An Employee Has Raised a Grievance Halfway Through Their Disciplinary

It usually arrives the evening before the hearing, and it usually names the investigating manager.

Resist both instinctive reactions. Ploughing on looks like predetermination. Pausing indefinitely hands control of your timetable to the employee.

The test is whether the issues are intertwined. If the grievance alleges the investigator is biased, or that the conduct was actually authorised, deal with them together or resolve the grievance first with a different decision-maker. If it concerns an unrelated pay dispute, the disciplinary can usually run in parallel.

Whatever you decide, record why. A short note explaining that you considered pausing, and why you did or did not, is worth more at a hearing than the decision itself.

If it names the owner. In a small business there may be no impartial internal decision-maker. That is precisely what an independent external investigator exists for.

Grievance landed at an awkward moment? We’ll tell you within the hour whether to pause. 0121 256 8043.