did the shift manager have a good reason for firing Danté?
Why?
2) What factors would a human rights tribunal take into
consideration?
3)The owner promised Danté he would be trained on the equipment by
the shift manager. Yet the manager only gave him a few minutes of
instruction. Why?
Answer 1
Yes, I think that the shift manager was having a good reason for
firing Dante because the whole section of car wash equipment had
broke down and it was overheated and Dante was working on it. Such
type of negligence cannot be avoided and strict actions must be
taken against search employees.
Answer 2
The factors which human right tribunal would taken into
consideration is that Dante was continuously exploited by his
coworkers who were making jokes about black people, which made him
angry and he walked away from them. He was not given a fair
treatment during his job. Such type of behavior towards a coworker
should never be tolerated by the Tribunal and strict action must be
taken against those employees who exploited Dante.
Answer 3
The manager gave him only a few minutes of instruction because he
was a black and he was continuously exploited by his fellow
workers. who made jokes on black people and did not treat him
equally. The manager was biased on his behavior towards black
people and that is the reason why most of the people in the company
where not behaving with him in a good way.
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