PR Survival Handbook - #318

Lesson #318 - What to do when your top employee is indicted for staging dogfights

I can't tell you how many times I've seen it happen... business is cruising along and then your top employee gets caught staging dogfights. No, that hasn't happened in your business? OK, well maybe Michael Vick's situation is a bit odd, but what isn't strange about it is the issue of getting negative press as the result of actions of your employees. Just take a look at what happened last week with Whole Foods CEO John Mackey or with Don Imus and the Rutgers Women's BBall team.

The NFL has been struggling with a ton of negative PR issues lately, and only in case of the Chicago Bears releasing Tank Johnson did a team take action that was more severe than the league. In Michael Vick's case, I'm wondering what everyone is waiting for. Will Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons and founder of Home Depot, treat Michael Vick like any of Home Depot employees? Will he live by the values that built Home Depot into an American success story, one of which states "We exercise good judgement by "doing the right thing" instead of just "doing things right." We strive to understand the impact of our decisions, and we accept responsibility for our actions"?

Any organization with a strong set of values is able to deal with these issues quickly, without emotion, and ultimately, correctly for the long-term health of the business. However, if profit is the only value of your company, you'll remained flummoxed when bad things happen. This is not a case of guilt or innocence, but rather one of professionalism. If actions and associations of employees embarrass the organization and destroy value then you need to take action (the quicker, the better). At the very least, the Falcons need to suspend Vick without pay until this situation is resolved. However, if they live by their values, they'd just fire Vick and move on.