Breaking bad behaviour

Jo Douglas highlights alternative methods of responding to bad behaviour in the workplace.

Those who work in the employment law space are realising the extent to which psychological complexities contribute to, or are connected to, many employment problems such as undesirable behaviour or conduct in the workplace, poor performance or disengagement.  

The two are, many times, inextricably linked.

Causation, attribution of fault, and then negative outcomes (such as loss of a job) are often the focus of employment issues from a legal perspective.   

Yet the real underlying reason why someone has transgressed is often left untouched, and therefore likely to happen again.     

Employers must follow an investigation before they can decide if someone is at fault and before disciplinary action is taken. This makes sense because employers should avoid jumping to conclusions.

However, at times the standard and complexity of these investigations is becoming detrimental to achieving the sense of justice and fairness intended. This is often necessitated due to the fear of a costly challenge and having the ‘process’ picked apart. 

Is there another way?

Employers might consider how they can tackle problem behaviour before it gets to the formal stage when employment is at risk. Caught early enough, the response might be focused through professional coaching or counselling to explore, understand and bring about real change in behaviour together with boundary setting and positive reward (thereby avoiding or minimising the need for punishment).

An investigation by its very nature prompts a defensive, argumentative, and legalistic response.   Very few people faced with such an investigation feel safe to admit ownership of a problem and thereby start working on it from within.

Not only that, but the process is hugely time consuming, distracting and stressful for managers.   Commonly, the mental stress and trauma experienced by managers and employers dealing with these investigations and subsequent challenge is also neglected and not even acknowledged. 

What would alternative coaching/counselling achieve?

People face challenging situations in their work lives and a level of resilience will allow them to respond to those challenges in a way in which they can grow and respond.  

When people behave badly, particularly around communication, they are often operating from a place of fear or stress.    

By always looking at who’s at fault when a situation falls apart stops us from looking at how the people involved might be able to respond better next time. How can they be taught resilience to manage themselves and be motivated to follow through when it matters?

This is where the real work starts. Otherwise, there’s a high chance people will get caught in a repetitive behaviour loop. 

Does an individual’s history matter?

People come to the employment relationship with their own ways of responding when things get tough. Simply punishing people for those patterns of behaviour through an investigation and disciplinary outcome is unlikely to bring about real change due to that history.  

Ongoing patterns of behaviour can be learnt at a young age through family and then work dynamics in an individual’s early working careers. If a junior team member is not provided with the level of respect or support that is required given the difficult learning curve that they face they may go on to repeat inappropriate behaviours seen by management as they progress through their own careers. Bad behaviour can be learnt and repeated.

What can be done?

Increasingly employers are recognising the benefit of investing in their staff to support well-being. While we see many employers having employee assistance programs, when you speak to those individuals who go through those programs, they do not get what they need. It is not enough or not targeted to their specific issue. It generally has nothing to do with their employment and the skills they need to safely navigate today’s complex work environment.

One-on-one coaching allows a deeper exploration of issues tailored to an individual and their patterns of behaviour and communication. For a deeper dive, psychological services and/or specialised counselling may be necessary to really unpack those patterns of behaviour which could have been learned in childhood or in some earlier experience.

These are difficult areas for employers to grapple with. There are deep privacy concerns around discussing true well-being, particularly if mental health is not at the optimum level.   

Investment in this space also takes money, time and resources.

However, handled sensitively and genuinely, many employees would relish the opportunity to work on themselves if that opportunity is framed around personal growth.  

The challenge for employment relations moving forward will be to move away from a focus on blame, fault finding and interrogation and instead focus on setting people up for success.  Getting them ready to face whatever challenge they may face in their working career. 

Let’s stop hiding from challenge but set people up to embrace it, be resilient and thrive.  

Jo Douglas is a partner at Douglas Erickson, employment lawyers. Email [email protected]