In order to set out an efficient working environment, a manager should administer properly both employees’ and employer’ rights. In assistance HR department can help into defying the boundary line between common law, company’s policies and tradition, clearing out rights for both employees and employer and to:
– Developing and enforcing those policies that informs about employees’ rights and responsibilities
– Making managers aware of employees’ rights and managers’ obligations
– Acting as an employee advocate
When a manager respects his employees, rights lessons the likelihood of a costly grievance procedure or lawsuit. An employee right is defined as the ability to engage in conduct that is protected by law or social sanction, free from interference by another party (in this case the employer). Regarding employee right we recognize three main rights: Statutory, Contractual and other rights.
Statutory right, concerning the right protected by a specific law, enacted by a government. For instance we mention the EEOC, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, makes sure employees are not discriminated whereas discrimination law is one of those statutory right. Another of this right would be represented by OSHA, requiring a safe working environment or as well as NLRB, National Labor Relations Board, instituting the right to participate in an union.
Contractual rights are based on the law of contracts. Where a contract is defined as a legally binding promise between two or more competent parties. Both employees and employers have rights and obligations, and an employer will explicitly list out in an employment contract the terms of the employment relationship for both parties.
Other rights are regarding the right to have ethical treatment, the right to privacy and to free speech which are limited because they need to comply with other general policy within the company. The first, the right to ethical treatment is based on employees’ expectations of being treated as other employees, producing what is also called a psychological contract. Employers who uphold this psychological contract have more productive employees, thus managers and supervisors can influence their firm’s climate of fairness and ethical behavior by:
– Take proactive actions in order to establish trust
– Act consistently and avoid white lies
– Adhere to clear standards and ensure employees are treated equitably
Another right to carefully manage is the still limited right to privacy. On one hand employees are aware that they have the right to protect their personal affairs from intrusions, on the other hand managers needs to prepare and list specific HR-related information about each employee, also known with the name of Personnel file. A personnel file includes salary history, disciplinary actions and career milestones. If this type of right is more protected under the Privacy Act in 1974 which guarantees the privacy of personnel file for employees of the U.S. federal government, we cannot say the same happening in private sector as well.
Another right which is dangerous to administer because of the thin limit between employees and employers’ rights is the right to free speech. This is one of the most universal right, but still it can be defined as limited within a firm’s competence, especially when a comment or a judgement made by an employee can damage the company’s perception in the customers’ eyes.
On the other side we do have employers’ rights also known as Management Rights. These can be summed up as the right of the manager to run the business and retain any profits that result and it includes the right to manage the workforce and the right to hire, as well as promote, assign, discipline or discharge employees. Apropos discharging employees, the only exception is given to those employees who did not sign an employment contract and they can quit the job at any time. One of the biggest right is the employment at will, concerning the right of an employer to assert the end of an employment relationship at any time for any cause. This type of right has limitations in certain situations, whereas the limitations can be grouped into three categories:
– Public policy exceptions, where an employee may not be discharged for engaging in activities that are protected by the law, for example when an employee refuse to violate professional code of ethics.
– Implied contracts, whenever an employer makes an oral or written promise of a job security. Most of the time is because of misleading employee handbook, not updated.
– Lack of good faith and fair dealing.
In the perspective of a manager, administering discipline or attempting to manage it must not be easy especially when HR professional require walking a thin line between the rights of employees and those of management, such as when they need to administer their employees with random drug testing, electronic monitoring, whistle-blowing, moonlighting and office romance.
Random Drug testing is usually administered through urine analysis and it is usually given to screen employees for the use of drug, randomly without any suspicion or cause. Usually it is implemented in phases which precede hiring decision, especially in professional sports league known as “pre-employment drug test”. Although a manager decides to give a probable cause drug test when an employee had accidents, or engaged in a unsafe job or shows clear signs of drug use.
Electronic Monitoring, usually implemented in working environment which have previously dealt with theft of merchandise, embezzlement, industrial espionage, computer crime, acts of sabotage and misuse of time on the job. A manager should use appropriate tools in order to monitor its working environment without intimidating or invading employees’ privacy, providing guidelines on how to use properly electronic devices, and developing a systematic antitheft policy such as reference checks or integrity tests.
Whistleblowing happens when an employee disclosure of an employer’s illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices to persons or organizations that may be able to take corrective actions. Best solutions to avoid expensive consequences is to establish a whistle-blowing policy that encourages people to reveal misconduct internally. In developing an effective whistle-blowing policy a manager should:
– Get input from top level management and get approval for the final version of the policy
– Develop a written policy that is communicated to employees through multiple media
– Make possible to submit initial complaint anonymously
– Develop a formal investigative process and communicate employees exactly how their reports will be handled.
A whistleblower may be shunned, harassed or even fired thus people who happens to see misconduct are not always motivated to speak out.
Moonlighting refers to when your employee holds a second job outside the normal working hours. Nowadays there are many reasons for moonlighting although the core one is inflation is rising and one salary is not enough to live according to our standards, thus in this specific case manager are careful to provide restrictions. Generally, managers take case-by-case approach and rely on job performance evaluators and conflict-of-interest policy to manage moonlighting. Nevertheless, a manager issues a restriction if the employer has the second job provided by a direct competitor and a conflict-of-interest exists.
Office Romance, commonly employees get more than acquainted with their fellow colleagues, and often office romance needs to be handled with common sense and providing general guidelines to managers such as: thinking before disclosing any relationship in the office and who will be the recipient of this personal information, avoid any public display of affection which might interfere with the working environment.
In the matter of disciplining the employees, supervisors use employee discipline as a tool to communicate to employees that they need to change behavior. There are two different approaches to employee disciplines:
Progressive Discipline is most commonly used, and it consists of a series of management interventions that gives employees opportunities to correct undesirable behaviors before being discharged. Generally it involves four steps: (1) Verbal warning whereas employee has an unexcused absence from work, he/she will get a verbal warning about it, (2) Written warning whereas the same employee will receive a written warning whenever she/he takes another unexcused absence, (3) Suspension follows and manager decides to give a period of unpaid time and (4) final step for that employee who still does not show up with a justifiable reason will be Discharged.
Positive Discipline involves an administering procedure that encourages employees to monitor their own behaviors and assume responsibilities for their actions. Positive discipline replaces the punishments used in progressive discipline with counselling sessions between employee and supervisor.
We differ from minor violations such as absenteeism, dress code violation, smoking rule violation, incompetence, safety rule violation, sleeping on the job, horseplay, tardiness; from serious violation such as drug use at work, theft, dishonesty, physical assault upon a supervisor and sabotage of company operations.
Managers must ensure that employees are disciplined receiving the due process. Two important elements of due process are (1) the standards of discipline used to determine whether the employee was treated fairly and (2) whether the employee has the right to appeal a disciplinary action.
(1) Communication of rules and performance criteria, whereas every employee should be aware of the company’s rule and standards and consequences of violating them. Documentations of the facts, whereas managers should gather enough evidence to justify the discipline and consistent response to rule violations. In case of wrongful discharge that involve statutory rights or employment at will, the U.S. courts requires the employer to prove the employee to be discharged for just cause. Just Cause involves the answering to 7 questions, whereas if there is failure to answer “yes” to one or more it suggests that the discipline may have been unwarranted. Questions regards the notification of the warnings, if the managers provided a reasonable motive, or if manager provided investigation before issuing the discipline, or if this investigation was fair or not. (2) For a disciplinary system to be effective, employers must have access to an appeals procedure in which others are called to examine the facts.
On the other side of administering disciplines, there is the matter on how to best manage difficult employees. Managers are likely to encounter common problems such as poor attendance, poor performance, insubordination, workplace bullying and substance abuse.
Poor Attendance includes also absenteeism and/or tardiness. Whenever a manager needs to discipline poor attendance, they need to consider several factors such as the attendance rule flexibility, whether the employee has been informed on how much flexible the attendance flexibility is or either are some special circumstances here to be considered?
Poor performance usually works together with the performance appraisal within a company. Sometimes an employee’s performance is so serious that requires immediate interventions, in general managers should follow three guidelines when applying discipline for poor performance:
– A company’s performance standards should be reasonable and communicated to all employees.
– Poor performing should be documented and reported to the employee whom performance is decreasing efficiency
– Managers should embrace a good faith attempt to give employees an opportunity to improve their performance before disciplining them.
Insubordination consists either of a refusal to obey a direct order from a supervisor or a verbal abuse of a supervisor. The seriousness of insubordination depends on mitigating factors, such as employee’s work history and length of service, and whether the employee was provoked by a supervisor. Company should create internal systems and cultures that allows employees to appeal charges of insubordinate behaviors.
Workplace Bullying, involves a form of harassment that consists of a persistent pattern of offensive, abusive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviors focused at a target employee. According to OSHA workplace bullying is repeated, unreasonable behavior directed towards an employee, or group of employees that creates a risk to health and safety, and it is likely to occur in those organizational culture that condones bullying, in those organizations where there is insecure employment, poor relationship between staff and management, where there is an extreme work demand and generally increased level of WRS, standing for work related stress. At the organizational level, the costs of bullying result in higher absenteeism and staff turnover, reduced effectiveness and productivity of the overall workforce. In order to prevent bullying, it is important to take early action and encouraging employees to denounce any misconduct happening on the workplace. OSHA suggest formulating a policy with clear guidelines for positive social interactions including the outlining of acceptable behaviors, ethical commitment to foster an environment bullying free.
Violence at work concerns aggressive or violent acts taking the form of uncivil behaviors, physical or verbal aggression, or assault. Risky environments are largely concentrated in the service sector, especially in organizations working in health, transport, retail, financial and education sectors. Most common risk factors for violence at work are working places where its handled goods, cash and valuables, lone work, poorly managed organization. Prevention takes form in two levels, the first is to basically prevent the acts of violence, and the second is to support the victim once the violence has generated. OSHA suggests that in order to prevent violent acts, manager should inform staff and train them on how to deal in certain situations, along with the support provided for the victim of the violence.
Alcohol-related misconduct, using alcohol on the job and coming to work intoxicated are considered serious misconduct and can lead to harsh discipline. A Manager should carefully identify those employees whose alcohol problems can lead to decreased level of work performance.
Illegal Drug use and abuse, by employees on the workplace can be a serious challenge to managers. The problems associated with drug use are similar to those associated with alcohol, although the key difference is that drug is illegal and socially unacceptable and it is seen more dangerous than alcohol addiction. As well as the alcoholic employee, managers should develop EAP, employee assistance programs, in order to provide efficient solutions for those troubled employees.
Managers should take a strategic and proactive approach in designing Human Resources Management systems (HRM) with the intent of saving time and costs about employee discipline. By spending more time and resources on these areas, managers can tackle problems at their roots:
– Recruitment and Selection, selecting the right employees for current position and future opportunities
– Training and development, training and developing workers according to company’s policies
– Human Resources Planning, by designing jobs and career paths that best take advantage of people’s talents
– Performance Appraisals, by designing effective performance appraisals systems to reward employees
– Compensation, administering compensation according to pay policies, ethically distributing according to each employee’s job.
Case 01
In 2016, a New York police deputy inspector was charged with sexual abuse, forcible touching, official misconduct, and harassment of a female officer. (New York Times, 2016). Workplace sexual harassment and assault are widespread and affect women’s economic advancement and security. Also, it can result in financial losses for employers. In recent years, the #MeToo movement has raised the visibility of sexual harassment and assault. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) recommends that employers should assess risk factors in their organization, practice anti-harassment policies, train managers on how to respond if sexual harassment happens, and ensure that discipline is used if harassment occurs.
Case 02
In 2015, Fox News reported about an unpleasant phenomenon happening in restaurants. Waiters had been adding offensive remarks on customer receipts. Hurtful, sexually suggestive, or racist comments were put into a restaurant’s computer system and then showed up on the check. Experts say that this kind of bad behavior originates from the growth of social media and lack of training. Jobs in the food industry are low-paid, require little experience but demand customer service skills (Fox News. 2015). The described problem could probably have been avoided with appropriate orientation and job-specific training, in this case, customer service. If the employees, regardless of the instructions given, use offensive language, disciplinary actions should be applied.
References:
Goméz-Mejía, Balkin & Cardy 2016. Managing Human Resources. 18th ed. Pearson education. Global edition.
Mele, C. Baker, A. “New York Police Inspector Is Charged With Sexually Abusing Female Officer” New York Times, November 18, 2016 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/nyregion/new-york-police-sexual-abuse-of-officer.html?_r=0 – Accessed: 10 October, 2020.
McCarthy, S. “Receipt rage: Why food is being served with a side of hate” FoxNews.com, November 25, 2016 https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/receipt-rage-why-food-is-being-served-with-a-side-of-hate – Accessed: 10 October, 2020.
fernandopbl.home.blog 