The success of a business entity largely depends on the relationship that exists between the management and employees. Happy employees are more productive compared to workers who feel that their rights and privileges are not provided adequately by the employer (Pagnattaro, Cahoy, Magid, Reed, Shedd, 2016). As such, employers must sustain healthy relationships with employees to increase the performance of their businesses (Brown, 2014). Workers are crucial, but they don’t operate in a vacuum. They need to communicate and work alongside other people, especially those in the management positions to get their jobs completed effectively. Therefore, this paper is a case study discussing the elements of different types of employee relationships, and analyses the ethics behind potentially discriminatory employment policies.
Elements of Different Types of Employee Relationship
In the case of dream massage, the new staff qualifies as an independent contractor and not as an employee. Dream Massage provides all the provisions for the employee including the clients and the products for massage. That is, the employee has no autonomy to influence client to dream massage or to use her own products to carry out massage. The fact that the company does not withhold taxes for the employee makes it a case of independent contracting. Nonetheless, the new employee is not required to work on a full-time basis like a regular employee (Independent Contractor, 2017).
However, there are some conditions that the employee is subjected that do not conform to the requirements of an independent contractor. For instance, when she arrives at work she is required to have a particular code of dressing that is allowed in the business. Dream Massage has dominated the decision making in her operations; this has made her to be reduced to an instrument of operation without an independent contribution to her duties as an independent contractor. Nonetheless, communication from dream massage management seems to be one way. They give the instructions to the employee without giving her opportunity to make her contribution to the same.
Violation of Workplace Discrimination Laws
Dream massage may have potentially violated discrimination laws based on the way they conducted their relationship with the employee (Brown, 2014). Employee discrimination rules are set of laws that protect employees from being mistreated by the employer or any other person working in the same organization or business entity based on various aspects such race, gender, harassment among others (Pagnattaro, Cahoy, Magid, Reed, Shedd, 2016). For instance, when she came to work for the first time in the morning, she is told to remove her hijab since it violates the company’s dress code policies.
This is an illegal workplace discrimination that does not hold meaning in the broader business dress code regulations. Dress code policies that are meant to suppress specific group of workers are considered to be discriminatory (Pagnattaro, Cahoy, Magid, Reed, Shedd, 2016). In this case, the employee wears hijab either as a requirement of Muslim religion and culture or to conceal most parts of her body during the time that she conducts massage to various clients. Dream Massage should not compel her to remove the veil since it would violate other principles that the employee holds in high esteem.
Ethical Considerations behind Maintaining Strict Companies Dress Code Policies
Organizations have adopted different dress code policies. The organizations have strictly rules on adherence to their dress code to ensure that their clients are satisfied with those who serve them. However, most of these dress code policies do not factor in other important aspects of human life such as religion, disability, gender, protected activities as well as practical considerations (Brown, 2014). Most employees find themselves in dilemma whether to keep their job or violate the principles that they believe in. Companies that enforce dress codes strictly without considering the aspects mentioned above may find themselves battling lawsuits filed by employees who find their values more important than any kind of job (Pagnattaro, Cahoy, Magid, Reed, Shedd, 2016).
For instance, in the case of Dream Massage, the management forces the employee to remove her hijab because it is not part of the dress code that is accepted in the business. The policy has not put into considerations the religious values and the principles of the employee. Such policies damage the relationship that an employer holds with employees and may make a business entity to lose good workers (Pagnattaro, Cahoy, Magid, Reed, Shedd, 2016). This is not a justification that business entities must not adopt proper dress code policies that suit their operations, but they must factor in other important human aspects such as religion and beliefs.
Conclusion
One of the most critical aspects of productions is effective communication and functional relationship between the employer and the employee. Good relationship makes employees to have more incentives to work while bad with the employees may reduce the performance of the business. How an organization relates to employees May results to violation of workplace discrimination laws that may result to lawsuits. For instance, rigid dress code policies that do not consider other legal and accepted practices can form a ground for filing lawsuits by employees who value their practices. If a lawsuit should be filed by the employee based on her condition of work, and being forced to remove her veil, Dream Massage is likely to find it damaging.
References
Brown, K. R. (2014). 4 Risks Employers Face with One-Size-Fits-All Dress Codes. Retrievedfrom https://www.law360.com/articles/530520/4-risks-employers-face-with-one-size-fits-all-dress-codes
Independent Contractors. (2017). Retrieved fromhttps://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdle/independent-contractors
Pagnattaro, M., Cahoy, D., " Magid, J. M., Reed, O. L., Shedd, P. J. (2016). The legal andregulatory environment of business (17th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education
