Dealing With Misdemeanor At Work

A company is known by the way it punishes. Here is how you can spare the rod and save your people

- Visty Banaji

Intelligence alone is not nearly enough when it comes to acting wisely."1 I was reminded of these words from 'Crime and Punishment' when I was recently asked to review a case of termination. A highly intelligent management team had ratified the decision to dismiss an employee for what seemed an open and shut case of transgressing the organization’s values. While I am not at liberty to reveal the details of the case, it turned out that proceeding with the termination would not just have been of questionable fairness, it would have been at variance with the sparkling and well-deserved image of being open and humane that the organization had spent years creating. That such very smart and honest people could not anticipate the consequences of an over-hasty exit prompted me to talk to several HR professionals and line managers on the subject. One of them, who had seen me in action for a large part of my career, observed that, for all my reputation as a no-nonsense disciplinarian, I had, on more than one occasion, avoided awarding severe punishments (like dismissals). I thought I owed it to her and to other HR colleagues to explain what were the circumstances when I thought it wiser to step back from the harshest penalties. My reasoning on the subject may well be at variance with some formal principles of jurisprudence but since it has helped me think through many such cases that have come up during the decades I have practiced as an HR professional, I feel it could also be useful to the readers of this column.