Business leaders ‘shocked’ by deputy’s views on workplace
BUSINESS groups have criticised a deputy who claimed that highly paid senior staff should be tough enough to deal with a robust workplace.
Former Policy & Resources member David Mahoney said recently that some deputies and civil servants found it hard to deal with language and behaviour which was common in the private sector.
He said he was glad some of them had never been in a corporate boardroom.
‘If you want to see adversarial, you sit in those places – there’s no room for crybabies,’ said Deputy Mahoney, on a Guernsey Press Politics Podcast.
He believed that people earning a six-figure salary should be able to accept a colleague raising their voice and saying ‘a few mean words’.
The leaders of the Chamber of Commerce, Guernsey International Business Association and Institute of Directors yesterday took the unusual step of issuing an unprompted statement publicly condemning Deputy Mahoney’s comments, saying they had been left ‘shocked and disappointed’.
Stephen Rouxel, Paul Sykes and Glen Tonks said that ‘personal attacks and unkind remarks’ were never acceptable in a professional business environment.
‘There is absolutely no situation in which it is acceptable for any individual to refer to fellow directors or attendees at a meeting in a demeaning way,’ they said.
‘We challenge this type of language and behaviour, as it undermines the professional and collegiate atmosphere necessary for effective governance.
‘We strongly urge all deputies to recognise the critical importance of setting the correct tone from the top, adhering to the principles of good governance, and ensuring that their conduct reflects those standards.’
Deputy Mahoney was among members of the former P&R whose behaviour and language were criticised by several other States members during a motion of no confidence debate late last year, which ended with the senior committee being removed and replaced.
He told the recent podcast that there was no substance to those claims and that no formal complaints had been made against him at the time.
‘Some people said I was abrasive. If calling you out when you’ve done a bad job is abrasive, then I’m guilty,’ he said.
He insisted that he was simply trying to get things done as a deputy, in an environment where it is often difficult to make progress.
But the three business groups believed that the approach described by Deputy Mahoney was at odds with well-established codes of best practice in the private and public sectors.
‘We stand for and encourage an environment where future political candidates and civil servants can step forward with the expectation of fair and respectful treatment, free from demeaning comments and unprofessional conduct,’ they said.
