If you owned a business in which the brand and image was vital and you discovered that one of your employees regularly referred to over employees as a “retard” what would you do?
Ummm I think intent is obviously important, in what context…is he being malicious? Does he carry this same attitude in-front of clients?
As long as it stays within the company, and he’s not badmouthing the logo outside of the company, I wouldn’t mind too much. To each their own.
Maybe someone should take him to one side and point out that this is actually offensive and could be classed as bullying. Although it may not affect the company name as such does this kind of behavior encourage a happy and ‘team focused’ environment? I dont think I would want people coming in to work unhappy, maybe its just me, I like happy people. As the saying goes; smile and the world smiles with you. 
Thanks, the company I work for is generally quite good and regularly holds charity events and everyone gets on. However two people who work in my team regularly use this term. Its been going for nine months and Im just sick of hearing it. Its always used in cowardly way when the Manager is not present. We often have visitors from other areas of the business in our office and I just dont want to be associated with this form of language.
Yes, this type of language is not acceptable. If nothing else, it doesn’t reflect well on the people who use it.
If you are in a position of authority, you should talk to them.
If you are not, you should mention it to a manager so that they can talk to them.
If an employee should ever be atacked with this language or other verbal abuse, they can sue the company over harassment or abuse. Today’s society is getting much more strict about not letting this type of behaviour continue. The company should put a stop to it right away.
If you’ve tried all of the above and the person doesn’t stop, try and take it to the HR department. They probably deal with things like this a lot.
He needs to talk to you. There must be a deeper reason for this and not necessarily that he doesn’t like it.
What?
Talk to the person who they refer to as a retard. Find it out yourself by simple conversation. Get to know the person. It would be a little unfair to that person if you’d judge him based on what others are telling about him. And if you’ve proven that he really is a retard, evaluate if that affects his work or the people around him, or if that influences your business to go a bit dysfunctional. If it is, then I guess you should make that tough decision. But otherwise, keep him.
I’ll take their job. When do I show up?
I would most certainly have a talk with them and let them know its not acceptable.
Sorry if that was a bit confusing. What I meant was he had to talk to this guy. He probably had his personal reasons for doing such (maybe work concerns?). Calling the brand a ‘retard’ does not probably immediately mean that he doesn’t like it.
How employees act within your company affects your company’s culture and ultimately your brand and marketing. The comment above that this is bullying is spot-on. This is language is toxic. Allowing employees to continue opens you to liability. Use incidents such as this to provide opportunities for teachable moments. What is your brand about? My first impulse when seeing this post was to search for the open letter that was recently posted to a political personality who used the word to attack an opponent. Search for “special olympics retard letter” and you will see pages of blow-back. http://specialolympicsblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/an-open-letter-to-ann-coulter/
this type of attitude is not acceptable at all. i think he needs to talk with you seriously.
When I was not working properly in a company due to my family tension then my senor manager called me in his cabin and I talked to my he tried to know what was the reason of poor performance, I told him my problems, he told me that it is your career and career is very important, what has to happened in your family it happened, I couldn’t do anything now you have to do, you have to perform good in your career so that you can look after your family, you can fulfill your desire, so work is the main thing.
So I would say that the employee should be taught about it, about career, life, it would help I think.