Happy Mond-yay to you all……Force of Nature here aka Emma Tice. And like the proverbial Eminem classic – “I’m back again!” I think you can tell a lot about a person depending on what reference they use when indicating that they have returned. Let me explain. There are, in my view, 3 options.
- “I’ll be back” – Terminator style. This cannot help but conjure up the image of a beefed up Arnie Schwarzenegger “acting” (I use this term lightly because in my view he is as natural as a wooden board!) the famous namesake from the films. This to me is the classic response, and brings older generation vibes and is quite frankly a bit cringe!
- Singing “[INSERT NAME]’s back, alright” ala Backstreet Boys – now this is a classic too. If you know, you know. Maybe it is because I am a millennial, but this brings up the image of the infamous blond curtains and screaming teenage girls associated with all things Backstreet Boys, so if this is your response, you are (in my opinion) a super sweetie, virtuous, absolute babe!
- “[INSERT NAME]’s back, back again.” – my response. This is of course the edgier response. I would like to say that this denotes serious cool points. Alas, I don’t think so, I think it shows someone who very much thinks they are “down with the kids” but in fact are getting increasingly stale…..hang on, that’s me – I will let you draw your own conclusions!
So, massive, huge digression on my part – this Blog has taken a weird turn hasn’t it? It has left me limited room for a Tice household update so I will keep it brief. We all survived not only half term but staying in a hotel in Blackpool and copious sugar highs (and the inevitable lows!) that only the Halloween holidays bring. We are yet to have the famous Tice household bonfire celebrations – I am assured by Rob this spectacular performance will be performed this week. Let me get this into perspective – I am talking sparklers and very, very quiet fireworks – NOT because we are mindful of animals, although we are and would of course do that anyway, but mainly because it is our tradition to have the most feeble firework display!
Whistlestop personal review done, back to the stuff you all came here for (although I am reliably informed that a number of you come here for the personal bits – which is lovely!)…
You may have seen in the news recently a case that piqued my interest.
The case is Rawlins v DPD and it’s one where the employment tribunal found that the claimant was treated unfairly due to “gossip” about his four-day working week and awarded £20,000, given that they felt it “unlikely” a woman would be subject to the same bias.
A bit of background on this one… The claim was brought after the employee in question learned that the administration department of the company he worked for had shared the details of his flexible working arrangements (which had been agreed by the company following a flexible working request), breaching his confidentiality (which he had actually specifically asked for) and leading to colleagues gossiping about his working arrangements (which he said created a hostile working environment for him, which meant he had been harassed). This is something which the tribunal felt a woman would not have been subjected to if she were to reduce days to look after a child. The claimant ultimately resigned as he felt he had no other option but to do so, the tribunal ruled out unfair dismissal here though, given that he had less than two years’ service. He was, however, successful in his claim for harassment on the grounds of sex based on the gossip that he was subjected to and was awarded £10,260.48 for loss of earnings and £9,706.67 for injury to feelings.
This case caught my eye because you usually see claims of this nature being brought by women who have had their flexible working requests refused, particularly given that women are more likely to be affected by this sort of decision. However here, the claimant was male (the tribunal judge commented specifically that the conduct related to the fact the claimant was male because it was unlikely that there would have been similar gossip about a woman changing her hours or working pattern to look after her baby) and the flexible working request was agreed – and you might think then that your work is done once you’ve approved a request, and that nothing further would be able to be pursued because you’ve agreed to their request and they’re working the hours which they wanted to. Right?
But, clearly, that’s not the case. You need to ensure that everyone at the company is aware of their behaviour and that creating an environment which is “hostile or humiliating”, could lead to a claim being brought. It’s not enough to just agree the request if everyone around the employee then makes them feel as though it is a burden, this will mean that although they are working the hours which they want to, they will potentially be working in a hostile environment and that can quite easily lead to claims of this nature.
This case is also a reminder of the importance of confidentiality. Make sure your contracts are robustly drafted with proper definitions around what is classed as confidentiality. Then, all employees who become privy to confidential information need to be reminded of their obligations to keep such information to themselves and steps need to be taken to address situations where you become aware of staff breaching confidentiality.
You also need to make sure that all your employees, and most importantly management, treat everyone equally, and if they’re not, you need to intervene. Make sure you have clear policies on “gossip” or “banter” and ensure that all are aware what is acceptable in the workplace, and what isn’t. It isn’t a defence to simply say there was no malice behind comments, and that it was only jokes or banter. Again, in this case, the tribunal judge noted that whilst the comments may have been made in jest, they still created a hostile environment, and the fact the comments were intended to be light-hearted didn’t stop the claimant succeeding in his claim.
Training is especially helpful, and we would recommend that all your employees have training on this topic, and we can of course help you with this! We are something of experts in the area of harassment and banter in the workplace, so get in touch if you want to arrange this!
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