Ops #1 - Prisoner returns with a message

I was swapping management stories with a friend the other day and after about the fourth one she suggested I include them in my blog. She said "you have a hundred of these stories and other people would enjoy hearing them, especially if they illustrate a point you are making in another posting". So here is the first one. I don't think it illustrates any particular point, but it is kind of amusing. Yes, each story related actually happened and is accurate as best I can remember.



A Visit from the Big House
Image source:lookingglassfancydress.co.uk

It is not unusual in this particular town in the south for many family members to be working at the same factory. The factory where I was working, recruited from San Francisco to be the GM, was no different. We had several father/son combination employees. In one case there were three generations represented. The family at the heart of this incident had the father and two sons working at the plant. Although good people, they were big and rough. Mountain men comes to mind and not to be trifled with, if you wanted to stay healthy. The younger brother, let’s call him Buck (not his real name), was about 6’-5” and about 200 lbs. Pretty lanky, but strong. His older brother was a little taller and weighed about 300 lbs. Buck was quiet and hard working and living with a young woman who also worked in the plant. She was about 5 feet tall and weighed about 90 lbs. They were raising her young daughter from a previous relationship.

It turns out that the previous relationship of the woman ended because her man was sent to prison. I never learned the offense, but he was there at least two years. On the day he got out of prison, he showed up at the plant and gave the receptionist a box about the size of a shoe box and asked her to give it to Buck. Then he simply left. The receptionist dutifully walked out to the shop floor on her break and gave the box to Buck.

Inside the box was a single sheet of paper and what looked to be a couple hundred letters in envelopes. The single piece of paper said “I don’t want this bitch. Keep her away from me, she’s yours”. Buck then started to read a few of the letters and quickly realized that his girlfriend had been writing her ex-boyfriend in prison on an almost daily basis. The gist of the letters was that she couldn’t wait for him to come home and the only reason she was with Buck was to have somewhere for she and her daughter to live.

Buck saw red. He walked over to her work station and picked her up over his head and slammed her to the ground like a rag doll. Before anyone knew what was going on, he had picked her up again and threw her against the wall. By then about four guys jumped on him to stop him. The plant superintendent, who was also very big and very well respected by everyone in the plant was able to separate the two of them and calm Buck down, at least for the time being.

The Superintendent came to me to relate the story. He was incredulous when I told him that Buck would have to be terminated immediately. It was an education about the culture of this small southern town and what happens when a man’s honor is at stake. Although they respected my authority in the situation, I had a parade of lead men and others in the plant making a plea for leniency. The basic message was that "she had it coming” and was lucky it happened at work where there were people around to step in. My message to them did resonate though. I told them that there are two places people should be safe and their loved ones could relax knowing that their family members were safe. One place is school and the other is at work. I was responsible for safety at the plant and took that responsibility seriously. The bottom line was that the woman was entirely the victim in this incident, regardless of what one might think about what she had done at home.

Yes, this really happened.

How would you have handled this real life incident? What factors would you consider in making a decision? Think about it before reading below what actually happened.

Buck was terminated and the woman remained working at the plant for several more months and then left for another job.  About a year later, Buck came to the plant and asked the Superintendent if there was a chance he could get his job back.  Since the woman was no longer in the plant and Buck had paid for his offense with a year away from work, we gave him another chance.  He was re-hired with the understanding that he would basically be on permanent probation.  We never had another problem with him.