Dogbert Scenarios
As Lois Price, HR Coordinator, you must remind both day-shift and swing-shift employees of the company’s parking guidelines. Day-shift employees must park in Lots A and B in their assigned spaces. If they have not registered their cars and received their white stickers, the cars will be ticketed.Day-shift employees are forbidden to park at the curb. Swing-shift employees may park at the curb before 3:30 p.m. Moreover, after 3:30 p.m., swing-shift employees may park in any empty space — except those marked Tandem, Handicapped, Van Pool, Car Pool, or Management. Day-shift employees may loan their spaces to other employees if they know they will not be using them.
The biggest problem is that employees aren’t registering their cars (as evidenced by a lack of white registration stickers in the parking lot). Registration is handled by Employee Relations, and they’re going to start cracking down on employees who haven’t registered—any car without a sticker will be ticketed, and in the case of repeated violations, cars will be towed.
To encourage registration, Employee Relations will be in the cafeteria October 14 and 15 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm to take applications and issue white parking stickers. They’ll also be available in the cafeteria on the 15th from 3 pm to 5:30 pm.
Who wouldn’t want a cashmere zip turtleneck sweater for $18? At the J. Crew website, many delighted shoppers scrambled to order the bargain cashmere sweater. Unfortunately, the price should have been $218! Before J. Crew officials could correct the mistake, several hundred e-shoppers had bagged the bargain sweater for their digital shopping carts.
When the mistake was discovered, J. Crew immediately sent an email message to the soon to be disappointed shoppers. The subject line shouted “mistake!” Emily Woods, chairwoman of J. Crew, began her message with this statement: “I wish we could sell such an amazing sweater for only $18. Our price mistake on your new cashmere zip turtleneck probably went right by you, but rather than charge you such a large difference, I’m writing to alert you that this item has been removed from your recent order.”
As an assistant in the communication department at J. Crew, you saw the email message that was sent to customers in you tactfully suggested that the bad news might have been broken differently. Your boss says, “okay, hot stuff. Give it your best shot.”
The folks at McDonald’s fumed when they heard about the latest edition of a highly regarded dictionary. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defined the word “McJob” as “a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement.” Naturally, McDonald’s was outraged. One executive said, “It’s a slap in the face to the 12 million men and women who work hard every day in America’s 900,000 restaurants.”
The term McJob was coined by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in his 1991 novel Generation X. In this novel the term described a low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector. McDonald’s strongly objects to this corruption of its name. For one thing, the company rejects the notion that its jobs are dead ends. Significant members of top management—including the president, chief operating officer, and CEO—began their McDonald’s careers behind the counter. Moreover, when it comes to training, McDonald’s trains more young people than the U.S. armed forces. What’s more, McDonald’s is especially proud of its “MCJOBS” program for mentally and physically challenged people. Some officers even wonder if the dictionary term “McJob” doesn’t come dangerously close to the trademarked name for its special program.
Another point that rankles McDonald’s is that, according to its records, over 1,000 people who now own McDonald’s restaurants received their training while serving customers. Who says that jobs at McDonald’s have no future? The CEO is burned up about Merriam-Webster’s dictionary definition, and he wants to send a complaint letter. But he is busy and asks you, a member of the communication staff, to draft a first version. He’s so steamed that he’s thinking of sending a copy of the letter to news agencies.