Senior Moments
”Seniors Moments” is a new advice column where the innocent and the guilty shall remain nameless. Send your real or imagined, funny or tragic, but always educational problems to the Seniors team, composed of anonymous ICMA Senior Advisors (who shall also remain nameless to protect their reputations ).
Dear Seniors,
There was a situation here that I don’t feel like I handled well, but I don’t really know how to handle it better. We had a customer come into our public front lobby and he was filled with 1950’s southern racism. It was not threatening or violent, just totally repulsive and abhorrent. I helped him with his issue and interrupted the random comments with an admonition that the language was not acceptable here and needed to stop, but struggle with the line between someone’s free speech in a public space and the protection of my employee’s work environment to be free from hatred. Seniors, how do I balance this? Both of these principles are incredibly important, but I don’t want my employees to feel like I was soft on the issue of hate. I was caught off guard- I’ve never had something like this happen, but even if I had known it was coming, I wouldn’t have known how to handle it.
On the plus side, he has not come back, and it has been several months.
Sincerely,
Feeling wimpy and confused
Dear Feeling Wimpy and Confused,
Relax. This is not a constitutional crisis, and it sounds like you handled it pretty well. As far as we know, the United States Constitution doesn't protect rudeness. It is completely reasonable to have expectations of decorum and basic civility in interactions with citizens. No public servant should have to put up with abuse or hateful speech when addressing a citizen's issue. After all, they came to you for a service. Your action to intervene both protected your staff and set boundaries for the citizen's behavior. Regardless of their personal beliefs and their "need" to express them, your effort to focus on the immediate issue at hand was appropriate. There are other forums to address their larger ideological issues, no matter how despicable, and the front lobby is not one of them.
If necessary, the citizen could be offered the opportunity to speak with someone, in a different setting, in a better position to address their larger issues. In the past, I asked the person if they would like to discuss it further with me in my office. And finding a quiet space, the customer somewhere out of earshot of the public and staff, perhaps an empty boardroom, may also help. In these days of workplace violence, I might be more cautious with that offer. That said, in all cases, I believe that in refocusing the “discussion” between you and the upset party you did a good job of protecting staff. If he persists after your reasonable efforts, then explain that his perspective does not match with values of the organization but that the locality is there to address his need regardless of either of perspectives or beliefs. I would then also ask him to connect directly with the manager regarding any follow-up. While this is more work for the manager, it protects the staff while addressing the citizens’ needs.
We suspect, however, that one of the reasons that the citizen has not returned is that you resolved their issue. So, give yourself a pat on the back rather than feeling wimpy and confused. If, or when, it happens again, use the same formula; intervene to protect staff, firmly and politely set boundaries for behavior, disagree respectfully if you must, but focus on the issue and resolve it as quickly as possible, reserving the option of passing the citizen up the chain of command if necessary. While the interaction will probably still be difficult, perhaps trying to have some pity for and showing some mercy to this sad individual will help with your approach.
Fondly,
Seniors
p.s. If this response seems lacking or raises further questions, feel free to reach out and contact a Senior Advisor directly. We are here to assist you navigate your local government management career and enjoy paying back the support that helped us through our careers.
The full list of Senior Advisors with contact information is available here.