John Linton Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: That isn't the question - the only question is does the light bulb want to change.
I have been involved in some aspects of managing all or significant parts of commercial operations for more years than I can care to remember and over those eons I have been involved in some very, very strange situations - pretty much covering the gamut of all the good, bad and dreadful situations someone could imagine being some part of commercial 'life'. However, with one purely opportunistically lying situation so far in the past that Annette had to remind me that it had actually occurred I have never been aware of any sexual harassment occurrences in the more than several workplaces in which I have worked let alone had any responsibility for - until now.
It just goes to show that, irrespective of how much 'experience' you may think you have, running a company of any size will continue to bring you 'challenges' that are beyond any experience you have built up and about which you have no real idea how to resolve - especially, in this instance, where it occurs in another country whose general and IR laws are totally unknown to you. If such an alleged instance was brought to my attention in Australia then I would have at least the general understanding and commonsense of how to deal with it and would have immediate legal resources to determine and guide my immediate actions. But this allegation has been made by a Sri Lankan probationary staff member to Annette during her periodic reviews of all SL personnel so it now has to be dealt with via the additional complication of distance and no 'face to face' discussions with either of the two people involved for the moment.
So, for the ten days I have now known about this situation, it has intruded in to my mind at all sorts of awkward times and has taken the edge off everything else I have been thinking about. I have taken all of the actions that Australian law requires to be taken and have begun to get direct advice from a SL law firm that specialises in this area of the law in SL. Having no previous experience in any aspect of commercial life is a major drawback in attempting to resolve a situation. Having no ability for face to face meetings with either the protagonists or a legal advisor makes everything much more difficult than it already is. Spending any time on such a negative issue when time is already too short to spend time on the 'life or death' issues that require attention in the 'real problems' a business faces every day is a major, unwanted distraction.
So - my coming week is already negatively affected before it's properly begun and until this situation is resolved it will continue to be negatively affected. 'The obvious solution' is to fly back to Sri Lanka, get detailed advice from an experienced solicitor and have a suitable person appointed to find a sensible solution - something I'm almost certain should be done. However I have been away from Australia for three weeks and had left a lot of things to be resolved on my return which require my presence in face to face discussions here.So....I am not sure what I can actually do but I do realise Exetel as a company (and the directors in particular) have to put an end to the current distasteful situation in the best possible way for all parties including ourselves.
It is so pleasurable to be part of the management of a commercial enterprise of Exetel's size.
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