Old Smoke

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Old Smoke

Explain how you would handle this situation if you were Charles Renfold

Old smoke can definitely be irritating and uncomfortable especially for a non-smoker. However, everybody has rights and the smoking people should not be exempted. Work must also be done even when the work needed is not urgent. For this case, I would first call Darlene and assure her that I understand her situation. I would also remind her about the urgency of the report. I would assure her that something is going to be done in order to ensure that everyone had a comfortable working environment (Shaw, 2011).

However, I would tell her that she had to attend to those files that day. I would allow her to pick the files needed and work in another office as I sorted out the problem. If she still refused, I would lay out the repercussions of her refusal such as her job termination. Since she had not mentioned it earlier, she should give the management some time for rectifications or solutions to be found. One cannot just talk about a problem and expect to get a solution there and then (Ferell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010)

Describe the policy on smoking that you would recommend to Redwood Associates

As well put, both smoking and non-smoking employees have rights. However, one employee should not be given more rights than the other. This makes the others feel uncomfortable or left out. There should be a room set out for the employees who smoke. If they can get out to the local canteen and eat, then they can go out to a room and smoke. This would prevent the old smoke from being in a room that will be later used by a non-smoker. There should be discipline in the working area and the full concentration of the workers is needed. It is easier to ask the smoking employee to go in another room and smoke for a few minutes then come back than asking the non-smoking employee to endure old smoke for a whole day. At the end of the day, a balance has to be hit in order to have a good working environment (Shaw, 2011)

Explain how this case would change if what bothers Darlene is not old smoke but the smell of Alice’s perfume or Frank’s body odor.

Perfume is an artificial scent. However, it would not be fair to ask an employee to change his or her perfume just because it was irritating another employee. One approach would be to ask Darlene to find a way of tolerating it since it was something personal. Another approach would be to ask Darlene to pick the files needed (if possible) and work in another room. This would be done if she were uncomfortable until she could not concentrate at all. Another approach would be to ask Darlene to talk to Alice personally (more like friends and workmates) and try to explain to her about the way she felt about her perfume. Alice could take an extra step of wearing a different less irritating perfume. On Frank’s case, she would have to stand the odor especially if it I a natural one. One cannot wear cologne if they are not comfortable with it. If it can be rectified, I would call Frank privately and ask if there were ways of improving the situation especially if I also find it a little too much to put up it. Most likely, most of the other employees feel the same (Ghillyer, 2009).

Explain whether it is fair or reasonable for companies to ban employees from smoking in their cars in the company parking lot

A car is a personal property. It would not be fair to ban employees from smoking in their cars even if it was in the company’s parking lot. However, this activity can be banned because cars use gasoline, which is easily flammable. It is always good to avoid any accidents and incidences at all costs. One may never know which condition a car is in and so any carelessness may cause a real big damage leading to death. All people have rights, but if the rights interfere with the others rights or even put their lives and property in danger, then they cease being rights (Ghillyer, 2011).

References

Ferell, O.C., Fraedrich, J. & Ferrell, L. (2010). Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Ghillyer, A. (2009). Business Ethics. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Shaw, W. H. (2011). Business Ethics: A Textbook with Cases. Boston, MA: CengageBrain Learning.