Tyson Managers Place Bets on COVID$-19$ Cases

As COVID$-19$ took its toll on people and businesses around the world, several

managers at a Tyson pork$-$processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, decided to have some

fun, which cost them their jobs.

Tyson, one of the world$$s largest meat producers, has meat$-$processing plants in $27$

states, including Iowa, Arkansas, and Texas, with more than $139,000$ employees

and $2020$ sales of more than $$42$ billion. As COVID$-19$ spread through these

communities, Tyson was criticized for not providing workers with adequate

protective gear and for not shutting down plants until the virus spread to nearby

communities. Several months into the pandemic, and as many workers became ill,

the company initiated mass testing for its nearly $2,800$ workers at the Waterloo

plant. According to four wrongful death lawsuits filed by employee families, as the

workers underwent testing, seven managers at the Waterloo plant conducted an

office pool, betting on the percentage of Waterloo workers who would test positive

for the virus. The entry fee for the winner$-$take$-$all pool was $$50$ per person. Nearly

$1,000$ of the $2,800$ workers tested positive for the virus, and the company was

forced to stop production at the Waterloo plant for several weeks as more

employees called out sick.

One of the seven terminated managers said that the bettors didn$$t think the pool

violated company policy and thought it was $$kind of a morale boost for the

managers for their efforts to combat the outbreak.$$ An investigation led by former

U$.$S$.$ Attorney General Eric Holder found sufficient evidence to lead to the firings,

saying those involved violated the company$$s values. The company had asked

Holder$$s law firm to investigate the allegations after public backlash threatened to

damage Tyson$$s reputation and lower the morale of its workers.

Because of the close proximity of employees on the processing lines in a meatpacking plant, local officials became concerned that Tyson workers exposed to the

virus while at work could spread the virus to family members who worked in

elderly care facilities, grocery stores, and other essential services. Many of the

Waterloo plant$$s employees are immigrants and refugees from Mexico, Bosnia,

Burma, and several African countries who live in multigenerational households,

which could help spread the virus. According to public health officials, this type of

community spread could get out of control very quickly and ignite outbreaks

elsewhere. As of this writing, in Black Hawk County where the Tyson Waterloo

plant is located, there have been more than $13,000$ cases and $225$ deaths.

In the early months of the pandemic in $2020,$ the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention $($CDC$)$ reported that more than $16,000$ U$.$S$.$ meat plant workers had

tested positive for the virus by the end of May and $86$ had died$$those numbers

were more than four times the numbers reported a month earlier in April. In

addition, the data underscored how disproportionately the pandemic was affecting minority workers; CDC data suggested that of the cases which disclosed race and

ethnicity, $87\%$ involved minority workers.

Using above case study Please write me answer for the below mentioned questions

$1.$ What do you think about the managers and their office pool? Could stereotyping

of various employees have contributed to managers$$ inability to see the office

pool as inappropriate? Explain your reasoning.

$2.$ While the manual labor associated with a meat$-$processing line is challenging

work, these employees may also face the added pressure of concealing their

symptoms to keep earning a paycheck. What could management do to help

employees cope with the added challenges and pressure?

$3.$ Do you think the company did the right thing in firing the managers? Why or

why not?