People power fight against bad behaviour

PEOPLE power is alive and strong — and expected to come to the fore even more than ever this year as consumers and employees take a stand against commercial abuse.

It’s no longer OK to turn a blind eye to bad treatment and poor behaviour by our companies and organisations.

Just like the global #MeToo campaign about sexual abuse in the workplace, Aussie consumers are speaking out about bad treatment, poor products, financial abuse and dishonesty by companies, retailers, employers, banks and governments.

Bullying underdogs and abusing the less powerful should not be tolerated or facilitated. People must stop turning a blind eye to this abusive culture.

In all the recent commercial and financial misconduct (abuse) cases in Australia, including by some of our largest banks and biggest institutions and companies, ordinary workers knew about it or suspected, but did not do enough to stop it.

Because the leaders of these organisations allowed their or- ganisations to rot from the top, the responsibility now rests with everyone else to make sure the practice of dishonesty is wiped out.

The threat of being sacked, not promoted, isolated or overlooked for overtime for speaking out is not acceptable.

These threats also need to be called out as soon as they are made or implied. It is only with numbers that people force change.

As with the #MeToo movement, don’t let your workmates be isolated and victimised when you know or suspect something is not right.

Consumers also need to do their part.

The list of rip-offs, bullying and financial stress caused by companies selling shoddy products and services not only hurts the people and households involved, but our whole economy. Some of our highest profile companies appear to have a business model that forces their customers to spend hours of their personal time trying to get a problem fixed.

One of the easiest ways for consumers to force change is through boycotts.

According to research by UK analytics company YouGov, a quarter of consumers at some stage will boycott or ban a brand, company or product.

And it’s not just a short-term protest. Of those who boycotted, 60 per cent never went back to that company or product.

Cover-ups were the biggest reason at 55 per cent of why consumers boycotted something. About a third also stopped using a company or brand because of its poor treatment of staff.

Reputational damage has suddenly become the favourite buzz phrase of Australia’s disgraced company boards.

After being caught out, they belatedly spout it as acknowledgment of the long-term damage they have done to themselves. But they are still missing the point.

They are still only looking inward. They should be focused on the long-term damage they have been doing year after year to their customers, staff, suppliers and investors.

They need to clean out the rot and put honest people in charge. It’s time to speak out.