Live Q & A: Dealing with a difficult colleague
Not getting on with your co-workers? Our panel will be coming online to talk about everything from confronting your boss and improving relationships with colleagues to the ins and outs of your legal rights

Tweet This Page

Workplace investigations can be time consuming and distracting from normal business.  Employers can find the process daunting or may believe an investigation is unnecessary in the particular circumstances. However, if an investigation is not carried out or handled badly the consequences can include employment tribunal and claims of unfair dismissal. Additionally, the integrity of the workplace procedures will be undermined.

The importance of even handed and fair workplace investigations has been highlighted by recent employment law where a dismissal for gross misconduct was ruled as unfair due to a failure to carry out a proper investigation: Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust v Roldan [2010] EWCA Civ 522 www.employmentcasesupdate.co.uk

Tweet This Page

In this case the individuals were elected public servants, not employees, and the case was pursued through legal channels. It is interesting to consider possible approaches to dealing with this case had the individuals been employees.

Would mediation or counselling have been appropriate?

Tweet This Page

• Create a common understanding of the behaviour that is acceptable in your workplace

• Raise managers’ skills and confidence to manage interpersonal conflict quickly and effectively

• Promote respect for personal and professional boundaries

• Practice open communication

Recognising and resolving inappropriate workplace behaviour launched 8 June 2010 click here to read more in HR Magazine.

Tweet This Page

“She was very difficult to work with, she made errors, she didn’t read instructions properly and everything became very confusing as a result.  When I tried to talk to her about it she became defensive, aggressive really, sending me comments to my notes in RED BLOCK CAPITAL LETTERS, telling me I’d given the wrong instructions.  Everyone was working flat out at the time so I just got on and made the best of it but it was a nightmare experience, tip toeing around her.  Once the project was completed I was inclined to let it lie and probably would have if I wasn’t going to be working with her again quite soon.  Because of this I decided to give her some feedback by way of an email, on my experience of the process.

I thought my email was respectful, I gave specific examples, didn’t use any language that could be construed as rude or emotive, it definitely wasn’t an attack on her personally.  I even asked a colleague who had no stake in the project for his opinion before I sent it.

Within five minutes of pressing send I got an email back from her, telling me she didn’t like my attitude, that I was rude and unprofessional, lots of block capitals and exclamation marks.  I was astonished, I felt quite sick it was so aggressive.  I was on the verge of sending her an angry email back when a colleague told me to take a breather.  He was very calming, he told me not to respond so quickly and take some time out to think about what would be achieved by an angry email and to consider the outcome I really wanted.

After thinking about it I decided that not much would be gained by buying into this email exchange but I couldn’t bear carrying this stuff with me.  It made me feel miserable and it was unfair.  So I reluctantly spoke to my manager, I felt bad about that, she had so much on at the time.  She was good though, and suggested we got someone to facilitate a meeting between us.  My manager suggested it should be someone who wasn’t directly involved in our work and who would take an independent approach.

The woman wasn’t keen on a meeting, she said there was no reason, and she didn’t want other managers involved talking about her.  My manager sorted it and got her to agree to mediation, I think this may have been because of the assurance of confidentiality.

The Mediator was fantastic, he encouraged us to look at each other’s point of view, what we needed from each other, what would make it better for both of us, at the end I think we were both reassured and had a clear agreement to work to as the way forward.

I can’t bear to think what would have happened when we started on the next project if we hadn’t had the mediation.  We’re not big buddies but we get along fine and have a clear understanding of what the other one needs to work together.”

Tweet This Page

“I’m not a manager to be popular”

“It’s my job to deliver, not for the team to like me”

The new manager said this was true, she would be measured on results – did it matter if the team liked her as long as these were achieved?  The new manager said she would be part of the management team now and would get her support from them – did it matter if the people she managed liked her?

This approach became even more attractive to her when we looked at the experience of some managers who had wanted their team to like them. These included:

“I wanted them to be happy and I wanted to be happy because they were happy.  Looking back I tried to make individuals happy, sometimes at the expense of the organisation.”

“I was always looking for the ‘win- win’ but what I didn’t realise was that the win should have been for the organisation and not the person. In trying to find the ‘win-win’ I consistently ended up with ‘lose-lose’.”

The new manager said these negative experiences showed it would be best to adopt the “I’m not a manager to be popular” mind set.  We agreed, she was not in her new role to be popular, and as a manager she had a responsibility to manage the performance of her team to achieve objectives and targets.

We then talked about the difference between being liked and being respected.  I asked the new manager if she would be happy with the following real life feedback:

“He asks you to do something then he wants you to stop and do something else – he likes to show us that he’s the one in charge.  We know he’s in charge but we don’t respect him because of the way he gives out instructions in such a disorganised way.”

“I think she’s just strung out, but the atmosphere is awful, tense and edgy.  She’s the one in charge so it has to be her who’s creating the atmosphere.”

“He’s the only manager who acts like this.  I haven’t seen any of the others act in inappropriate ways or make their staff feel useless.”

The new manager said “absolutely not” and her aim was to be respected not necessarily liked.

This new manager left our discussion with a clear aim to gain the respect of her team not by being popular but as a result of responsible management practices, which would include cultivating an open and constructive approach to giving and receiving feedback.

Tweet This Page

In the course of my work I interview all types of employee about their experiences of workplace behaviour.  The disruption caused by the misuse of the term “bully” is an ongoing theme.

Misuse of the term “bully” can have a devastating effect on the organisation, individual workers and teams:

* A distraction from daily business
* Complex and time consuming investigations
* The impact of the decisions taken
* Rising levels of work related stress and high absence are just some examples.

Creating a workplace where workers are skilled and confident to raise their concerns early and informally, as well as improving their knowledge and understanding of the phrase “bullying at work” can go a long way towards preventing the real life scenario below:

“He made a wordy complaint in writing that I had bullied him. The company commissioned an investigation by an independent third party and they found no evidence whatsoever to support his allegations.

I had been responsible for advising his line manger on senior management’s decision.  Basically, the guy was frustrated with the message and decided to vent this by accusing me, the messenger, of bullying. I had two meetings with this guy, no email or other correspondence, no telephone calls or personal contact and he accused me of bullying him.

I was really stressed out during the investigation, it’s not pleasant to be accused unfairly like that.  I think I was the one being bullied for doing my job.”

————————————-

Here is an article written by Coreen Nugent on this theme in June 2009, titled “Workplace bullying: Top tips for tackling the problem” – click on the image :

Tweet This Page