Q: Roseanne Barr got fired and lost her show last week after a racist tweet, the latest in a long history of racist remarks. This decision -which I think was right- certainly cost the company lots of money. And it made me wonder: what would happen in a real-world workplace if your star employee –your best and most profitable performer, did or said something racist in public?

A: Your premise -that the scandals we see in the news would be handled differently if not burning under the limelight- is a valid one. In a regular work setting, where you’re not dealing with celebrities and national advertisers and a public relations crisis, having an employee in your ranks say or do something undeniably racist would probably not be handled with a summary dismissal like in her case. More realistically the company would try to salvage the employment relationship (especially if profitable) and give the employee a chance to correct their behavior. The offending employee would probably be reprimanded, counseled and required to attend diversity training or something similar.

I’m somewhat cynical about the expectation that diversity training will change the mind or heart of a racist. But that’s okay, what the training does effectively is make clear what is and what isn’t acceptable in the workplace regarding racism, sexism and other “isms

The law doesn’t require employers and employees to not BE racist or sexist or hateful or whatever. But the law does require everyone to behave AS IF they weren’t racist or sexist.   In other words, if I’m sexist and I work with women, or racist and my boss is Black or Hispanic, I must still behave professionally in the workplace regardless of what I might harbor in my heart.

The bottom line is that even the best performing employees have to be held accountable and have to meet the standards of what’s acceptable and legal.

Regardless of the current climate –which seems to have given permission to the “worst angels of our nature” to infect the public square- corporate America and businesses of every size everywhere are upholding our laws and values of equality and fairness. Godspeed until we are visited again by our better angels.

©Copyright Eva Del Rio

Eva Del Rio is creator of HR Box™ – tools for small businesses and startups. Send questions to Eva@evadelrio.com