segal@marble.uucp (Gary Segal) (05/25/90)
[Moderator's Note: Since I permitted Chip Rosenthal's entire article
to be posted the other day -- including the comments on drug testing
-- I thought it only fair to print this one response from an employee
of Motorola. PT]
-----------------------
The following expresses the opinion of one employee of Motorola, and
in no way represents the opinions or positions of Motorola INC.
chip@chinacat.unicom.com (Chip Rosenthal) writes:
[excellent description of dB, dBrn, e.t.c. deleted]
>[1] Motorola Telecommunications Devices Databook. There are a whole slew
> of dB definitions in the glossary. (However, I'll probably stop using
> their products now that they've joined the piss-in-a-bottle mania.)
As an employee of Motorola who is not terribly thrilled by the new
mandatory drug testing (MDT) policy, I ask you not to consider this
issue when evaluating our products.
By declining to purchase our products because of a policy towards
employees, you are atempting to involve yourself in the
employee-management relations of Motorola. As you are not related to
Motorola, other than as a (hopefully satisfied) customer, these
concerns are none of your business, unless you feel that the quality
of the products we produce is below your standards. You are now
attempting to impose your views upon Motorola's employees, which is
precisely the problem that we have now; our management is trying to
force MDT on us.
While I probably agree with your views on MDT, I feel that any
problems with MDT must be worked out between the employees and
management of Motorola. If you and others like you were to stop
buying our products, business will slow, and some employees may lose
their jobs. Management will most likely not correlate this downturn in
business to reluctance from customers to buy from a company with MDT.
However, if just one employee refuses to take the test, and is fired,
and then sues Motorola, the message is much clearer. Or if an
engineer delivers his or her resignation to George Fisher (CEO) with
the reason being that he or she does not agree to MDT, again, a clear
message is delievered. By not purchasing Motorola products, you will
not send a clear message to our management, but instead you will close
yourself to a large base of very useful and competitive products.
If the activities of a company produce an external effect that you
disagree with, you may have reason to not consider it's products.
(For example, investment in S. Africa, pollution from factories, too
much trafic on the local roads from the plant in your neighborhood).
However, I feel that Motorola's MDT does not have an effect on you,
because your rights and trust have not been compromised.
If you feel that when any company starts a MDT program, that encourges
other companies to do so as well, consider that by creating a MDT
policy, Motorola has raised the chances that a test case will be
brought, and this is really what we need to clear up the issue.
However, any case that is brought must come from an empolyee, not a
customer.
If you want to make a stand against MDT, lobby your state and federal
congressmen to make MDT illegal. You can make send a much clearer
message to Motorola by having your state or the US outlaw MDT instead
of not buying our products.
The bottom line for a product purchase decision should be performance
and cost, not the employee/management relations of the company
producing the product. These issues are best handled by the people
involved, and not the customers.
Gary Segal ...!uunet!motcid!segal +1-708-632-2354
Motorola INC., 1501 W. Shure Drive, Arlington Heights IL, 60004
The opinions expressed above are those of the author, and do not consititue
the opinions of Motorola INC.