Hallo – I am back! And so are most of the mini me population of England, back at school. For those of you with little ones still off, you surely must be on the home run now. Our youngest went back today and our eldest is back on Wednesday and we are all ready to get back into a bit of a routine I must say. Although of course I already miss Emmie and it isn’t even lunchtime on Monday as I write this!
I digress – well done to everyone for making it through the summer holidays, and I mean everyone. Yes, it is tough balancing childcare and working for all us parents – and believe me I am with you all there! However, I also think we need to appreciate those who don’t have children/whose children are grown up etc, who often have to pick up the slack for us over the summer break. Either because we have to take our holidays in the summer holidays and they man the fort for us, or because we are busy running little Jonny to football day camp.
My team here at Precept are simply the best and I love every single one of them. They are the reason that I can write this blog on my first day back at work after almost 2 weeks off – because they have so amazingly looked after all my lovely clients whilst I have been away – I trust them all implicitly and genuinely – thank you guys, you made the last couple of weeks a proper break, which was well needed.
So, where have we been? Can I not spell “hello” any more? No, no, of course I can, I am simply flexing my Croatian language skills! We had THE most blissful and adventurous 10 days in Croatia. If you haven’t been – just go! It is beyond amazing – the views are just extraordinary – around every corner is a view worthy of the cover of any travel magazine, and they just keep coming. They are so magnificent that even after 10 days you don’t get used to them. Crystal clear seas a vivid shade of blue that you cannot even imagine, wonderful friendly and hospitable people and fabulous figs!
We had a bit of an adventure holiday – moving around between 3 locations both on the mainland and the islands. Our favourite was Korcula town on Korcula island. One of the quieter islands and all the more magical for it. I could go on and on, but the top 5 highlights from our holiday were:
- The gelato – I would say even better than Italy (strong claim that, isn’t it?!)
- Paddleboarding on the crystal-clear Adriatic Sea – which we are becoming a little bit expert at now – and Rob is actually a bit of a pro, who knew?!
- The epic thunderstorm we were treated to mid-way through the holiday. It truly was “electric”!
- The people – so welcoming and friendly and proud of their country and culture.
- The sea – all of us in our family are a bit addicted to the sea, which is unfortunate as we live in Derbyshire (about as far from the sea as you can get in England) but in Croatia it is UNREAL!
All in all, an amazing adventure and I will be on a high from it for a good while yet. Needless to say, we are hoping to book for next year!
Hvala (thank you for those of you who aren’t bilingual) for listening to my chitter chatter. But you came here for more of the employment law juicy stuff…
I have an interesting one today. Of course, it is a Tribunal claim as that is my bag. It is a sex discrimination claim but one that holds an important warning to make sure that as a company you should be really careful not to go too far or “over-react.” This is a sex discrimination claim in which 2 men were successful – which is pretty rare actually.
The employer – Police Scotland (so yes, a Scottish case, but the principles are the same in England and Wales too).
The employees – PC Steven Jones and PC Greg Tunnock.
The situ – The employees whilst on duty took photos and videos of themselves with the Scottish celeb Tallia Storm – nothing inappropriate, just standard fan pics!
What happened – Well, these went a little bit viral (and received positive and negative attention), and Police Scotland panicked. They hauled the employees into a meeting, revoked their firearms authorisations and transferred them out of their unit (the Operational Services Division).
Why – The Police were worried that the incident could be perceived as sexist i.e. 2 male officers taking photos with a beautiful female celeb.
Well, the Tribunal seriously disagreed (with a female Judge presiding). The Judge found “there was nothing which could reasonably be perceived as sexist or misogynistic in the claimants’ interaction with Ms Storm”.
She concluded that the decision of the Police was a “knee-jerk reaction in response to adverse media coverage of male officers” and was based on the unwarranted perception that the photo with a female celebrity might be seen as inappropriate.
Perhaps the panic was with the best intentions at heart BUT the Judge said this was based on archaic views of gender stereotypes and it wasn’t thought through. Both Claimants were successful and were awarded over £20,000 each.
The takeaways – HR should make sure that any disciplinary action is based on behaviour, not on assumptions about gender, or anything else! It reminds us that of course policies are important, but they should be clear that both men and women are protected from sexist treatment and that similar conduct will be dealt with in the same way, regardless of who is involved.
And of course, regular training on bias and fair decision-making is also vital, as well as giving training to all staff on appropriate behaviours. Remember managers need a higher level of understanding as they make these impactful decisions. Training can also prevent snap reactions driven by fear of bad publicity rather than actual misconduct.
We LOVE training at Precept so if you do want to look into any manager training for your business, we are your superheroes.
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