After last week’s entertainment where I had to initiate disciplinary proceedings against two staff members, I was left with the distinct impression HR believes we work in Cambodia Cambodia
When the details of the alleged incidents were first brought to my attention, in addition to being horrified, I believed it would be a fairly straightforward matter of releasing two staff members. At the very least I’d be able to suspend these people pending further enquiries. Not so. HR took charge of the matter but it was almost as if they were looking for deathbed confessions written in tears of blood, corroborated by the Archangel Gabriel.
It appears to the untrained eye that such is the fear of claims of unfair dismissal that Management and HR make it exceptionally difficult to operate with any speed. In the case of, say, the physical assault of one staff member by another, a rational person may be forgiven to assume action may be taken rapidly. Simple matter. There was a de facto incident witnessed by an independent team member who provided a written statement. That’s as far as ‘simple’ goes in this matter. Now talk to me about ‘fast’.
From the time the incident(s) were brought to my attention until the time HR and Managers four levels above me decided there was sufficient grounds for a suspension on full pay was three days. Wednesday morning to Friday close of business. Everyone was called in, everyone was interviewed, Managers wrung their hands in doubt, HR senior Managers were consulted and finally, finally, we were authorised to suspend on full pay.
Like pulling teeth. Not someone else’s but your own, with a rusty pair of 9” pliers.
The irritating thing is not the process but the speed of the process. Where violence is an issue and the threat of further violence due to investigations taking place (and therefore being public) is a real possibility, you cannot even separate the people involved without causing offence or risking giving the wrong message. HR quietly suggested to me under normal circumstance we shouldn't have asked one of the victims to go home that morning as it "gave the wrong indication". It wasn't relevant I had concerns for his safety - not his physical safety (as he's built like the proverbial shithouse) but the fact he'd defend himself AND also then be subject to disciplinary procedures.
A Manager two levels above me took me to one side and confided it was hard. He knew of one incident where a staff member pulled a knife on a colleague but there was insufficient grounds for HR action. Think about that. The knife-wielder was rewarded by keeping his job (I presume it was a ‘he’) and the victim was punished by having the event sanctioned by HR as if it never happened.
Beggars belief. I’ve come to realise it isn’t just HR but the climate of legal fear. There are more people out there than we’d care to admit who will, without a second’s thought and in full knowledge of their own guilt, use any means possible to escape culpability. They even take some perverse pleasure away by then punishing the accuser through expensive lawsuits. A reward for being in the wrong.
‘Old Man‘ whinge over (for a while, anyway).
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