By now, you've probably seen the video of a FedEx courier recklessly tossing boxes into the back of her truck (and made a mental note to use UPS the next time you need to make a shipment). The other man in the video is a security guard named Bob Marge, and he wants you to know that he's sorry.
Both Marge and the FedEx employee were fired, but Marge took the extra step to issue an official apology, calling the incident "a lapse in judgement" and insisting the actions in the video "don't reflect his true character." In an interview with WABC NY, Marge says, "I should not have done that. I made a mistake by doing that, and I hurt a lot of people by doing that. I just want to come clean and let them know that I feel very badly for what I did."
Crisis management has officially filtered down to the individual level. Marge taking responsibility for his actions in such a public way drives home the reality that every employee of a company is a potential crisis manager now. Whether he sought out professional advice, an agency reached out to him or he acted on his own, Marge made a smart PR move with this gesture.
Follow Lucia Davis: @LKCDavis.
That’s all very nice but the only thing that counts is what FedEx said about it. The company did issue a sharp apologetic statement but, as far as i can tell, FedEx only sent it to the media. It wasn’t on the company Facebook page or on the website (news section). And since the crisis happened as a result of a viral video ON YouTube, I would have advised company founder Frederick W. Smith to deliver his reaction statement on YouTube as well. If there’s a crisis in New York City, you don’t go to LA to deal with the media. Same with social media.
Tossing bosses into the back of a truck would be quite a feat…
Good catch, Jane! Sorry about that. Updating now.