Dickson Igwe. Photo: VINO

A very dear friend of this Wannabe Sherlock Holmes gave him some invaluable advice just the other day. She stated these words which he has taken very much to heart, and will endeavor to practice. She stated, and this is using her own words, that: "the Virgin Islands, at the core, is a very small community, despite the influx of thousands of migrants over the years. It is therefore critical that we treat each other with civility and courtesy. When you treat people shabbily here, it will come back to haunt you. Everybody is either related or closely connected in some way. The Virgin Islands are one big family in reality: a large village.’’ A wise woman indeed!

This is so true. And it is something a tiny minority of both local and expatriate employers too, fail to understand. He recently read a news story about a foreign company treating its local employees with disdain, in other words like excrement, and now the management wonders why the BOSS is being denied a work permit. DUH! And despite the myriad denials, he has learned firsthand that this was certainly so. He leaves the final determination of innocence or guilt in the matter to his GOD who never errs. In any event, and this is a valid assertion, the law is frequently on the side of the wealthy and powerful who have the resources to fight a dispute to the end, notwithstanding right or wrong.

And he will safely state on this forum that the way workers are treated back in the home countries of some of these international businesses, usually some developed capital, is very much better than the way they treat their supposedly, THIRD WORLD EMPLOYEES. He has seen this first hand. One only flings workers out into the cold streets without any thought for their dignity, and in contempt, if they are a clear and present danger to the organization.

But not in these islands it appears. People here are clearly expendable, easily disposable: below bothering about. The specific corporate standards adhered to in Europe or the USA for example, when making people redundant, do not apply in the Virgin Islands.  The human element is nonexistent with some of these businesses, or unnecessary, when operating overseas.  

In a very similar artery, years ago, another very powerful company, expatriate owned, and a huge monopoly, had to downsize, and the organization sent a very large number of local workers home in a very humiliating way. Fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, arrived at work to meet their things out on the ‘proverbial street,’ and locked out of their offices. Today many of those selfsame managers who did the very unprofessional firings, are themselves no longer with that business, and have to mingle with the same persons they treated so shabbily, and on a daily basis. What a burden that must be! But no, people without a heart make great executives! A cold and hubristic capitalist mantra!

Just the other day, a supposedly local affair in the technology sector had to let go of a number of employees. Again the manner of termination was uncivil. It could clearly have been better handled. Do not treat people like cannon fodder. In a small community, the buildup of resentment is not healthy, whether in the short, medium, or long term.

Does a business need to make a large number of persons redundant? Better start weeks before, preparing each and every one of the workers for the inevitable. This way require counseling, assisting with new job searches, job placement, allowing the employee prepare and grieve about the forthcoming loss. That is good personnel management. In a tiny community such as this one it should be the norm.

Why can’t the business work with the Labour Department in order to ease the pain of mass redundancy? Shouldn’t government be more vocal, and show a degree of care over the clear mistreatment of its citizens? People are not simply a figure on a balance sheet. They are precious souls, each and every one of them. Cold heartedness is not a business virtue. Adhering to high moral and social standards is actually an asset in business: the very same people that are treated so poorly by a downsizing organisation are also customers and stakeholders in the wider community.  Yes, the world is a cycle.

In any event, compassionate dismissal or redundancy is the way it is done in the more industrialized economies. Or are West Indian and Virgin Islands employees and workers ‘mere stepchildren’ in the global corporate environment? They are clearly considered lesser beings by these employers. Corporate social responsibility is more than just caring about the physical environment and donating money to a worthwhile cause. It is about humanity and respect for personal dignity.

Why the feeling by some senior managers that faithful staff, persons that have been with a business for over a decade will suddenly want to sabotage that selfsame business because they are going to be let go, one will never understand. Do these employees not already possess years of secrets belonging to the business doing the terminating? This so called acting in the interests of security is clearly a reactive response. One may even state it is the most convenient excuse to allow for the disposal of these people without having to be accountable, thoughtful, and sensitive.

Yes, be good to those under you when you are on top: they are the same ones you will meet when you are back at the bottom, where all of us end up eventually.

He hopes the political classes bear this sage piece of advice in mind as well.

Politicians in a tiny community should foster harmonious and strong community, and as far as possible avoid divisiveness and hostility. The Virgin Islands is too small a place to allow politics drive a stake through the heart of family and community. And this goes for the private sector as well. Yes, be sensitive, looking after what matters to Joe Average. Protect Joe Average from the shenanigans of the much more wealthy and powerful. That is always good politics. Know this; compassionate and caring businesses speak of a healthy social economy: just take a look at the Scandinavian model.

And yes: this investigator actually warned about this sad paradigm of political incivility in a story he wrote just before the last General Election in 2011, that gave victory to the current incumbents. He wrote that it was vital for any government not to come into power with an attitude of vengeance and vindictiveness: something the previous government was accused of. Has the current government learned that lesson? He hopes so!

Or maybe this political observer is being naïve. His shout is that it is time to end the political and social seesaw of animosity that states: "it is my turn to spit in your face today" because, it may very well be the others "tomorrow!’’  The world is a cycle!

To be continued...

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