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Davies Ndumiso Sibanda
DISCIPLINING senior employees for whatever reasons requires skill, great sensitivity and smartness to avoid having the process dragging the organisation through the mud.

While I do not advocate for handling senior employees with a velvet glove, disciplining them is much more than picking at the code of conduct and raising a complaint against the employee. The starting point is to look at the circumstances under which the alleged misconduct occurred and asking the questions such as given the discretion in decision making allowed for the position, was the behaviour, conduct or act by the employee reasonable in the circumstances.

There are many occasions where conduct by a senior employee would ordinarily be seen as misconduct but given the circumstances under which it occurred, the organisation may find that such conduct was the best in the circumstances. I recall an incident where the company policy barred the use of the staff bus to ferry employees to funerals and when an employee died at work due to negligence of the employer, and tensions were running high on the employees on the day of the funeral, workers demanded the use of the staff bus and the transport manager released it. He was not disciplined because his conduct was found to be most appropriate in the circumstances.

The job description of a senior manager has a lot of implied duties and very few express duties and as such they are bound to be judgement disputes between the employer and the employees. In such cases, the test is, was the conduct of the senior manager reasonable in the circumstances.

The reasonableness is judged using the eyes of a reasonable person. However, in most instances reasonableness cannot be fairly evaluated because there will be so many undertones affecting the decision making thus clouded conclusions are drawn. When this happens, courts are likely to reinstate the employee or order payment of huge damages.

Most senior employees are custodians of some of the organisation skeletons and as such disciplining of such skeletons in public during a disciplinary process could cause untold damage and in worst instances destruction of the business. This reminds me of an incident where the chief executive officer wanted to dismiss the finance executive who threatened that if he was dismissed, he would present to the board all irregular payments, which had been made to the CEO without the backing of the board resolution. The dossier presented as a supporting document had amounts adding up to $250 000. The matter became delicate and complex resulting in both the CEO and the finance executive losing their jobs. Later on the finance executive was reinstated by the courts.

People like Personal Assistants project the image of the company and carry a lot of organisational secrets, which do not necessarily involve legal activities but confidential matters that should be kept away from the public and other employees and as such termination of their contracts should be done in a smart manner without putting on the table confidential matters.

In conclusion, one has to weigh the pros and cons of taking a particular method of disciplining senior managers. One can use the code of conduct or close the door and read the riot act at the employee or counsel the employee. It is all about balancing application of the law, business prudence and labour relations appropriateness.

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: email: [email protected] or cell No: 0772 375 235.