During the seventies and eighties, organisations started to realise that the improper use of power and authority and undeclared and/or ineffectively managed conflicts of interest, posed a significant risk to their integrity and public trust. The requirement for ethical business dealings focuses the spotlight on conflicts of interests and the factors involved in creating […]
When faced with an allegation of serious misconduct made against a worker, an organisation may seek to suspend the respondent. But in what situations is it appropriate to take this kind of action? tHE LEGALITY OF SUSPENSION When taking the significant step of temporarily suspending an employee, an organisation must be able to demonstrate […]
Staff who are subject to increased employer supervision or performance management may feel that they are being personally victimised, attacked or even bullied. It may be difficult to distinguish between reasonable performance management and bullying, especially when the worker involved is sensitive by nature, has personal stress factors, fails to acknowledge their own performance […]
Across all Australian workplaces the phenomenon of bullying is without doubt a front-and-centre topic. And as a result, overt instances of bullying in the workplace now tend to be more readily identified than ever before. One challenging idea for all concerned however is this; is it possible that management action that is entirely reasonable could […]
Do you remember the “sneaky nuts” craze? If you do, you can blame the character of Daniel as created and brought to life by Australian comedian Chris Lilley in the mockumentary series Angry Boys. He introduced us to sneaky nuts photo bombs in 2011. For those of you who have no idea what we are […]
We see many cases where negative emotions arise at work. And it’s certainly not unusual for employees and employers to sprinkle angry discussions with yelling and/or expletives. Yet when does bad language warrant a strong reaction from the employer – or even dismissal? Two recent cases demonstrate that violent or offensive communication can certainly lead to […]
If you’ve ever conducted a disciplinary interview with an employee, you may have asked them if there are things they’d like you to take into account when making your decision about how to handle the matter. These are often referred to as ‘mitigating factors’, and are an important part of the disciplinary process. But we […]