How would you address...

Paige

I'm feeling a bit brain dead this afternoon...

We have an employee who is very disrespectful towards his supervisor. For example, when reviewing a financial statement he prepared, his supervisor pointed out an error. The employee said, “I didn’t do it." The supervisor said, “well who did it then?”

He said, “I don’t know and stop blaming me for everything. C’mon! This is small sh_t. I have bigger problems than to worry about small sh_t like this and I don’t care! That’s right, I don’t care.”

As it turns out, he did make the error. His reaction is similar to others he's had just recently. One more example...the supervisor had to remind the employee of proper dress code (wearing a tie) as he had not been doing it recently. The employee's response: "When it is hot at my desk – My comfort will come first."

So, we are going to counsel this employee regarding his disrespectful and inappropriate behavior towards his supervisor. Am I phrasing this correctly?

Gillian3

Yes, and use the example, with date and time, to demonstrate the words that you use.

lynn2008

Don't mince words, quote it exactly as the supervisor remembers it. UI and judges are used to seeing this type of language in statements.

I would suggest you do not let him get by with this again.

marc

I would not go after him for the language or for subjective behavior characteristics. Instead, consider the specific items, such as violating the dress code. Making errors that he would not admit to, using inappropriate language. That sort of thing. Defining disrespectful can be a trap, and there have been some recent court cases that make discipline based on disrespect that have been problematic.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-30-05 AT 03:50AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Marc is right. If it were a union setting, the discipline would not fly unless the emmployee hit the supervisor at least twice and that's almost no exaggeration. Although yours is probably not a union situation, even though I would quote the comments in the disciplinary writeup, I would put the most weight on the impact of his neglecting rules and the sloppiness of his work. This is the kind of situation where it works well to go with the one-two-three steps and fire or final warning.

In your disciplinary writup, concentrate on and carefully point out:

1) What was done incorrectly or in violation.
2) What would have been correct or acceptable.
3) The consequence to the company of his errors.
4) The consequence to him of repeat behaviors.

Document, signatures, file.
Document, signatures, file.
Document, signatures, file.
Terminate.