Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | July 26, 2021 | Worcester Business Journal 11 Zero-tolerance for bad behavior In an industry essentially reliant on entrepreneurial friends coming together to start their own businesses, oen growing out of hobbyist brewers rallying their buddies to get into business together, responding to inappropriate behavior can seem at best, daunting, and at worst, in direct opposition to the relaxed vibe most cra brewers try to cultivate. Running a business with close friends, while not impossible, can produce workplaces where staff speak to each other informally, including in ways not workplace appropriate. is may allow for inappropriate behaviors to permeate, and can create a space where outsiders feel they do not belong, Zolezzi-Wyndham said. "You're not really a family," she said. "It just means rules are loose." It is vital, Zolezzi-Wyndham said, to have a zero-tolerance policy for bad behavior. Healthy, equitable workplaces don't just fall from the sky; they have to be built. "Culture has to be very intentional, it shouldn't be le up to chance," said Adriana Vaccaro, CEO and founder of Culture Redesigned, a company culture consultancy in Shrewsbury. Efforts to repair – or even simply establish – a healthy company culture need to come from the top, Vaccaro said, beginning with ownership and the leadership team. And then, they need to be clearly communicated and demonstrated to staff. Oentimes, well-intentioned employers fail to take that crucial second step. It's common to encounter disconnects between what leadership believes and employees feel. In taking on projects, one of the first things Vaccaro does is collect data from employees and present those findings to leadership. In doing so, she can identify discrepancies and guide management toward making changes. ese tactics are applicable toward combating toxic masculinity in the workplace. Both Vaccaro and Zolezzi-Wyndham said these processes require holding neg- ative behavior in the workplace account- able, not sweeping it under the rug. Righting the wrongs In response to the anonymous alle- gations in May, Wormtown announced Managing Partner David Fields would take over as CEO, beginning July 12. at announcement, detailed in an internal memo attributed to Fields and General Manager Scott Metzger, said two employees had been dismissed from the company and one company owner had permanently stepped back from day-to-day involvement with the compa- ny, although it did not specify who. Jay "Digger" Clarke was the only member of Wormtown's leadership team specifically named in the public allega- tions in May, and his LinkedIn indicated as of mid-July that he ceased working as a co-owner of Wormtown in March. e brewer declined to say if Clarke was the owner permanently stepping back. e memo further indicated an internal group had already gathered and made recom- mendations for improving the company's diver- sity, equity and inclusion efforts prior to the alle- gations surfaced in May. Among the recommen- dations made by the group: Wormtown should update its reporting policies for instances of harassment and inappropriate work conduct, train staff about appropriate workplace behavior, and improve its human resources options. e memo said the company is committed to investigating all reports of workplace misconduct, updating the company handbook, and hiring Wormtown's first-ever full-time human resources professional. "is has been a difficult period of time for all of us, and we continue to be very troubled by the allegations of harassment and discrimination shared on social media and in the press in ad- dition to those overcovered by our own internal processes," Fields and Metzger said in the announcement. "We want to continue to stress two things – one, ha- rassment and discrimination are not and will never be acceptable, and two, that we are committed to substantial actions to improve our workplace culture." e changes at Wormtown were enough to initially assuage the concerns of the Worcester Red Sox, who had partnered with Wormtown as the official beer of the team. "We take these subjects very seriously, and so I spoke to the owners and was comfortable with the action items they were implementing," said Rob Crain, WooSox chief revenue officer. Wormtown is no small actor in the rapidly expanding cra beer industry, as the largest brewery headquartered in Worcester, with 27,913 barrels brewed in 2020. While it waits to be seen whether and to what extent Wormtown and other breweries named in the social media firestorm will either change policies meaningfully or suffer any long-term damages from the reports, attention in the industry has turned toward identify- ing company cultures erring away from the hypermasculine bro culture. e tumult has shone a light on a cultural problem in an industry histori- cally dominated by white male business owners and staff, and where a business model centered around down-home approachability has produced work- places where toxic masculinity can blossom, diverse voices struggle to find recognition, and where other perspec- tives are silenced. In more casual terms, cra brewing has a bro culture problem. ose fighting say it has to be addressed directly. Examples to follow e cra brewing industry, despite the deluge spilling over in May, does contain helpful models for change. One name coming up time and time again in Central Massachusetts is Redemption Rock Brewing Co., located on the same street as Wormtown and founded by four college friends. At the helm of Redemption is well- known Worcester figure Dani Babineau, the company's CEO, who in addition to running the brewery sits on the Mass Brewers Guild board and its diversity and inclusion committee. Redemption has made a name for itself when it comes to diversity and inclusion matters, including in announc- ing in 2019 its shi to a blind hiring pro- cess eschewing the typical resume and cover letter in favor of a questionnaire, and stepping away from the standard tipping model, opting to pay its taproom employees what Babineau has described as a fair wage. e company, a Certified B Corporation whose mission is beyond profits, takes what gratuities it does receive and donates them to a rotating list of area nonprofits. Although known for its progressive company and personnel policies, one of the first places Babineau points to when discussing beer culture is Maine brewer Allagash Brewing Co. "ey're kind of who I always look to as … our guiding light as far as brew- eries who run responsible companies," Babineau said. She pointed to the statement the Maine brewer released on May 21, in response to the viral firestorm surround- ing industry inequalities and harassment in the industry. "In the brewing industry, a balance of power is oen at play: ownership and in many cases management tends to be male, while females are in more individual contributor roles," Allagash's leadership wrote. "Additionally, a gen- eral 'boys will be boys' attitude present in larger society is exacerbated both by alcohol and the creation of mini-king- doms where an irreverence for conven- tion can be used to create a 'rules don't apply' culture." Babineau said some of the most appealing aspects of working in cra brewing are also what can, when un- checked, make it toxic. "It's a pretty glamorous, fun thing to get into, and so people get kind of seduced to that and forget that it's also about running a business," Babineau said. It can be dangerous, she said, when a brewery and/or its leadership develop what she termed a cult of personali- ty – particularly in a field many jump to precisely because they're looking to escape the typical rigidity within corpo- rate culture. "[If ] they're problematic individual- ly, you're going to have a problematic culture," Babineau said. Reforming an industry Katie Stinchon, executive director of the Mass Brewers Guild, said she's seen breweries face issues with rapid growth. "I've heard far too many stories of brewery owners that [started small and say] 'We turned around, we had 60 employees, and we thought, 'Man, we really need an HR person in-house, or at least to have someone contracted out,'" Stinchon said. She's hoping to help connect local brewers with re- sources, noting the discourse this year has highlighted for her a gap on the guild's associate membership list, where there are not currently any HR firms, agencies or specialists. Stinchon was one of the spokespeople behind the ongoing Hop Forward Equality project, which launched a website in April aimed at providing resources to brewers to help them further their diversity, equity and inclusion work. e kind of work and goals highlighted by Hop Forward, which was originally conceived of as a job fair, Stinchon said, has always been concerned with making sure all voices were heard and included, including people of color, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community and, broadly, people who are not men. e complaints about the industry in May, she said, "more or less just underlines the importance of our work and the importance of bringing in these timely tools and resources right now." David Fields, CEO of Wormtown Brewery Katie Stinchon, Mass Brewers Guild executive director Massachusetts breweries The number of craft breweries in Massachusetts has more than quadrupled in the past decade. 2011 '12 189* 0 50 100 150 200 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 '19 '20 45 Number of breweries *Includes 41 in Central Massachusetts Sources: Brewers Association, Mass. Brew Bros. W

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