Emotional Stupidity Watch: Bank of Scotland "motivates" by vegetable

I aim to be non-judgemental at all times - but you know how it is when you come across something that just leaves you no choice? Such a case is this example of how not to motivate people from the Bank of Scotland, reported in Scotland Today:

Row over bank 'humiliating' incidents

Union officials are meeting with managers from the Bank of Scotland to discuss an escalating row over the use of vegetables as motivational tools. Customers and relatives complained after members of staff at two of the bank's branches had a cabbage and a cauliflower placed on their desks. The Bank has apologised but the union has described the incidents as ''unacceptable''.

The first incident occurred a week ago, when teenage teller Darren Murray had a cabbage placed on his desk at a branch on Glasgow's Great Western Road. HBOS apologised and said it was an isolated incident.

But it has emerged that another employee, Julie Ferguson, who works at a branch in Paisley, was given a cauliflower for her desk and told that she could only pass it on when she got someone to open an account.

The employees' families and their union, Amicus, have described the treatment as ''humiliating'' but HBOS has issued an apology, saying: "We encourage our managers to deliver strong customer service and sales performance. We focus on positive measures such as good bonuses for strong performance. But we very much regret we got it wrong on this occasion and have apologised to the staff concerned.''

Amicus representatives, who are meeting with bank officials today, want a company-wide investigation into allegations that the bullying and intimidation of sales staff is rife.

16 August 2005 13:08

Thanks to Robert Zarywacz for letting me know about this originally by posting an item on the Ecademy front page. Image from The Cook's Thesaurus, a handy site for substituting ingredients.