In view of the recent shootings at Fort Hood, we are reminded of a relevant case used in our “Bad Bosses, Bad Workers” book. Does the following story sound familiar? Why does management place “Political Correctness” above the safety of our citizens?

CASE:  “In a highly secure government installation, there was an employee who was a recent immigrant from _____. He took a loyalty oath to get security clearance to work in our company. Yet he held a deep commitment to helping that country, even to the point that he seemed willing to talk about our work with his friends ‘back home.’ This posed a high security risk for the U.S. He had been told to hold his tongue, but when he was with those he regarded as his countrymen (as opposed to regarding U.S. citizens as his countrymen), he still just talked and talked.

“Soon he reached the point where he would also talk about our country. He criticized the President on down to the Governor. Sometimes he would be so critical that we would feel like shooting him. He seemed so angry that he was not in his country, yet he wanted to stay here. His loyalties most surely lay outside the U.S. The fact that he could not be trusted had an immeasurable effect on the work that could be done at this installation.

“As you can imagine, all his coworkers hated him. No one wanted to be assigned to a project with him. No matter if you were just starting a project or deep into working on it, you could count on him going on a tirade about the terrible United States and how they had mistreated his country. Not only that, we were afraid this guy would someday reach his boiling point and do major damage to the installation where we worked, or worse. As workers, we don’t know the story behind why he was hired or why he was not let go.”

Which comes first: loyalty or political correctness? Protect yourself by letting your views be known to your company and your legislators.