Our guest speaker was Dr. Huse.
The conversation was very interesting and interactive. My family is from the same side of the globe as his own country. Even my prediction about his culture were wrong.
The lesson learned is to never assume until you have really done your research.
Before I thought that the Japanese would be more passing and about "saving face" but these concepts are in fact--false.
Dr. Huse also pointed out that Americans are team oriented. I would've thought the opposite, and I live here.
New Topic:
Today in the news, there was a Jewish man who was beat up for saying "Happy Haunukkah" a gang of "Christians" told the Jewish man that he killed Jesus. A muslim man saw all of this and tried to help the Jewish guy. The muslim got beat up.
Muslim + Jew = Team?
The point is this. In journalism we have to make sure what we are really reporting is true. I asked a few of my Muslim and Jewish friends about the relationship between the two cultures. They both said it's the governments more than anything that don't get along--the people are actually fine.
Again. Don't make the stereotypes.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Diversity Run In
This is probably the first time I ever revealed this story to anybody. The one person in the case never told me to say thing, and I haven't said anything until now.
My first internship was in one of the world's most fast paced city. I barely hold enough to vote and I had never really understood professonalism. I worked for a multi-billion dollar marketing company as a public relations intern.
The particular office location I worked in was shockingly small for a multi-billion dollar. The office manager told me the other locations the company had were significantly larger by the thousands.
I thought wow, this is really boring. The office was always quiet and the most exciting thing that ever happened is when the office manager put more orange soda and ginger ale in the fridge when a new office supply load came in.
One thing that I never encountered before was this issue of sexual diversity in an office.
There was a woman, "Greta," who handled the company's financial matters. She made sure budget wise the company was doing okay. It was known she had a fiance and that she was very not on the market. Her fiance even stopped by the office a few times.
There was a married man, "Scott," who had a wife and daughter who held a senior level position in the company who also worked in the office.
Scott wrote a detailed note to Greta describing the sexual activities he wanted to engage in with her. She clearly was not interested at all, and she decided to ignore it. After a few days, Scott came into Greta's office and frantically asked her, "Did you destroy the note, you have to destroy the note." The highest ranking corporate executives were coming into town and he didn't want the note to be floating around when they arrived.
Greta just told him "Yes." Scott always arrived to work early to get an early start on the day. He was good at his job, and friendly to people. I would have never expected those types of actions from him.
Greta likes to arrive at work early as well, but if Scott is there first, and no one else has gotten into the office--She turns around and goes back downstairs and sits at a Starbucks until she knows when people will arrive.
I remember thinking, "This happens in a professional multi-billion dollar firm?" Greta told me to never tell anyone. She told me in her Long Island accent that she would come down to Texas and cut my throat with a nail file if I told.
Why was she so scared? Because she didn't want to be a whistleblower. There were people who could've taken care of this matter that she knew, but she just didn't want to speak.
The guy gets away with. Get's to work early and looks good doing it. While Greta gets to work early, but has to turn around and wait at Starbucks.
My first internship was in one of the world's most fast paced city. I barely hold enough to vote and I had never really understood professonalism. I worked for a multi-billion dollar marketing company as a public relations intern.
The particular office location I worked in was shockingly small for a multi-billion dollar. The office manager told me the other locations the company had were significantly larger by the thousands.
I thought wow, this is really boring. The office was always quiet and the most exciting thing that ever happened is when the office manager put more orange soda and ginger ale in the fridge when a new office supply load came in.
One thing that I never encountered before was this issue of sexual diversity in an office.
There was a woman, "Greta," who handled the company's financial matters. She made sure budget wise the company was doing okay. It was known she had a fiance and that she was very not on the market. Her fiance even stopped by the office a few times.
There was a married man, "Scott," who had a wife and daughter who held a senior level position in the company who also worked in the office.
Scott wrote a detailed note to Greta describing the sexual activities he wanted to engage in with her. She clearly was not interested at all, and she decided to ignore it. After a few days, Scott came into Greta's office and frantically asked her, "Did you destroy the note, you have to destroy the note." The highest ranking corporate executives were coming into town and he didn't want the note to be floating around when they arrived.
Greta just told him "Yes." Scott always arrived to work early to get an early start on the day. He was good at his job, and friendly to people. I would have never expected those types of actions from him.
Greta likes to arrive at work early as well, but if Scott is there first, and no one else has gotten into the office--She turns around and goes back downstairs and sits at a Starbucks until she knows when people will arrive.
I remember thinking, "This happens in a professional multi-billion dollar firm?" Greta told me to never tell anyone. She told me in her Long Island accent that she would come down to Texas and cut my throat with a nail file if I told.
Why was she so scared? Because she didn't want to be a whistleblower. There were people who could've taken care of this matter that she knew, but she just didn't want to speak.
The guy gets away with. Get's to work early and looks good doing it. While Greta gets to work early, but has to turn around and wait at Starbucks.
Enron
My older brother told me that, "All the companies are doing it. Enron just got caught." I think that's a little extreme to say, but I do believe "small" under the table business transactions do happen. Maybe these transactions don't happen on the big national scale that the Crooked E did but nonetheless these actions are still unethical.
I think a PR Professional, or any professional, has to really sit down and ask themselves, "What would I do in that situation?"
It's hard to be a whistle blower but even in the case of Enron, there were people aware, but chose not to say anything.
Thousands of professionals lost everything due to the standards of this company. It was like a buy all the booze now party and worry about paying for it later type case.
My Human Resource professor said that we have to responsible advocates for being ethical professionals by researching the company before we join. Sometimes this is difficult because some of the inner workings of a company can't be revealed immediately. But I do agree that it maybe it will take six months to a year to figure out what a company is really about.
Any job is worth taking lower pay if it means that the job is clean.
I think a PR Professional, or any professional, has to really sit down and ask themselves, "What would I do in that situation?"
It's hard to be a whistle blower but even in the case of Enron, there were people aware, but chose not to say anything.
Thousands of professionals lost everything due to the standards of this company. It was like a buy all the booze now party and worry about paying for it later type case.
My Human Resource professor said that we have to responsible advocates for being ethical professionals by researching the company before we join. Sometimes this is difficult because some of the inner workings of a company can't be revealed immediately. But I do agree that it maybe it will take six months to a year to figure out what a company is really about.
Any job is worth taking lower pay if it means that the job is clean.
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