Maintenance of harmonious human relations in an organisation depends upon the promotion and maintenance of discipline. No Organisation can prosper without discipline.

Misconduct is nothing but wilful insubordination or disobedience of any lawful and reasonable order of the superior, theft, fraud or dishonesty in connection with the employer's business or property or theft of the property of another employee within in the Organisation's premises, or taking or giving bribes, habitual absence without leave for more than acceptable days according to the Company policies, or overstaying the sanctioned leave without adequate grounds or satisfactory explanation, regular Impunctuality,negligence of work, etc.

The Best possible Ways for handling such issues:

1. Counseling & Verbal Warnings: Through this we will get to know the actual problem of the employee's behaviour and his misconduct. Through this if we come to know if there is a genuine reason we can correct it. Also, if we come to know that the misconduct is deliberate we give some Verbal Warnings. And we can take that as an opportunity to enlighten the employee about the company policies and procedures, breach of which ll lead to some disciplinary action.

2. Written Warnings: In case the Verbal Warnings fail to achieve the desired behaviour on part of an employee, written warnings should be issued. These are generally called 'Pink Slips'. Through this we the employer and employee can develop written solutions to prevent further problems from occuring.

3. Withholding/Delaying of Increments: This is to be taken in case the Written Warnings also fail. In this stage the employer either should delay the increment/stop the increment for that particular year. Even this phase is documented in written form.

4. Final Warning: Even when the employee fails to act in a desired manner the Organisation should issue a final warning stating the dire consequences of demotion/termination if he is not going to act in the desired manner.

5. Discharge/Termination: The final step would be to discharge or terminate the employee on grounds of gross misconduct. But this should be done either by giving agreed advance notice or by paying compensation in lieu of such notice.

Excellent take Sri Manjari. Appreciate your perspective, its wholesome and inclusive at the same time.

Hi Vikram,

Interesting topic to debate on…

First of all, it would be better if you could specify what you mean by “misconduct”??

We can classify misconduct right from disobeying simple (not grave) rules like punctuality, authorized leaves or professional dressing…to abusive/harsh behaviors or sexual harassment…

Before anything, we, HRs should make sure that every employee knows about the values & rules that the company follows & respects…some companies have flexible timings or do not care about the dress code, so “punctuality” & “professional dressing” never comes into the picture…This information is best given during the induction…or to be reminded in the office meetings for the existing employees.

As Sri Manjari mentioned, those are the normal steps any Co. would take, it is sensible & fair.

But, again, it all depends on the “misconduct” we face…may be a simple “late coming” would hamper a very important project & that particular employee is doing it “purposefully”. Well, here you can not treat it as “simple“ anymore…

Most of the time verbal counseling would work out.
But if you get the slightest hint that he/she is not bothered & there is no change about it even after your talks, we better think about it seriously.

I have my own concerns about giving time/paying compensation, when you terminate based on “misconduct”. This would be applicable, if that person is terminated on basis of “performance issues”, Co relocating, laying offs or closing down.

If we “pay” a person for his/her misconduct & then terminate his/her services it would not only give more room for other employees but doesn’t teach any lesson to that particular employee as well!

When you diagnose cancer, you try to cure it in the beginning stages, if it does not the only way is to cut it off, instead of giving room for the cancer to spread to other places!


*** last but not the least, we HRs should make it a practice to mention about the conduct of an employee ( good or bad ) during the employee verifications…unfortunately, this is missed out most of the time, we get very common answers “conduct was good” or “no issues”…these need to be more detailed…the details should be updated & kept safe & confidential, accessible only by HRs, so that the data would be understandable for the next succeeding HR as well.
e.g We did have a S/W engineer who was technically very good, but later his ego took the upper hand, didn’t deliver the projects on purpose & started bulling around !
he had his designation, good pay & respect…there was absolutely no reason to behave like that!

Well, he was counseled…given enough time, but no change…at last his employment was terminated…BUT, he did receive service certificate, Exp.Letter…etc.

Unfortunately the company he joined later, did not send any verifications about his work or conduct! Now how can you suggest on this?!

Should more strict rules be put on these types of behaviors? Should the service certificate carry any “conduct” section as well? Or should it be issued for such situations in the first place?!

I don’t know how practical would this suggestion be, but it would be really great that every HR (at least those on HRLink) would practice this & make it very clear about the conducts of their ex-employees to help the recruitment for the next Co.

This not only makes an healthier environment but also gives the “warning” automatically for those few who take things for granted…

Your ideas are most welcome…


Diana

Hi Diana,

Thanks for a very comprehensive evaluation and the spontaneous answer. I wish we had more members like you on this site. Its a pleasure following your responses to sensitive articles.

You more or less covered everything. I agree with you on keeping a track of erroneous conduct and reporting it to the next employer. It would definitely act as a deterrent.

Cheers buddy !!!

Excellant PPT Madhavan, Thanks for sharing it.

Yes, I do agree with Madhavan, there are 'Standing orders' may be Certified or Modified, and if someone goes against to it, then it is called as a "Misconduct". And Standing orders are normal rules and regulation as Manjiri has mention like absentism, insubordination etc.

There is complete procedure to handle these misconduct, which madhavan has explain in his PPT

1) It starts with Domestic Equiry which is held in the plant itself, just to find out whether the misconduct really happen or not.
2) In this Domestic Enquiry, if the employee agrees to his misconduct, then the appropriate steps are taken against him, so that there is no point in moving ahead.
3) If he dnt accept his guilty, or if he has not been present for the domestic enquiry, then company can send a Show cause/ chargesheet to him asking him, ' why the appropriate action should not taken against him.....'
4) In the show cause notice, it should be clearly mention that, in case if the employee not present for the enquiry within 3 or 4 days from the day he receive the notice, then it will treated as, he dnt have anything to say regarding it, and he is accepting his misconduct.
5) Then if employee present in the enquiry before the enquiry officer, then complete enquiry is held there, keeping in mind the principle of natural justice where his views are also taken into account.
6) After the proceedings, if he accept his guilty, then he is laible for the punishment mention in the standing order or if not, he need to put forward some evidence in front of the enquiry officer, and if his evidence are Genuine then he is treated as a innocent.
7) Sometimes between this proceedings the employee is suspended from the company, Just because company have some confidential information, and the employee should not misuse it.
8) Keeping in mind, the principle of natrural justice, this procedure get justified.

And thanks to Manjiri also for her inputs,
As far as I know, pink slip is given to those, whome company wants to layoff, and it is the last option.
If it is there in SO, then only (for the misconduct) company can reduce the salary or increment.

I am not a Law student, so whatever I know I pendown it here.

Regards
Priyanka