When respect means disagreeing: Was Coryell’s ouster About Repsect?

Has the Inquirer become desperate for a story where none really exists?

Men need respect and women need love, said Stephen W. Pouppirt, who leads a $100 million construction company, Clemens Construction Corp. It came up in the context, at first, of speculating over why Edward Coryell would have lost his job as the head of the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters. Pouppirt, whose company handles both general contracting and carpentry contracting, has known Coryell for years. They have faced off on opposite sides of the bargaining table and Pouppirt has described Coryell as "tough, but fair."

That's how our discussion began in our Executive Q&A interview, published in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, but we moved beyond it into the idea of respect in the workplace.

Question: So you think that maybe Coryell's boss, Doug McCarron, head of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters wasn't feeling the respect from Coryell?

Answer: I’ve seen it.  Men need respect.

Q: So he wasn’t respecting the guy above him?     

A. Maybe. He did his own thing. 

Q: It's interesting about respect.  How does one show respect on the job? What are the behaviors?

A: Respect generally is pretty simple, you know.  If someone asks you to do something, you do it quickly, you communicate respectfully.  I think that’s a good question.

Q: Does respect leave room for disagreement?  I mean, in other words, can you respect somebody and still disagree with them?  I feel like it’s so important to be able to disagree with your boss.

A: Absolutely. 

Q: I'm thinking about, in your business, safety concerns, in particular. For safety reasons alone you have to have the ability to disagree with your boss, and even disagree strenuously.

A: You could write an entire book on that. In our job, our company’s green light is stop.  If it’s unsafe, everybody can stop it. Because if you don’t, it’s life and death.

Q: It's easy to say that it's your company policy, but how do you guys enforce that, or how do you communicate it to the workers? How do you guys enforce that, or how do you express that regularly?

A: Safety meetings and superintendent meetings.  They’re our first line out there.  There’s training.  There’s OSHA training.  We have a safety consultant.  We spend a lot of time on safety.  Our industry is very, very dangerous. 

Source: Philly.com