In many aspects of our lives, but particularly in work we hear a lot about people “knowing their rights.” Overall, this is a good thing as it reflects an increased awareness of how we should be treated and how we should treat others. 

But it is easy to forget the other side of the coin.  This is understanding our responsibilities.  In order to be fair in our dealings with other people, we do need to understand our rights, but also fulfil our responsibilities. 

Do we really know what they are when we step through the office door? 

As an employee, our rights are...
 To be paid
 That our employer exercises reasonable care of us
 To have access to a grievance procedure
 To have mutual trust and confidence

To balance these, our responsibilities are...
 Duty of obedience; to accept a manager has the right to ask us to do something providing it is reasonable, safe and lawful 
 Duty to adapt; to accept changes are needed in workplaces
 Duty to exercise care; of ourselves, our colleagues and our employer’s property
 Duty of fidelity or good faith; that our actions are in the best interests of our employer at all times 

We are all operating in an uncertain climate at the moment, where there is often a lot of mistrust between employees and their employers, so being reminded of these rights and responsibilities from time to time can be a very useful way of ensuring we are building strong working relationships, which are based on trust.

One of our clients saw the benefits of this approach and last month we ran a highly interactive session for thirty team members on this very subject. The participants welcomed the opportunity to discuss openly the balance between having rights and understanding their responsibilities. One team member commented that it was useful to remember that there is a dual responsibility when you work for someone and the challenge is for both parties to live up to them. 

As Bill Maher, the American comedian said “We have a bill of rights. It is about time we had a bill of responsibilities”...

With Valentine’s Day just round the corner, how do you manage the thorny problem of relationships at work?

Romance at work is widespread – many of us spend a good third of our time at work, so it is not surprising that relationships often develop here.

And it is not all bad! Happy people are more motivated and more productive. Having a partner at work can mean couples have someone who can share the stresses and understand the strains.

But there are potential dangers. Most companies recognise it is unworkable, not to mention draconian, to try and ban interoffice relationships. 

Better to focus on the risks that might arise, such as unwanted romantic attention, relationships between line manager and team member, managing the fallout from a broken relationship, considering how to manage confidentiality concerns. 

Some companies have a specific Relationships policy, which will give guidance around what is appropriate and inappropriate for family relationships, as well as romantic ones. For example, ensuring managers are not involved in the recruitment of a close family member.  This sort of policy can offer clarity on romantic relationships, such as whether the company tolerates relationships between line manager and employee, without it being solely focussed on romantic situations.

A Conflict of interest policy could broach similar issues, without it being seen as an attempt to “ban” relationships.

Relationship breakdowns are one of the trickiest areas to manage, particularly if one of the couple brings a claim of harassment, because of their ex partner’s behaviour at work. In this situation, the employer could be partly liable and needs to take steps to make it clear this is not acceptable behaviour. Your harassment policy will be vital here.

Most of all ensure your managers have confidence to deal with difficult situations arising from inter office relationships. If a couple’s behaviour is leading to problems - which could be anything from flirtatious behaviour making people uncomfortable to the relationship causing distraction and loss of focus for the people involved – then the manager needs to deal with it.

As always, it is these grey areas which often cause managers most angst. Having some guidelines written into a “Behaviour at work” policy and getting managers discussing these situations and how to handle them can go a long way to ensuring they are dealt with before they get out of control.

If you are interested in exploring the whole subject of Managing Appropriate Behaviour at work, come along to our free seminar run in conjunction with Penningtons Solicitors on the 21st Feb. It will be a chance to ask questions on any aspect of behaviour at work and network with like minded professionals.

Look forward to seeing you there!

And have a happy, conflict-free Valentine’s Day!

It’s not easy being a manager – I know from personal experience.  But if January’s Management offerings are anything to go by many of us are making it harder than it needs to be. 

The high profile Sky Sports case has managers tackling a culture of inappropriate behaviour that should have been dealt with long ago and the Chief Exec at Carlisle city council is having to deal with some very heavy handed management by two of his team leaders attempting to manage performance via email. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-12307749

Perhaps on that basis we shouldn’t be too surprised that the Government think we need two years to assess if a new recruit is right for our business!  Their recommendation is to increase the qualifying period for employees before they can make a claim for unfair dismissal from one to two years. http://www.recruiter.co.uk/1008389.article?cmpid=REC04&cmptype=newsletter&email=true
The danger in my eyes is that some already lax management practices will become even laxer if managers think they have longer to make their minds up.

There are some key steps that managers should be taking to manage effectively, but often just don’t….

• Discussing and agreeing specific expectations.  The vast majority of people really welcome having clear direction
• Having regular face-to-face meetings.  How many times do you hear people saying “Communication here is rubbish”?  What they usually mean is they don’t know what their managers expect
• Noting down agreed action points and reviewing them.  Why do so many people tell us things are talked about, but never followed through or reviewed?
• We all like to know if we are on track with something.  Why do so few managers give constructive feedback?

Good managers are those who do these things and do them on a regular basis.  That way...

• They and their team members know what’s appropriate and what is not

• People know the boundaries; when to have a few minutes to show interest in someone without affecting targets and productivity
• They know if a new team member is suitable long before two years and deal with it at the right time and in the right way

   

Managing inappropriate behaviour during the festive season – prevention is better than cure!

The Christmas festivities are fast approaching –a time when most of us can look forward to an office party with our colleagues. But for some managers the arrival of the festive season creates an additional worry.  We encourage staff to “let their hair down” but what if this goes too far and people’s behaviour crosses the line...what should we do then? 

Managing inappropriate behaviour is one of the things most managers find difficult to deal with. And although there is a lot of advice out there surrounding your legal obligations as a manager or employer, there isn't a great deal of guidance on actually dealing with such situations. One of the key steps is to make sure your people are clear about expected standards of behaviour... it is never enough to just issue a policy. .. people never read them! You need to talk to your teams about what is acceptable and what is not and have some clear examples to ensure they really understand. Taking some simple steps like this can help prevent so many incidents from happening in the first place.
 
Take a look at our checklist for some steps that may help to ensure you  don’t end up having to have those “difficult conversations.”

We worked recently with the Markets in London - work places steeped in tradition - and helped them create a more comfortable working environment for everyone there. This was about getting people to think through that acceptable/unacceptable line and really consider the impact one person's behaviour has on another. Have a look at the case study to see how we approached this.

It is far better to try and prevent theses situiations from occurring than have to deal with them afterwards, but if you do have  an ongoing behaviour problem in your team we can help. Click here to have a look at our approach. Or call us for a chat.