Could an employee that refuses to appraise their manager face disciplinary action? Martin Brewer, partner and employment law specialist at Mills and Reeve, and Esther Smith, partner at Thomas Eggar, explain.

The question:
I wonder if anyone can help me with this – can your boss force you to appraise them on an official form? I feel uncomfortable doing this and if I had any criticisms I would be afraid to say so.

What can I do? I’d appreciate any help you can give me on this problem.

Rebecca Young

The answers:

Esther Smith, partner, Thomas Eggar
Upward appraisals, and indeed 360 degree appraisals, are becoming more popular in the UK. If your employer operates such a scheme there is probably little you can do to get rid of it, so you should try where possible to work with it. If asked to be involved with an upward appraisal you should take part unless you have good grounds not to (failure to do so could lead to disciplinary action on the basis of a refusal to carry out a reasonable instruction).

However if you feel you cannot be open and honest there is probably not much point in the appraisal! All I can suggest is that you feedback your concerns regarding the structure within the organisation. Alternatively, being cynical, you could take part and just be nice!

Esther Smith is a partner in Thomas Eggar’s Employment Law Unit. For further information please visit Thomas Eggar

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Martin Brewer, partner and employment law specialist, Mills and Reeve
Rebecca, you do in fact have an implied obligation under your contract of employment to comply with your employer’s lawful and reasonable instructions, so be a little cautious about simply refusing.

This is surely an issue to be tackled in a non-legal way. An appraisal should not really be used as a toll for criticising an colleague per se. The old adage is that nothing in an employee’s appraisal should come as a surprise to them. Therefore there is nothing wrong with using the appraisal to highlight the good things and to signpost where improvements might be made. These don’t have to come over simply as criticism. It’s perhaps a question of presentation. It is possible to say ‘these are the things you do well, these are the areas where it is felt that improvements could be made’ and perhaps present ways of achieving that.

This doesn’t have to, and indeed shouldn’t come across as mere criticism. The approach should be positive, of presenting ways to improve not to tell the individual how poor they are.

Martin can be contacted at: martin.brewer@mills-reeve.com