The Start of Hewlett-Packard's

hortly after the Sept.-Oct. issue of on which to close 1980, the first year Measure was received by HP oj the company's fifth decade. Speople, the phone in President UP FRONT John Young's office began to ring. hywould Hewlett-Packard Comments on the changing The caller said he was interested in produce a videotape pro HPscene- exercising his right to use the "Open Wgram about people with and the people behind it. Door" policy. This policy says that physical disabilities? when employees Jeel it necessary Perhaps the best answer is con to take their problems, ideas and tained in the program itself which grievances "up the line" they can Measure summarizes on pages do so without hindrance or Jear oj three to six. The handicapped peo reprisal on the part oj their supervi ple are HP employees who demon sor. The caller had been reminded strate what surely seems to be an oj that policy by the HP president's extraordinary ability to adapt to the written message in the magazine. In conditions oj everyday living. We this and other cases that Jollowed, see three such people-on the job an appropriate hearing was ar and in their homes. We learn that ranged (John was out oj town) with no matter what their particular dis someone else "up the line." ability-they share one further What's notable about this flurry oj handicap: the initial reluctance oj activity. which presumably was re some other people to accept them peated at other levels and locations as ordinary beings able to learn, to oj the company. is how clearly it re work, to feel and even to teach. We flects that coach's maxim of "getting hear them describe some oj the back to basics" when you want to ways they overcame such attitudes. improve a golf swing, a tennis stroke And Jrom supervisors and co-work or a management style. The Open ers we discover that disabled peo Line process had shown that some ple can indeed do a day's work, HP people didn't understand the bringing a special spirit to the task. meaning oj Open Door, and some That's what the program is about. others didn't Jeel it would work Jor The Videotape is now being ed them. It was important to try to ited as part oj a revised Affirmative change such attitudes, some of them Action Workshop Jar release in April based on lack oj communication by Corporate Training and Develop and some oj it on real experience. ment. Its developers ate Beth Gian A number oj HP organizations dana, oj the Corporate Affirmqtive tackleti the task of improving Open Action department. and Riley Mc Door understanding and accep Laughlin oj HP-TV. Beth is a Jormer tance through communications. teacher of deaJ and disabled peo Meetings oj supervisors were held ple, and serves as liaison to other HP with Open Door as the major topic. organizations in helping them re Several gave Open Door new em cruit. hire and accommodpte hand phasis in training programs. Others, icapped employees. Riley is an including the Southern Sales Region, experienced television producer/di made it clear in print that attempts rector. Together with a lighting di to Jrustrate the Open Door process rector, George Parrish, they'filmed would not be tolerated. Finally. the "Just Three People" on location at I-W president's message provided an divisions in New Jersey. Son Diego overall definition and interpretation and Santa Rosa. Brought in as a con oj the Open Door principle. sultant was Dick Fan, a televisjon Another important plank in HP's producer and Jormer doctoral can platform-Management by Wan didate in communications at Stan dering Around-is included in John ford who wryly says that instead oj a Young's message in this issue oj Ph.D. he got an MS (multiple scle Measure. This, too, is another out rosis). Dick recently became editor flow irom Open Line findings. Open of the Cupertino IC Operations em Line indicated that people wanted ployee magazine. M more opportunities to meet local and corporate managers person to person. They wanted their work to be recognized, to ask questions and present viewpoints, and to gain a broader perspective oj their work ingworld. As a part oj the overall process oj Open Line expression and response, the MBWA message on page 23 rep resents a clear reaffirmation oj a basic company philosophy. That Beth Glanddn.a and Riley McLaughlin seems a highly appropriate subject work on the videotape. 2 MEASURE www.HPARCHIVE.com TUE SCRIPT TUAT WROTE ITSELF ... a glimpse into the lives ofBarbara, George and Rick three of the many tiPpeople who don't let their disabilities stop them. n screen in a weeks here ] was new HP vid very nervous trying O eotape, a su to get used to peo pervisor speaks ple staring at me candidly about the and looking at me lirst uneasy days down the hallways after an employee and around cor with cerebral palsy ners without really was hired, trying to embarrass "When Barbara me, But] knewwhat first came to our de they were doing, ] partment. it was knew when] came very difficult, None to HP that it would of the people here take a while for had dealt with a people to realize personwith a hand I'm just like every icap of this type, San Diego'S Barbara Claubes and co-workers one else," The group did not It is frankness like accept her in the beginning, They felt] shouldn't have this which underlines the honesty of the Videotape hired a person with such a severe handicap and they about HP people with handicaps that has been pro didn't believe they could adjust to her in her condition, duced by the Corporate TV facility in cooperation with But after she was with us for about six weeks, they got to Corporate Equal Opportunity (see Up/rant, opposite), know her, They knew they could kid with her, and that The stars of the show are a trio of HP employees who she was the same as they were, And then theyaccepted represent hundreds of other HP people with physical her," limitations that are an accepted part of their lives, on The scene is the manufacturing specifications de and off the job, Their feelings, and those of the people partment of the San Diego Division, Barbara Claubes with whom they come in daily contact. shine through in was hired as a clerk there in August 1979, a year after spontaneous comments which are more eloquent than the death of her husband Kim, He also was a victim of any prepared script. as the following pages show, cerebral palsy and one of the first with that disability The videotape originally was intended as part of a hired at that division, Barbara remembers her first days revised Affirmative Action Workshop for supervisors on the job: throughout the United States, However, it speaks so di "] felt they were scared to talk to me, They kept rectly about the need for dealing honestlywith the sub shying away from me, They wouldn't joke with me be ject of physical disability that it will receive wider use cause they didn't know how] would take it.", The first withinHP, NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1980 3 www.HPARCHIVE.com When Barbara came to liP we didn't really know what we had to do for her. Should we push her around all day or take her to the cafeteria andfeed her? Then our supervisor told us we weren't sup posed to treat her any differentfrom anyone else in theplace. A co-worker arbara Claubes beeps the horn on her electric wheelchair in B cheerful response to the waves she gets as she wheels along the cor ridors of the San Diego Division to expedite paperwork, Her wheelchair, and the facility's electric car which transports her from the front gate to her depart ment and back each day, are ac commodations which Barbara uses only on the job, At home she walks unassisted with the uncertain tilt characteristic of cerebral palsy. a neuromuscular disease which causes spastic move ment. Barbara serves as a model of independence for other severely handicapped adults-teaching a class for them at a local college and opening her own home to demon strate ways to handle practical problems, Here she watches as a friend who is disabled learns to peel a potato by herself, 4 MEASURE www.HPARCHIVE.com hen George Kononenko, who has been deaf since w:birth, applied for a job as a co-op student at the New Jersey Di vision in 1974, both he and his inter viewers were concerned whether his deafness would be a problem in the give-and-take communication necessary among project engineers, That obstacle was quickly knocked down through written notes and sign language which George began teaching to interested people, He joined the division full-time the next year after receiving his bachelor's in mechanical engineer ing, Now he supervises a mechani cal packaging group developing new OEM power supplies in the When ourproject engineering lab, in the lab grew large Co-starring with George in the new HP videotape are his wife enough to needproject Linda, who is also deal, and 4-year leaders, Jfelt that it old Jennifer who has impaired hearing, Jennifer's bedtime stories was pretty clear that if and all family conversations are it were notfor thefact handled in sign language, George also turns his talented hands to such that George was deaf, leisure-time projects as woodwork he would be the person ing, building a rock garden, watercolor painting and home to supervise the group.

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