The Ethical Barometer

MF Global’s global treasurer, Vinay Mahajan,  to the company’s CFO and another employee, referring to CEO Jon Corzine.  At the time, MF Global was dealing with a meltdown — the lack of cash and the reality that employees were transferring  funds from client accounts, funds that were to be segregated — a big no-no even in the wilds of Wall Street. Mr. Corzine and another executive, Edith O’Brien, have been sued civilly by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission for their roles in the funds transfers.

The Chinese know how to handle labor disputes.  The co-founder/co-owner of Specialty Medical Supplies, Chip Starnes, has been locked in his office at the company’s Beijing plant since Friday (that’s four days) by plant workers who are upset because they want severance packages.

The facility has been there for 10 years, but the company is moving production to Mumbai. Mr. Starnes says that he is not closing the Beijing facilities and the workers have misunderstood his intentions.  However, he has still not been permitted to leave.  The Chinese government brings in three meals per day, and one of the plant employees brought Mr. Starnes a cot so that he did not have to sleep on the floor.  Now that’s showing the boss who is boss.

The U.S. Embassy cannot get involved because this is a civil labor dispute.  Mr. Starnes is only imprisoned by his employees.The situation is a reminder for companies to proceed with caution, compassion, and care when using international production facilities.  Labor disputes are handled differently, but pink slips always generate wrath.  Who would have thought the Chinese would make the case for social responsibility in plants and pay and all matters labor.  The Barometer wonders how the NLRB would handle it if a GM plant manager were locked into an office at a closed Volt facility.

Mr. Gandolfini’s untimely death is sad, and he certainly brought the world a memorable character.  However, from the Wall Street Journal to USA Today to every corner of the Huffington Post world, the lionization of James/Tony is approaching that afforded Steve Jobs.  The flags are at half-staff in New Jersey.  Government buildings honoring a man whose fame was as a gangster? The Sopranos flummoxed the Barometer — bad language, violence, and an overdone theme.  In a column when the series was running on HBO, the Barometer’s thoughts:

“Is it satire?  Is it soap opera?  Is it parody? Is it made-for-TV drama?  The deadpan psychiatrist who treats Mr. Soprano has me perplexed – is she just a bad actress or is this the way psychoanalysis goes?  If so, I’ve changed my opinion on therapy –
just the laughs from your analysts would be worth the hourly rate.  Edie Soprano, in the one episode I endured, fretted over sending her son to a military school where he would have exposure to guns.  Brass knuckles, switchblades Continue reading →

James “Whitey” Bulger, 83, is on trial for 32 charges, including 19 murders.  The defendants in criminal trials are bad, but the witnesses are worse.   John Martorano, aka “The Executioner” or “The Enforcer,” has testified that he was Mr. Bulger’s Boston underworld go-to guy when it came to murder.  He has confessed to 20 murders, and he can list and describe them, and attribute many of them to Whitey’s orders,  but he wants us to know the following:

(1) He has never been an FBI informant because his father and the nuns at his school taught him that “Judas was the worst person in the world;” and Continue reading →

Beyond.com, in a survey of 6,361 HR professionals and job-seekers released , has produced some insights into the generational disconnect in the workplace.  As you look at these numbers, understand this – someone’s perceptions are wrong. Someone could use a little coaching.  All the data are funny in their contrasts.  The Barometer has not seen this kind of split in data since 56% of high-school students confessed to cheating at school, but 93% felt their ethical standards were high.

CHARACTERISTIC               HOW MILLENNIALS DESCRIBE     HOW HR

THEMSELVES                                       PROFESSIONALS

DESCRIBE

MILLENNIALS
People-Savvy                          65%                                                                 14%
Tech-Savvy                             35%                                                                 86%

Loyal
to employers                           82%                                                                   1%

Fun-loving                              14%                                                                 39%

Hard working                          86%                                                                 11%

There is a storm brewing in Virginia because the top two officials in the state fell victim to a disease that seems to befall most elected officials:  Vacationitis.  Vacationitis is not what we, the plebeian masses experience, to wit, “I really need a vacation.”  Nay, nay, vacationitis is a disease of the elected class.  They want a vacation, but need to have someone else pay for it. Or they use someone else’s house.  Or they ride on someone else’s jet to get there.  And once there, they float on
someone else’s boat and have dinners at someone else’s house.  The Clintons used a friend’s house at Martha ‘s Vineyard and had the late Walter Cronkite take them out on his boat.  The Obamas also frequent the Vineyard in someone else’s house.

Enter Virginia’s attorney general and would-be governor, Ken Cuccinelli.  Businessman and political donor, Jonnie R. Williams, let Mr. Cuccinelli use a vacation home on Smith Mountain Lake near Roanoke and paid for a $1,500 Thanksgiving dinner.  Buy your own turkey! The information comes to us Continue reading →

Trust in government means that we all feel that we have a fair shake.  That is, everyone lives by the rules. Some contractors are not exempt from permits, inspections, and fees while others slide through without that extra cost and the burdens of, oh, safety.  Likewise, getting a license, corporate status, or tax approval is the same process for everyone.  Some are not permitted to ease right through while others are subjected to rigorous and delaying reviews.  Equal application of government processes, procedures, and regulations is what distinguishes countries with economic development from  those that never seem to get the wheels turning.

The Barometer has heard this equality of application described as the bucket phenomenon in other countries.  We are all together in the bottom of the bucket trying to rise to the top.  The climb is difficult, but we all make it out the same way — through hard work and determination.  However, in some countries, there who are those at the top of the bucket and those climbing ahead of us Continue reading →

Now there’s a headline.  Here’s the bottom line:  An engineer for a contractor working on nuclear plants for the TVA falsified safety (think injury) data at the sites. He lied, as the court concluded based on both e-mail evidence (the engineer’s own words condemned him) and interviews with employees who said that they were denied or received delayed medical treatment in order to keep the number of injuries down. The Barimeter envisions the engineer saying, “Just go sit over there and be quiet until we submit the quarterly safety numbers.  Then we will get you some treatment.”

Stone & Webster (a subsidiary of Shaw) had a contract with TVA for maintenance and modification Continue reading →

By his own website, Nick Leeson calls himself “the original rogue trader,” and indeed he was.  Mr. Leeson was the trader at Barings Bank who bet wrong on Japan and lost $1.3 billion.  Today, given the $6 to $8 billion that Chase lost to the London Whale’s trading activities, it seems like small potatoes.  Nonetheless, Barings was sold to a Dutch banking company for one pound.  Mr. Leeson’s new job is with GDP Partnership and involves helping borrowers renegotiate their mortgage loans with lenders.  Out of prison since 1999 (after serving about one-half of his 6.5 years), Mr. Leeson has been working as the bookkeeper for Galway United Football Club, an Irish soccer team.  Mr. Leeson secured that job in 2005, and has been working to rebuild his life.  We wish him well, but hope for the sale of this financial firm and his clients that his self-proclaimed reform is real. When we have to mete out disciplinary actions, whether through terminations at work or criminal charges for conduct engaged in at work, we hope the individuals punished do indeed learn through their periods of confinement and then restructuring their lives.  We want to forgive, but the question is, “Did this guy forget about doing what he did or is that still within him?”  We may not know until the temptation causes the rogue to yield to temptation.