Careless talk costs lives!

Well, not lives perhaps, but certainly jobs, according to a recent decision by the Fair Work Australia Commission. An employee was recently sacked from her job for spreading rumours about her employer's alleged sex and drug habits. When she claimed "unfair dismissal" to the employment tribunal, the tribunal found that such a breach of trust on the part of the employee fully justified the employer's decision to terminate her employment.

Whilst this case is interesting enough by itself, it is merely the latest in a growing list of cases coming before the courts, both here and abroad, which feature actions brought where defamation, or loss of business, are claimed to result from what has become known as 'water-cooler' gossip. And the ramifications for both sides are potentially quite serious.

As an employer, you cannot (even if you want to) monitor every aspect of an employee’s actions during their period of employment. The 'policing' that would be required, not to mention the cost of employing extra staff and the oppressive atmosphere this would cause in the workplace, would be counter-productive and probably damaging to the business.

So you have to take your employees on trust to some extent and assume that, whilst they are at work, they will do what they should and in the way that they should. And, for the most part, that approach works.

Unfortunately a small minority of employees will not want to work to such a standard. Often, they will be the less capable workers, putting in less effort than is needed, and if you couple that with a fertile imagination it is easy to see how rumours, and especially malicious ones, can start.

But an employer needs to be able to protect their position, and whereas a disaffected employee used to simply spread their stories to a few people, at the coffee table perhaps, now the use of the internet and social networking sites means that the 'personal' tittle-tattle can now be read, instantly, by hundreds or thousands of people.

That is why we are now seeing legal actions being taken in this area – because a defamatory comment about an employer to one or two people, with little real damage arising, has turned into the potential for legal action, with the potential for significant damage to the reputation of the person being defamed, and/or significant financial loss to the organisation concerned.

So what can be done?

If you are an employee, you must at all times be aware that, just as potential employers may look at Facebook, or Twitter, or similar sites, to find out about your background before deciding on whether or not to hire you, they can also look at posts on social media to see if you are saying anything derogatory about the firm, or particular individuals in the firm. If you are, then you could be dismissed from your employment. And that might turn out to be the 'best' part of your punishment, because if you have done some serious damage to the firm's (or the individual's) reputation, perhaps causing financial loss, or (say) a relationship to break up, then you could be faced with legal action, the cost of financial losses and legal fees could be awarded against you. The advice here is to be aware that anything say or publish about a colleague / boss / company may come back to haunt you. Stick to the facts, and don’t partake in gossip.

At Skye Recruitment, we are aware of the problems that can arise and would suggest to employers that you review existing contracts of employment and include a provision that, if an employee is found to have, verbally or in writing, made comments about the firm and / or any of its employees past and present which could be viewed as derogatory or damaging in any way to the status or reputation of the firm (or employees) or which could result in any financial or other loss, then the firm's formal disciplinary procedures will immediately be invoked. This could result in the dismissal of the employee, and does not preclude the firm from commencing legal proceedings against the employee.

This may sound a bit draconian, but careless or malicious gossip can be severely damaging to a company, especially as so many businesses depend on overseas relationships for their trade, and all social media are international in their usage and readership.

Any business which has a staff manual, or the equivalent, in circulation (and if you haven't, why not?!), should include reference to this topic, because there is always an implied duty of trust in the relationship between employer and employee and it is important that everyone knows that and knows where the boundary is between day-to-day moaning and the more sinister side of gossiping.

So, create a social media policy for all staff, and make sure they read and understand it, perhaps circulating it once every six months or so as reminder. At the first sign of a problem, invoke the appropriate part of the contract of employment, if you’ve covered this aspect, and carry out a first formal interview (and warning, if appropriate) under the disciplinary procedures. Ensure that all is fully documented, and signed and dated as a true record by both employer and employee, in case documentary evidence is subsequently need for a tribunal or court case.

For employees the basic message is "don't be stupid!" If you want to say something negative about your employer or colleagues, don’t say it in a roomful of people, or put anything on the internet which your employer might read or get to hear about.

The Myth of Time Management

When you ask someone what is the one thing they need to improve to perform better both at work and at home I guarantee that time management is right up there fighting for first place. So why, if so many people have identified that this is something they need to improve, don't they? Or if they try to improve their "time management" why does it generally not work?

The number one reason for this, I believe, is that the title of "time management" and the idea behind that is completely flawed. But hang on, if you are managing something you are careful about how you use it so that none of it goes to waste, right? You're correct, but tell me how you would manage money? Or that nice bottle of scotch? You would be frugal with these commodities, carefully doling them out as you needed them, stretching out your limited supply for as long as possible; not wasting any, keeping some stashed away for that rainy day.

Now tell me how you would save time? How would you squirrel some away so that when you needed that extra 30 minutes you could pull it out of the time bank?

Time ticks by. It never stops. You can't dam it up, stick it in a bank, or stuff it under the mattress. You can't speed it up or slow it down. Time simply is, and there is nothing we can do about it. You are better off tilting at windmills.

So it's hopeless then? Nothing can be done and I will die always wanting more time? Well, you probably will want more time when the end comes but there are ways we can be more productive during the time we have in which to work. The key word here is productive. You can swap in 'efficient' if you like, but the core concept doesn't change. You can't manage time but you CAN manage what you do as that time flows by.

Bit of a tangent here. I have one truly massive bug bear that can wreck a supplier's chance of working with me, and it even puts me in a bad mood when this happens in social circumstances. People being late. The reason this upsets me as much as it does is not so much the time I have spent waiting, but because it tells me quite clearly that I have been prioritised lower than whatever the reason is for being late. Sure, things happen. Traffic jams, road works, acts of God, and clothing crises. I understand and can accept that things happen and, if it is for good reason, a phone call to tell me what is happening makes everything okay (within reason). But the main point is that keeping the appointment with me has been prioritised below something else, and when you think like that it makes being late personal.

So why do I think like that? Simply I have too much to get done in any given day - every day. So at the start of each day I prioritise each task that I must complete using a simple two part measure. Firstly is it important, secondly is it urgent? This makes me identify what I should do first and what I should do last. It also means that if things take longer than expected the things that don't get done (and there always will be some) are by default the least important to me. So when someone is late to an appointment with me, they have prioritised me lower than something else.

Okay - back on track! I would now like you to put to bed the concept of time management, and move to the concept of task prioritisation. You can't change time but you can change what you are doing right now. If you do the next few steps I promise at the end of each day you will have achieved as many of your key tasks as it was possible to do.

1. Firstly take a step back and get a grip on what you have to do today. I don't care how big a pile it seems - you can break it down into bite sized pieces.
2. Now put every item into one of these four piles:

• Urgent & Important
• Urgent
• Important
• Neither

3. Start on the Urgent & Important and don't do anything else till they are done.
4. Move to the Urgent pile. Did you get this pile done?!?!
5. Move to Important. Are you saying you got to all of these as well?
6. Do the other stuff. Have that drink to celebrate.

Now if you got to the end of step 6 you don't need to read this next bit. Pat yourself on the back, because you have mastered prioritisation and you can go home and enjoy yourself. If you're like me though, and you are really happy if you get to the end of step 2, by the end of the day you need to step back and reprioritise you tasks. Naturally through the passage of time tasks that were once just "important" will become "important and urgent" as tasks that were once only "urgent" will become "urgent and important" and the most challenging part of managing your prioritisation is keeping on top of reviewing your task list.

So, in summary, forget about managing time as that is impossible and start managing your priorities. If you do all the most urgent and important things first then at the end of the day you will be able to go home knowing that it was impossible to do more and you have done the key things. If you are still going under then you are under resourced and you need to delegate some of your duties.