Yesterday a staff member, who leads a team of 6 and has been with us nearly two years, was “stirring things up” in his office over our company sickness leave & pay policy.

He was not feeling well (was planning on going home sick for 36 hrs), and first emailed me to confirm our policy on sick leave (we do not pay people when they are off sick, beyond SSP)–which is covered in our employment contracts anyway (though not expressly stated in our staff handbook). He was not happy with my reply (despite us on previous occasions going over our reasons for this policy with him), and I invited him to my office for a chat. In short, he was saying his staff were asking about it and didn’t know what was what—adding in he thought it was wrong, disgusting, etc.—so I said I would end up issuing a formal communique on our policy to all staff, and that I’d speak w/ the MD about it.

The MD suspected this person was stirring things up in his office team, and held confidential chats with the other staff, who confirmed the MD’s suspicions. In essence, he wants to have a disciplinary meeting and issue a written warning over his behaviour. (i.e. he complained “there’s a prevailing feeling the company only offers its staff the minimum requirements it must,” yet we have a happy team of 20, low e’ee turnover, and provide a whole range of other benefits/perks that appear to be appreciated!)

Is this too strong an action? In the past the staff member has said he doesn’t want to appear like “the troublemaker”, but says his team members go to him b/c they know he’s not afraid to bring it to us (despite the fact management are praised by staff for being so approachable). The MD though believes whatever he brings to the table is however only to do with him, not other staff (and it appears that way through our confidential staff chats).

What should we do?

Many thanks,

Alicia Miles (1st posting, though fan of the site for 2 years)
Alicia Miles