The Employment Mistakes You Can Never Recover From
Whether you planned for it or not, your role as a business owner requires you to get stuck into employment. That means you need to play by the book. You should follow the correct procedures and make sure to cover all your bases. Even once you have a team onboard, your job will never be the same. Far from a passionate entrepreneur, your day will see you playing the role of everything from a teacher to a counselor. This is something you need to embrace if you want this business to work.
Of course, every employer makes mistakes. You’re only human. There may be some days where you upset colleagues without meaning to. At other times, you may come across as unapproachable when the opposite should be true. Issues like these are bound to happen sometimes. To err is divine, as they say. Or, at least, it’s understandable if it happens on the odd occasion. You certainly shouldn’t find that your whole business falls down around your ears because of something like this.
Sadly, not every employment mistake is as easy to get past. In fact, there are a fair few which could see you kissing goodbye to all your efforts within moments. Snapping sometimes may be forgivable enough, but the following mistakes aren’t. Make sure, then, that you don’t make them.
Sexual harassment
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will have noticed that we’re finally taking a no-nonsense approach to sexual harassment. Thanks to the #metoo movement, men are being held accountable for their treatment of women. That’s regardless of their positions. We’ve seen the reputations of top names like Harvey Weinstein and CBS boss Les Moonves come crashing down. And, your name could be on that list if you don’t watch yourself here. In the current climate, that would spell curtains for your company before you knew. Even if they didn’t ruin you straight away, accusations like these would see you struggling with employment for a long time. As such, you need to make sure there’s no way for a female employee to misconstrue your intentions. If you’re concerned, keep your office door open so that there are always witnesses. In general, though, avoid anything which could make an employee feel uncomfortable. Physical contact with members of staff, for instance, is never necessary. Make sure, too, that you steer clear of anything which could be taken in a sexual context. Your company depends upon it.
The death of a colleague
This is the kicker. When you bring a team into your workspace, you do so with the promise that you’re going to take good care of them. You need to apply health and safety procedures. If your workplace involves heavy machinery, you must train every employee. Of course, even with your best precautions, accidents are going to happen. People fall over, and machines can malfunction. A broken bone or a nasty cut, while not ideal, isn’t going to spell the end. But, the death of a colleague on your watch could do just that. There’s no getting past it, a fatality in the workplace would mean the death of much more than a colleague. Obviously, we aren’t referring to an accident like a heart attack, or something which is out of your control. Instead, we mean accidents which have come about as a result of your operations in some way; faulty machines or unsafe work vehicles, for instance. Not only would your existing employees leave, but you would face a public backlash. The chances are that there would be legal proceedings from the family coming to terms with losing a loved one from an accident like this. And, you can bet that the press would soon get wind of the case. Before long, your customer numbers would dwindle to the extent where a hefty settlement sum could clear you out never to operate again.
A widely covered case of discrimination
Like sexual harassment, we all know that discrimination is an employment no-go. But, did you realize that this could also put an end to your efforts in business? Admittedly, in-house cases of discrimination may not spiral out of your control. But, if a case like this were covered in your local community, you wouldn’t be able to weather the storm. There is a chance this would happen after severe discrimination on your part. Any comments about an employee’s appearance, race, or disability could put the nail in your company coffin. The best thing to do, then, would be to avoid comments like these altogether. Even if you don’t think a comment is offensive, avoid it. Instead, do what you can to make your place of work welcoming for employees’ of all shapes, sizes, and walks of life. Actively seek a diverse culture in your office. Invest in wheelchair friendly desks for disabled team members. And, whatever you do, avoid making comments about issues like these.
Breaches in employment law
It’s also worth noting that breaching employment law is a difficult thing to bounce back from. You may think you can get away with offering less than minimum wage, but that isn’t going to wash. Even expecting overtime that you aren’t willing to pay for could see you in trouble here. Your employees will soon take action against these unfair and unlawful working conditions. Most of us now know our rights in the workplace, after all. If your team take to platforms like social media to protest this treatment, you’ll be in hot water. For one, a lawyer would find claims like these rather interesting. Even if no legal entities become involved, you’d struggle to replace those old team members if word got out.
So, you see; some employment mistakes aren’t easy to get back up from. Many of them can see you down and out in no time at all. If nothing else, this is proof of how important it is to stay on top here. At least, it is if you want to stay afloat.