|
Home / Business / Ethics
Avoiding a Hostile Workplace: Fairness in Employee Discipline
By:Melissa Vokoun
The environment of your workplace is vital to employee satisfaction, reduction of turnover, and productivity. It is also vital to the legal stability of your business.
A hostile work environment can be the basis for many types of employee complaints and causes of legal action. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lists as a basis for employee complaints the existence of a "hostile work environment." The creation or continuation of a hostile workplace environment can be the beginning of a legal quagmire of lawsuits, wrongful termination suits, and discrimination complaints. The atmosphere of a harsh and antagonistic workplace can be a death sentence for your business.
One of the biggest factors affecting hostility in the workplace is inequity and selective discipline. Employees frequently site favoritism and unfairness as their reasons for discomfort and intimidation at work. It can also be the basis for proving a pattern of discrimination in your workplace.
It is essential for all managers to apply coaching and discipline in an equitable fashion. Once employee standards are established, infractions of these standards must be applied fairly and without bias. Failure to hold workers accountable to employee standards of conduct and behavior in a consistent manner will lead to accusations of bias and favoritism. The consequences of such accusations are far reaching and will affect management credibility at all levels of your organization.
Establishing a written and clear code of employee conduct is only the first step in good human resource management. This written policy is only as good as the enforcement of its standards. Just as your personnel policies were written in a neutral and impartial manner so must be the enforcement of these policies.
Infractions and violations of personnel policies should be dealt with in an established way. Degrees of discipline such as verbal warnings and written warnings should be contained in your protocols and associated time frames should be attached. Follow these protocols without regard to the personalities involved. Circumstances that mitigate infractions can and should be documented as part of this process.
There may be factors that make one breach of conduct different or less severe than another and there should be a venue for written comments in discipline documentation. But these mitigating circumstances should not preclude discipline. You may know and understand why someone broke the rules and may indeed find these factors understandable but the perception of favoritism must be avoided at all costs. It may mean writing up an employee for something you feel was justified but to just dismiss the violation fails to take into account the perceptions of other employees and the effectiveness of your personnel policy.
Take the time to communicate your views and feelings about the infraction and document them properly. This is an exercise in fairness and consideration that you owe your employees. It can turn discipline into constructive coaching.
The perception of employees is the key to creating a work environment that is neutral to the personalities and personal preferences involved. Discrimination occurs when your employees perceive that they are being treated differently than others. When the tardiness of one worker is excused because they have to take their child to day care but the tardiness of another worker without such a valid reason is cited with warnings can cause the perception of unfairness.
In your warning to the employee with day care issues you can mention your empathy with working parents and suggest flextime options or carpooling as constructive suggestions but the employee's failure to adhere to work rules must be documented. Other employees may not know about their coworkers obligations and be angry when they are written up for tardiness and others are not. Hostility can be avoided by consistent and equitable enforcement of work rules.
Avoiding the impression of unfairness can go a long way to maintaining an impartial workplace, the satisfaction of employees, and the feeling that everyone is being treated in the same way. It also takes the perception of bias out of the employee relations equation. Though it means hard choices it can mean the difference between a hostile and hospitable work environment.
Digg
del.icio.us
Blink
Stumble
Spurl
Reddit
Netscape
Furl
Article keywords: business, employee relations, ethics
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com
Melissa Vokoun is a successful Business Advisor, Coach and Trainer. To learn more about the services available, please visit the website at: http://www.coachingqueen.com or call 847-392-6886.
|
|
| Top Ethics Articles |
- 1). Ethics & Leadership in Business Development By : William Scheessele
In the 25 + years of working with some of the best people in Business Development within the power generation industry, we have found some unique characteristics that separate these individuals from the rest. It doesn’t seem to matter what organization they work for, or the services, the client base or the economic climate. We find that these individuals are in fact the top 3% of the professionals in their field.
|
|
|
- 3). How to Gain Respect and Support for Yourself and Your Business By : Kunbi Korostensky
To gain respect from others, you have to respect yourself first. People will give you their undying respect as long as they recognise that you portray these 3 key attrib-utes: trustworthiness, integrity and mindfulness. Because having these qualities demonstrates your level of consciousness and maturity.
|
- 4). What Investigative Reporting Entails By : paul wilson1
The field of investigative reporting involves bringing to the fore facts and figure that affect human interests and fair governance. This means conducting in depth research, looking at public records, doing extensive interviews, as well as checking and rechecking of facts before publication. Whether print or television, investigative reporting is essentially “watchdog” reporting.
|
- 5). Titanic Precautions By : Sean North
Many movies have been made about the tragic story of the Titanic. Arrogance and ignorance was definitely present during its maiden voyage, which was Titanic’s last voyage.
Many warnings were given, but unfortunately, the warnings were not taken seriously. On April 14th, 1912 Titanic received six warnings that icebergs were present in their perimeter.
|
- 6). Your lenders are spying on your clients By : Ameen
As mortgage brokers we are always in jeopardy of losing our customers to the lenders we work with.
We deal with our clients for a short amount of time, but the lender is in constant communication with them for years. And whenever your customers are asked who their mortgage company is, they will usually answer the name of their lender.
Some lenders are better at stealing our clients then others.
|
- 7). Your Job May Be Killing You By : Nicky Pilkington
If asked if your job is stressful, chances are you would answer with an emphatic "Boy is it ever"! Work is by far the leading source of stress in our lives. Nine out of ten people say they experience high levels of stress several times a week. And one out of four of us have high stress levels every day.
|
- 8). How To Solve Unsolvable Problems By : Saleem Rana
When Willis H. Carrier was a young man, he worked for the Buffalo Forge Company in Buffalo, New York. He remembered that one of his toughest projects was the installation of a gas-cleaning device in a plant of the Pittsburgh Glass Company at Crystal City, Missouri. While the device, designed to clean gas as it burned without damaging the engines, worked properly, it was new and had only been tried once under different conditions.
As Willis worked on this project, problems arose – because, while the device did work, it did not work properly.
|
- 9). Workplace Violence: A Growing Concern By : Jeffrey Miller
Workplace violence has become one of the biggest concerns for managers, corporate executives and Human Resource Departments in the past several years. In fact, the shear number of incidents of workplace violence is staggering...
|
- 10). You Can Control Your Wellness By : Lee Dobbins
Is there a key to living a longer healthier life? Why does it seem that some cultures live longer than others? Do they have secrets to living a long, healthy life?
|
| New Ethics Articles |
|
|
|
|
|
|
- 4). The Great Importance of Doing Business with Ethics By : Victorino Q. Abrugar
For most people, money makes the world go round and business bears that money. Businessmen will perhaps do anything just to achieve the ultimate goal of having a business, and that is to earn income. Net profit or income financially means a surplus of sales or revenues after deducting costs and expenses. Whether you are engage in profession, occupation, work or trade, you are in business and you speak income.
|
- 5). Your lenders are spying on your clients By : Ameen
As mortgage brokers we are always in jeopardy of losing our customers to the lenders we work with.
We deal with our clients for a short amount of time, but the lender is in constant communication with them for years. And whenever your customers are asked who their mortgage company is, they will usually answer the name of their lender.
Some lenders are better at stealing our clients then others.
|
- 6). Giveaways by Web Site Draw in Consumers By : Samuel Martin
Toy surprises buried in cereal boxes or in bags of popular snacks have been a marketing tactic for as long as package goods have been sold in supermarkets. Most people probably can't even imagine a Cracker Jack box without a prize inside.
Giveaways are not just for kids; adults have long participated in incentive giveaways ranging from a free tote with the purchase of makeup or perfume at a department store, to $500 gift cards with a new account at the local bank.
|
- 7). Cheating in America, A National Pastime By : Fred DiUlus
Look around. Today, more than ever before, it has become fashionable to cheat. One could say, and come away without too much criticism, that everyone expects it. The funny thing is the person who expects it, or observes it, or knows someone who does it, never does it themselves. Ironically, they actually believe they are not infected. As noted, this is a national pastime.
|
- 8). For the Love of Charity! The Economics of Parasitism By : Croydon J Hounslow
This morning, as I emerged blinking from Chancery Lane station on my way to work, I was confronted by a young lady sporting a nylon tunic emblazoned with the words ‘Every Child’ and a fat clipboard full of Direct Debit forms. As I approached, she began to play out some ridiculous dumb show of desperation worthy of the sad clown in a cut-price circus and entreating myself and the guy walking immediately ahead of me to “Pleeeeeease stop and talk to me!” in pathetic, ‘can-I-have-a-pony-Daddy?’ tones.
|
- 9). Protecting your Corporate Identity By : Russell A.
When it comes to corporate identity and logo design, copyright infringement has become an increasingly prevalent issue. As more and more small businesses find they need a logo to stay competitive, the demand has created a plethora of logo design firms that offer a variety of services from stock clipart images to custom design services.
However, because.
|
- 10). Life is a scam By : Chip Underdog
What can you do? Most of life is really one form of scam or another. The biggest scams are being uncovered as scientists peel away the layers of reality to reveal that nothing is really as firm as we believe them to be. A piece of wood may look solid enough so that if one were to be hit in the head with it, some form of damage would be inflicted on skin of the head if not fracturing the skull itself.
|
|
|
