Whirlpool's code of misconduct

From the Whirlpool Corporation site, "Whirlpool Ethics Hotline" which my wife, a Whirlpool employee of ten years, who was at one time was the person that taught newly hired employee the company policies and procedures, has never, ever heard of...

In today's global business environment, a company has only one real advantage over its competition: people. People make Whirlpool Corporation what it is. People drive sales, develop products, represent our company and safeguard our values of integrity and respect from anyone who would stray from them.

This has to be one of the most outrageous examples of false adverting ever. The business culture at Whirlpool's Tulsa Plant (one could safely assume it is mirrored in the other plants) is one of treating waged-employees like machines. That's why the department responsible for handling employees is referred to as "Human Resources" because that's all the employees are, resources, no more valuable than the machines, raw materials or building and grounds.

That's why your voice is so important in our company.

Except this "hotline" site is virtually hidden from employees because they are never told about it. I only found it after doing a fairly exhaustive search on Whirlpool. It was page 7 on Yahoo's search using Whirlpool Corporation as the keyword.

We rely on you to help us by speaking up whenever any situation threatens our values and our reputation. When you do, you provide us with the information necessary to remedy the situation.

Few if any waged employees would feel safe raising concerns about any of this because of the bullying tactics used. Employees are fired with no explanation given. Managers hint that they can fire anyone, anytime, for any reason, and legally they can as long as it is not as a pattern of discrimination against any of a few selected special categories.

When it comes to any of those issues, silence doesn't help. It hurts.

Then why are employees not informed about this and other avenues of communicating wrongs? 

...Be assured that you will never be retaliated against or punished in any way for reporting your concerns in good faith.

Are there any Whirlpool employees that actually believe this?

It's an interesting  farce put up by this corporation to create the illusion of actually caring for their employees. The truth is far from that.

Posted by Danny Carlton at June 8, 2007 10:46 AM