Personal matters that give employers headaches

Labour Matters with Davis Ndumiso Sibanda
VERY often, employers have to deal with personal employee matters that either have nothing to do with the employer or are on the border line and the majority of them are very delicate as well, thus leaving the employer at times unsure of what to do.

This article will outline a number of complex personal matters that land on the employer’s desk which the employer has to deal with and at times there will be no outright solution to the problem and at times the solution will be environment appropriate but not necessarily legal.

Not long ago, a man walked to his wife’s employer and presented the employer with the wife’s cellphone with evidence that his wife was having an affair with a fellow employee. He demanded that his wife be fired and he also wanted to see the man whom he alleged had an affair with his wife.

The human resources manager and the management team spent several hours deliberating on what to do after having asked the man to leave and return on the following day.

In the end they sought legal advice where their lawyer advised them that there was no work related crime committed. The matter remains complex to this day.

In another case, the wife of the finance manager who spent a lot of time at work due to work pressure and leaving very little time for the family visited the human resources manager with children and advised that since her husband now lives at work, she had come to leave the children.

The lady dumped the children, their blankets and food in the Human Resources Manager’s office and walked away leaving the human resources manager with a delicate problem to deal with.

The marketing manager of one organisation received a call from the husband of one of his sales managers who complained why his wife frequently goes on overnight business trips and international assignments being the only woman amongst seven men.

The marketing manager tried to explain that it’s all work and nothing unusual, the husband could not hear any of that and demanded that such practices should stop forthwith or else. Thus, leaving the employer with another problem.

On one occasion, production supervisors decided to have a birthday lunch for a colleague together at a restaurant in town. There were two men and two ladies.

The wife of one of the supervisors found them having lunch and caused an embarrassing scene and she also damaged the windscreen of the company car they were using.

Management found themselves in a dilemma as the use of the car had been authorised and a marked vehicle had been damaged, bringing the name of the company into disrepute moreso with allegations of infidelity being loaded into the case by the local press. Again the employer had to deal with this craziness.

There was also a case of a husband of an employee in one company who after getting drunk, would pitch up to the main entrance to where the wife worked and conduct himself in a disorderly manner and demanding to see his wife.

He would shout obscenities at the wife from the main entrance. Efforts to counsel the man had failed and it compromised the wife at work.

These are but some of the many matters that give employers headaches. It is not possible to outline all of them in detail or give a single solution to them as employers approach these differently depending on the situation on the ground, implication for public image for the organisation and legal options available.

A list of some of these headache issues include, cases of employees brought by spouses before the employer over failure to provide for the family, nasty divorces, domestic fights, death while abusing company vehicle, engaging in hooliganism outside work, embarrassingly drunk at a public function, embarrassing gossip about colleagues, inappropriate sexual conduct in offices, having affairs with colleagues’ children, engaging in political activities during working hours, allegations of witchcraft at work, allegations that a colleague smells, employees fighting at work over private relationships and girlfriends dumping children at married men’s workplace.

In conclusion, there is no formula for handling these things, but they will come to work as challenges for employers calling for extremely smart human relations skills and prudent application of the law.

Employers need to avoid being carried away by the excitement that comes with such cases and deal with them soberly accepting that most of these embarrassing things are a hazard of employing people.

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: email: [email protected] Or cell No: 0772 375 235