Tangi leave at the call centre (A) 2009-87.1

Tears welled up as the team leader of a busy Wellington call centre grappled with the urgent decision she had to make. The 15-person call centre was already six people down and had been struggling to reach its daily quotas. Now a senior Māori staff member, just back from four weeks annual leave, had asked for three more days to attend a tangi (funeral) where she had been asked to perform the karanga. Granting the requested leave would put further pressure on the remaining team members when the department had already been in the media spotlight for lengthy call waiting times. The team leader’s attempts to get urgent advice from her manager had fallen on deaf ears, and the human resources department, eventually replying to her urgent email for assistance, had referred her back to the departmental policy without given her any guidance about how it applied in this particular situation.

This vignette case describes a dilemma familiar to many workplaces when an employee’s need for leave will put additional pressures on remaining staff. Discussion could cover ways to acknowledge the needs of specific cultures within a multicultural workplace, and the responsibilities of line and human resource management, as well as the need for more detailed policy or guidelines for interpretation.

Read part B (epilogue)

Tears welled up as the team leader of a busy Wellington call centre grappled with the urgent decision she had to make. The 15-person call centre was already six people down and had been struggling to reach its daily quotas. Now a senior Māori staff member, just back from four weeks annual leave, had asked for three more days to attend a tangi (funeral) where she had been asked to perform the karanga. The team leader’s attempts to get urgent advice from her manager had fallen on deaf ears, and the human resources department, eventually replying to her urgent email for assistance, had referred her back to the departmental policy without given her any guidance about how it applied in this particular situation. The team leader ultimately decided to deny her staff member tangi leave, who eventually lay a formal complaint before resigning. The human resources department declared that the tangi leave policy had not been applied correctly, but the complaint didn’t lead to any further action. As tensions increased, the team leader also resigned.

Discussion for this vignette case could cover ways to acknowledge the needs of specific cultures within a multicultural workplace, and the responsibilities of line and human resource management, as well as the need for more detailed policy or guidelines for interpretation. The Epilogue describes the outcome of the situation and raises the possibility that there is a lack of knowledge around the operation of indigenous culture.