Pester Esther
MD allure: Our agony aunt on sleeping your way to the top, misconduct and age diversity
Q. Esther, my MD clearly fancies me. Is it OK to sleep your way to the top?
A. Maybe! Do you actually fancy him too? Is the attraction mutual? Or are you just seeing this as a potential way to progress up the career ladder?
If the latter is the case, then your plans are likely to fail. Sleeping your way to the top may mean you get a higher position and more salary, but if you’re not capable of delivering at the level required, you’ll soon be found out.
You will not have the respect or credibility of your colleagues and teams. They may not want to work with you, and may make life difficult for you at work by being unhelpful.
And does this MD have a reputation for having ‘office flings’? Would you be just another notch in his/her bedpost? But I suppose if you are a bit shallow and don’t have self-respect then this is one way of getting to the top.
Q. We had a sales party at which a female employee got drunk and assaulted two male members of staff. (She touched them in an inappropriate way.) They’ve complained. My trouble is that the female is undergoing treatment for a serious illness and I suspect might have experienced a bad medication/alcohol interaction. Might this be a mitigating circumstance?
A. Yes, this could potentially be mitigation – however, these are still potentially gross misconduct allegations and should be treated as such.
You’ll need to take formal action with the female employee. Are the male members of staff intending to make this a criminal matter, and take their complaints to the police for assault? Hopefully not, and if they do then this will be treated as a police matter, But you’ll still need to deal with your employee through your internal disciplinary procedures as with any other allegation.
I would imagine she is embarrassed and remorseful and I am sure you want to be sympathetic to her serious illness. So if her defence is a bad reaction to medication mixed with alcohol, she’ll need to raise this as mitigation at the disciplinary hearing.
You’ll then need to decide if it is actual gross misconduct, in which case a dismissal will arise. If it is serious misconduct, you’re looking at a final written warning or a dismissal with notice.
It’s a difficult situation as she probably should have been aware that with her medication, she should have avoided alcohol and she has to face the consequences of her behaviour. And you can’t be seen to treat her any differently to any other employee who’s been accused of inappropriate behaviour.
Q. We’ve just hired a sixty year old into a department that mostly consists of twenty-somethings. Any ideas how we can help her to integrate?
A. Fantastic. Age diversity at its best! But does she really need to be integrated into your department of twenty-somethings? Presumably you hired her for her skills, experience and attitude, so other than the usual induction into the company, what other forms of integration will she need?
I suggest you follow that usual induction process, introduce her to the team as you would anyone else, assign her a ‘buddy’ or mentor and then let her get on with the job. She may have grown-up children the same age as your staff (or even grandchildren), and if that’s the case she might be incredibly comfortable surrounded by younger people. And as they say, 60 is just a number, not an attitude.
Your twenty-somethings may also value learning from her experience, and benefit from working alongside someone they can aspire to.
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