It’s tough to tell someone that they just have to “suck it up”…or perhaps something way more polite than that. An employee might feel they are right and they just have to get a person at the next level to see the light. Take someone like Dianna Janzen and Tracey Govereau, who went through years of litigation, winning, somewhat winning, losing and then ultimately winning at the Supreme Court of Canada for the sexual harassment they endured while waitresses at a restaurant in Winnipeg. If they, and other parties gave up when Manitoba’s top court knocked them right down, we wouldn’t have had the Canadian definition from our top court for years to come. So when someone at work keeps fighting and appealing, they might just be right. Many, many (I mean many) workplaces think they have done a good job, even doing what they think is a thorough investigation, and they get slam dunked in the courts or some tribunal. But this issue is where you know (and truly know) the person feels something, but it isn’t a violation of your policies or laws or common sense.
TRY THIS:
When this kind of situation happens, you have to do your best job to explain that thoughtful people have looked it over and you are not going to take the action the person wants. It’s not easy, but you have to find a way to say “move on.” If they can’t, the unfortunately alternative is that they have to “move out.” Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.
HOW ABOUT:
“We have been talking about your complaint for a long time. We have now exhausted every avenue in our workplace. It’s not that we think you’re lying. You’ve give us your facts, arguments and reasons why we need to take some action. After thoroughly looking at all the evidence, we have come to a different conclusion and I believe we have explained the reasoning. You don’t accept it. Unless you can tell me how we’re going to get past this…I have to ask you to get past this. People see things differently and you see this situation different than we do. I want you to think about how you can move on, so that others can move on too. Why don’t you think about it overnight and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
When tomorrow comes, hopefully the person has come to realize the complaint must come to a close…for everyone’s sake. If not, then you have to say, “I can’t have you disrupting the workplace any further with this. You need to move on, or we need to talk about alternatives to working here. I do not want that, so please, let’s find a way to move past this.”
Stephen Hammond, B.A., J.D., CSP
If you have any questions, please contact Stephen
