Introduction
Misconduct is an unacceptable behavior that goes against an organizations laws and regulations. Hence, employee misconduct is a violation of the organizations set rules by an employee. On the response to the employee misconduct, the employer should be familiar with how to handle these instances to avoid recurrence. Occasionally, it is important to introduce a disciplinary committee that will deal with employee misconduct. The human resource manager is responsible for employee misconduct handling and taking necessary actions (Dempsey, 2010). There are many types of employee misconduct such as;
- Excessive tardiness or absences
- Insubordination
- Rudeness and abusive language towards management and clients
- Theft and breaching fidelity
- Intoxication
- Relationships among the employees leading to distractions
Excessive tardiness or absence is where an employee shows up to work late or fails to come without notice. If this action becomes habitual, it is considered as gross misconduct. A gross misconduct is a misbehavior only handled by suspension from work or discontinuation without notice. Absenteeism can also get handled by reduction of salary by a standardized percentage. It is also important as you take necessary action consider the employee's length of services in the organization (Johnson, Pollock and Braswell, 2014). Whereby such employees can be asked to compensate the time, they lost by working overtime. A time register should be written to detect excessive tardiness and the measures taken to deal with it.
Insubordination is another kind of employee misconduct whereby the employees defy authority directed towards the higher level of management. If an employee violates the command or request knowingly from management, it is also referred to as insubordination (Swanepoel, Erasmus & Schenk, 2008). That includes the lack of cooperation, lack of respect, disregarding and doing things out of what is allowed; for instance, defying your manager in front of clients, resulting in loss of projects. That is solved by direct continuation (Swanepoel, Erasmus & Schenk, 2008).
Rudeness and abusive language involve the use of foul language in the workplace against other employees, clients or even management. A warning is necessary for such employees, and if it persists, the employee should be discontinued off his/her duties. The language in the workplace should strictly remain professional without intoxication through profane and vulgar words. In solving the above-mentioned employee misconducts; measures such as warnings, suspension, and discontinuation from duties and work can take place. Suspension is only applicable during investigations of the employee misconduct. It is to provide proof that the employee committed the misconduct and the reason.
Then, necessary procedures will be taken from there. Warnings are only applicable when the misconduct is less serious, but if the warnings get violated, then discontinuation is administered (Mankidy, 2006). If an employee has had several warnings before, the employer has the right to take the next step, which is mainly dismissal. Discontinuation is firing of an employee with or without notice. When an employee gets discontinued without notice, it means it was very serious misconduct such as theft, or the employee has gone against several warnings given to them. For advanced companies, they should advertize the dismissal of such employees in the newspaper to avoid advanced misconduct under the name of the company.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the organization should form a disciplinary committee headed by the human resource manager and prevent such occurrence. They should have clear guidelines to take against these misconducts if they happen. The employers should also educate them against these employee misconducts (Mankidy, 2006).
References
Dempsey, J. (2010). Introduction to Private Security. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Johnson L. M., Pollock J., and Braswell M. (2014). Professional Misconduct
Against Juveniles in Correctional Treatment Settings. London: Routledge, 2014
Mankidy, J. (2006). Disciplinary rules and procedures: India, Malaysia, Philippines. Geneva:
International Labour Office.
Swanepoel, B., Erasmus, B., & Schenk, H. (2008). South African human resource management:
Theory & practice. Cape Town: Juta.
