Getting sick is a fact of life but what happens when an employee is also starting to slowly under-perform and you’re finding it hard to broach the topics? This scenario is made all the harder because you know: If you terminate an employee for taking an entitlement to leave, you’ll face some very stiff consequences (called an ‘adverse action’). If you manage the employee’s under-performance and in any way make it because of taking leave – there remain stiff consequences …
Apply First-Aid to your performance issues in 3 easy steps
Chances are that regular readers and clients will have heard me quip at least once that ‘if I could earn a dollar just for kick starting a discussion about performance with employees I’d be a very wealthy man‘! This is perhaps a slight exaggeration but it has its basis in the fact that I’m regularly involved in discussions about an employee ‘just not performing’ or ‘not being part of the team’. For the record, if you own or manage a …
What’s the most dreaded employee conversation?
If you said having to address an employee’s bad body odour then you’re certainly not alone! The first time I heard this example from someone, I was struck by the terror they felt at getting it wrong. They hadn’t started the day to cross socially acceptable boundaries like this let alone with an employee with protections from a poorly handled insult to their dignity! Given I recently heard this as yet another example of the worst conversation to have with an …
Unfair dismissal…and casuals?
Hands up if you know that casual staff can’t claim for unfair dismissal? If that’s you – think again. In the 2018 decision Gwatkin v Sai Group of Businesses t/as Premier Hotel Pinjarra*, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) held that a casual employee was entitled to an unfair dismissal remedy on the basis they met the minimum employment period, that their work pattern was ‘regular and systematic’ and they had an ongoing expectation of work. [cue sound of record needle …
Small Business Fair Dismissal Code
Small businesses have different rules for dismissal which are set out in the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code (the Code). A small business is any business with fewer than 15 employees calculated on a simple headcount of all employees who are employed on a regular and systematic basis. This includes any casuals employed on a regular and systematic basis. The Small Business Fair Dismissal Code provides protection for small business employers against unfair dismissal claims, where an employer follows the …
Help! My employee is in custody!
It is not uncommon to find that an employee’s personal life sometimes comes crashing into their work place. Perhaps it’s just the Saturday morning netball injury meaning they’re off work for a week or a more serious illicit drug or alcohol problem where the employee is absent for days at a time (or every second Monday for some reason). But what about when things turn serious and suddenly you find an employee is in custody? Surely these types of examples …