Chapter 20

Ten Things You Should Never Do At Work

In This Chapter

arrow Keeping in mind family and business problems don’t mix

arrow Understanding blaming others won’t cut it

arrow Realising sleeping with the boss is a recipe for disaster

arrow Understanding your behaviour sets the tone

arrow Making the tough decisions now

arrow Knowing that honesty is the best policy

Y ou may have read about, or even encountered during your working career, the bad boss, the moody boss, the uninspiring boss, the psychopathic boss, and the boss who won’t spend any money, except on themselves. A little self-reflection goes a long way if you wish to avoid becoming one of those bosses in your own small business. Buy yourself one of those really large mirrors and remember to have a good hard look at yourself occasionally. In this chapter, I describe the things that you most definitely should not do at work.

Bring Family Problems to Work

The prevailing attitude to work and family was once quite clear: Leave your family life behind you when you come to work. Now it’s not so clear. An array of HR beliefs, supported by employment regulations, mitigate against this traditional division of work and family, such as:

  • ompassionate leave
  • Flexible work arrangements
  • Parental leave
  • Personal leave
  • Workplace rights

Counselling services are available when work becomes too stressful, and workers compensation and return to work plans whenever an employee suffers psychological damage. All of this is fine and good for your staff, but for you as the boss, a line exists that you shouldn’t cross when it comes to sharing your life’s ups and downs at work.

When working out where the line is, you need to keep in mind that the intimate details of your personal and family life aren’t anybody else’s business. I appreciate that you can’t separate yourself completely from the emotional highs and lows that family and other personal matters have on you, but you shouldn’t deliberately share them with staff or use them as an excuse to treat staff badly.

remember_4c_fmt If you bring your problems into work, don’t be surprised when others do exactly the same.

Blame Others for Your Mistakes

It’s your business, your decision, your money, your life. Do I have to say any more? If it doesn’t work, the fault is yours, not the government’s, not the union’s, not the bank’s and certainly not your staff’s (however incompetent some of them may be — after all, you hired them). Success has many parents but failure is an orphan. If you see a mistake, fix it. If you see an opportunity, take it. If you don’t see the risks, you will suffer the failures alone. This is as true in employment as it is for your other business investments.

Play Favourites

I know that some staff are really good and others aren’t so wonderful and some are just a pain in the proverbial. However, playing favourites can get you into trouble when it comes to employment, promotion, wage negotiations, and dismissals. I don’t mean you shouldn’t reward the good workers and sanction those who do the wrong thing. But you do have to contextualise every decision around the specific employment obligations, the operational needs of the business, and the regulatory boundaries such as modern awards, minimum wages, the NES, unfair dismissal and anti-discrimination laws. This is not easy to do, so a bit of common sense and an old-fashioned, even-handed approach to staff is the best policy.

Sleep with Staff (Not a Good Look)

Picture any one of these scenarios: You’re working late, you’re travelling overnight for business, you’ve had a few too many drinks at the Christmas function and Judy, Kevin or Chris at work is really attractive and really understands what you are going through . . . stop, danger, don’t go there!

A few moments of pleasure may spell the end of your small business. Remember how you and your spouse are joint directors in the business? Remember that joint bank account? What about the other family employed in the business?

Getting involved personally, emotionally or physically with staff will complicate your life and business in many ways that you can’t anticipate, and your business may no longer even be your business anymore. The Family Court may divide it up and the bank or ATO may end up closing it down.

Pay Yourself before Others

It’s your business but your employees stand in front of you in the line when the wages are handed out. They don’t risk their capital like you do but they don’t reap the same reward either. Their stake in the business is their time, knowledge, skills and effort. Therefore, they get paid before you do. It’s the law.

Act Inconsistently

If you can’t stay on track, how can you expect staff to stay focused on the end game? Nothing confuses staff more than an unpredictable boss, and the surest way to lose good employees is to confuse them. Acting inconsistently is frustrating and will impact adversely on productivity, confidence and trust.

Put in place a clear performance plan for each and every employee. Each plan should have objectives that are SMART — that is, specific, measureable, ambitious but realistic and time-bound. Once these objectives are set, work with staff on how they’re going to achieve them, and be consistent in how you encourage, cajole, support, reward and even growl at them to achieve these objectives. People will accept a hard boss who’s also a fair boss. But they will walk out the door if you’re an erratic boss.

Avoid Saying Good Morning

Greeting your staff cheerfully won’t cost you anything, and your demeanour sets the tone for everyone. The culture of a workplace is established by the leader. Hello? That means you. If you want a happy and welcoming business environment, you need to set the standard.

tip_4c_fmt I would love to have a dollar for all of the sweetly worded employment policies I’ve read that state a business’s commitment to equality, respect, honesty and shared values — all while the bosses just go about doing whatever they want and treating staff anyway they please. Hypocrisy is the worst trait of any boss, so I will spell it out for you. Hypocrisy is the act of falsely claiming to possess characteristics (such as virtue, honesty and integrity) but living very differently. Live the values that you claim to hold by taking a genuine interest in the people you employ. Start by saying good morning — and really mean it.

Jump to Conclusions (and Over the Cliff)

When everything is falling apart and it seems clear to you that an employee has really stuffed up, stop and think before you act. Leaping to conclusions is usually the greatest mistake that employers facing unfair dismissal claims have made. You can warn or dismiss employees who have performed or acted badly, but you must give them an opportunity to tell you their side of the story before you act.

A fair procedure is not difficult:

  1. Find out the facts from those who know.
  2. Invite the employee to explain the performance or conduct.
  3. Be open and honest about the problem with the performance or conduct.
  4. Unless it is serious misconduct, give the employee an opportunity to improve.
  5. Support the employee to improve.
  6. If no improvement is made, dismiss the employee.

An entire industry is built around suing businesses that dismiss bad staff without a fair procedure. Make sure that you don’t get caught in this very expensive industry, because you will be the one signing the cheque.

Put Off Important Decisions to another Day

Work performance may be unsatisfactory, arguments between staff annoying and conflict just bubbling below the surface but you really don’t have time to deal with it now. Make time — otherwise, these issues will explode in your face and cost you more.

Intervention to prevent or resolve staff conflict and unsatisfactory performance is a bit like any other action necessary to build the success of your small business — timing is everything. If you miss the opportunity, events may just pass you by and any benefit that you could have reaped will disappear.

Forget Honesty Is Truly the Best Policy

Don’t mislead the people you rely upon as to what is truly going on in your business, and don’t blind yourself to the truth. Don’t promise to do something for an employee that you can’t or won’t do.

remember_4c_fmt I am often contacted by desperate small-business employers facing unfair dismissal claims, demands by government inspectors or conflicts with staff, and the issue is always the same. They have not told the truth and are desperately trying to dig themselves out of a big hole. You will always get into trouble if you’re not open and transparent. Experts such as lawyers, judges and government officials are paid to expose dishonesty so just don’t go there.