A Black Home Depot employee was assaulted by a client (so why was he fired?)

Absurdly Driven looks at the business world with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted language.

I do not know if Home Depot works on army lines

However, the company 's adherence to the letter of its own rules is approaching a strange militarism.

Perhaps this is the reason why headlines about employees who feel unjustly dismissed.

The company also fired an Oregon employee who attempted to stop what he believed was a kidnapping. Home Depot had doubts, but the employee was not impressed by these thoughts

We now have the case of Maurice Rucker.

A few weeks ago, Rucker said that he was working in the Albany store in New York. and politely asked a customer to leave their dog. This, it seems, could be just a business policy.

Rucker is black. The client was white

Rucker said that the client had then bathed him in curses and invectives

This included telling him that Barack Obama was a Muslim and that Rucker would not have a problem. Employment if it was not for Donald Trump.

Rucker admits that after a while, he was tired of that. He approached the client and told him that he was observing, "You are lucky to be at work, because if I did not, you would not talk to me like that. "

Then Rucker was fired. 19659004] Despite the fact that the client forgot his dog, he returned to the store and abused a little more.

I asked Home Depot why he had taken drastic measures instead of defending his employee

A spokesman for the company said it was because he did not did not respect our policy of disengagement and warning of management about a customer confrontation.

Like the cases I just described, the Home Depot rule is not devoid of meaning.

But the rules must be interpreted and, again, there has been a case where a seemingly valued employee has been fired for being human.

The anomaly, of course, was that the story of Rucker was reaching the media.

Just as in the case of the man from Oregon, Home Depot quickly had doubts.

"We re-examined the question and made the decision to give Maurice back his job," says Home Depot spokesperson

. It's not like Rucker was immediately fired by the store manager. He says it took five days for the decision to be made.

It seems that the manager did not recognize the irony of an employee's dismissal according to the strict reading of the rules, while this employee had been trying to politely apply some of these rules.

The manager examined the circumstances and offered, perhaps, a minor reprimand and a reminder that the rules exist – at least the company would say – for the safety of employees and customers? (And the company's insurance policy, the dry could add.)

The manager – and the company – could not take a stand against racism and show that this kind of customer behavior would not be tolerated? [19659004] It is not known if Rucker will accept the offer of his work. Churchill says Rucker has already had other offers.

In the meantime, Home Depot may need to teach its managers to know when rules should be applied and how.

. Excellent managers, too.