HR Practitioner’s Diary: Kat gets even

Annie Hayes

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HR Practitioner’s Diary: Kat gets even

By Annie Hayes

Kat takes her final bow and presses forward with a grievance while Sue reveals her top interviewing tips including her penchant for likening candidates to members of the animal kingdom.

W/C: 19 September 2005
It’s hard to believe it is almost the end of September, the year is fast disappearing! On the HR front it has been a lively 2005 with policies, new acts and debates to get to grips with.

The final act: “Blimey mate, what did you just say?”
Thanks for all your comments on what to do in this situation, they were very helpful indeed.

I managed to have an update with Kat yesterday and am pleased to say that she has taken the bull by the horns.

Kat finally snapped when Andy persisted in calling Alfie anything but his given name.

She emailed Andy and requested a formal meeting to discuss her ‘grievance’ prior to putting anything in writing.

Kat went into the meeting fully prepared with her notes logging each and every offensive occasion. She was a real heroine and kept her emotions under control by simply sticking to the facts. Something I always stress to any individual in these types of circumstances.

Confronted with the full and factual details Andy extended full and heartfelt apologies on behalf of Billy and also in respect of his own inappropriate behaviour. He has assured Kat that he will discuss the matter with Billy and instruct him to make no further derogatory comments regarding Kat’s personal life and has assured her that he will also adhere to that promise.

Kat asked why he and Billy had felt it necessary to be so offensive and Andy’s only defence was that, “It was just blokes having a bit of fun.” I wonder if Andy and Billy realise that it is this type of ‘blokes fun’ that contributes towards ‘blokes’ generally getting poor press?

Andy is aware that Kat has shared this grievance with me verbally and that a copy of her notes will be placed on her personnel file should they need to be referred to again for any reason. Andy expressed hope that this would not be necessary as he regretted offending her in any way and did not want to risk losing her as she is a valuable employee. It’s a pity that this has only just occurred to him.

Kat has confided to me that she and Alfie intend to try for a baby in the next twelve months. She fully expects Andy to revert to offensive comments again when that happens, so watch this space and we will see if Andy is really a man of his word or if he is simply paying lip service under the banner of a potential grievance complaint.

The ‘beast’ in us all!
I finally get the opportunity to look at one of my favourite and fun subjects.

What animal are you?

Have you ever tried to apply this to your interviewing process? For the last five years I have used it with very interested and revealing results. My own method is a little more complex, but here’s the easy version if some of you fancy giving it a try:

I think we all view our working environments as a bit of a ‘jungle’ and a recent study has shown that traits from the animal kingdom are indeed key factors when it comes to surviving and thriving in the world of work.

In this particular survey of 1,500 office workers nine out of ten fell into one of four behaviour groups, which have been linked to the characteristics of four different creatures: lemurs, koalas, elephants and hyenas.

Apparently the biggest group, some 52% were identified as lemurs. The second largest group – approximately one in three workers were likened to koalas. A further 15% of workers were identified as elephants. The smallest group at just 5% identified themselves with hyenas.

To define these characters in more details, this is how it supposedly works:

Lemur – they tend to be the office favourites, well liked, ambitious and energetic. All round winners, they earn respect from their colleagues and get promoted quickly as they climb to the top of the career ladder. Generally likeable, friendly creatures.

Koala – these characters know how to keep their cool when things hot up, they are usually the sensible ones in the workplace. Although happy at work, they like to leave on time. They prefer to sit back rather than be proactive and rarely chase promotion. In a stressful situation a ‘koala’ could be so laid back they could almost be horizontal.

Elephant – office plodders or veterans, elephants tend to think they know how to run the company and cast a protective eye over the workplace. They are solid and reliable employees who produce high quality work, but dislike changes to working practices.

Hyena – a minority group, hyenas are ambitious and highly competitive. Efficient and diligent, they will do anything to prove how good they are. While appearing to be team players, they are in fact the loners of the office. They are often prepared to work all hours to prove their worth.

Consider which creature characteristics your own colleagues identify with. You can have some fun in interviews too by asking this question – it can help you to fit a square peg into a round hole, preventing you from ending up with a misfit.

What’s your worth?
Recent research has revealed that women are still being paid much less than men. The difference can be as much as 27%. For some reason there is evidence that the gender pay divide has grown worse over the last year – up 3%.

There are a few thoughts behind this, one is that women tend to shy away from wage negotiations – what do you think? Apparently 66% of women claim they are too scared to ask for more money! Just 24% of men said the same.

PayFinder.com’s report highlights that sex discrimination is still rife in the workplace. PayFinder is an online salary database that enables people to compare their pay with others, based on their industry, job, sex, age and location. Aside from the legal ramifications, surely it’s a nonsense that gender could be a factor in determining salary level?

Would any of you have any working examples of this type of thing to prove or disprove the point?

Vital Stats:

For all of those ‘singletons’ out there:

Weight – 9st 8lbs (nice and easy does it, this is feeling really good now)

Chocolate – nil (my will power is not melting yet!)

Wine – two glasses of Pinot Grigio

Cider – one, typically after a game of golf!

Boyfriends – two dates both with ‘Rocket’ Ron. This guy is really delightful and if I’m not careful I might find myself falling big time – wouldn’t that be lovely! We are shaping our friendship over food in the form of chilli con carne and roast lamb so far. He’s good in the kitchen and is as delicious as the food! I even had him digging spuds and picking beans. Thankfully we are both dog lovers too – hurrah! Watch this space.