One of the fundamental responsibilities of human resource managers and employers is providing safe and supportive environments for workers to perform their duties. Maintaining high discipline levels among employees and ensuring compliance with professional codes of practice is easy in small organizations because the managers or employers can implement close supervision to prevent deviance. On the other hand, managements in organizations with large workforces face many challenges in their supervisory roles due to the divergent interests and expectations among their workers and this introduces the risks of transgressions. Employee misconduct refers to the intentional violation of implied or written employee policies inculcated in organizational cultures or explicitly outlined in the terms of engagement. Carrell and Heavrin (2012) observed that “misconduct” in labor relations constitutes a wide range of offenses that include picket line violence, theft, contraventions of CBAs, insubordination, and discourteous behavior among others. In general, employee misconduct has detrimental impacts on workplace interactions and may contribute to conflicts, reduction in productivity, loss of confidential or sensitive information, and cause psychological distress among workers. Most importantly, offenses categorized as minor in some organizations or sectors may constitute severe violations in others. For example, intimate relationships among employees and chronic absenteeism are perceived as serious offenses in the military.
Minor offenses usually consist of non-malicious and unintentional violations that have limited impacts on the organization or other employees and can be sufficiently managed through internal disciplinary procedures. Minor offenses occur when workers behave inappropriately or engage in actions considered unacceptable under the company policies. Such offenses do not constitute criminal wrongdoings because they are not intended to harm the organizations or other people. Additionally, the minor offenses usually do not result in financial, property, or reputational damages to the organizations. Some of the common examples of minor offenses that occur in organizations include accidental breach of confidential information, failure to follow protocols, safety violations, excessive absenteeism, using foul language at work, and poor task performance. Other examples of minor offenses include noncompliance with direct orders from superiors, smoking or using drugs at the workplace, intimate relationships among workers, not wearing appropriate uniform, lateness, and damaging company equipment due to carelessness. Minor offenses necessitate warnings or corrective action and do not require employees’ dismissal after the first offense (Carrell & Heavrin, 2012). In particular, incidences of unsatisfactory performance or minor offenses usually require informal interventions such as advice, coaching, or additional training to ensure that the problems are resolved confidentially and quickly (Banfield et al., 2018). However, organizations may consider minor misconducts as serious offenses in situations where employees commit them intentionally or repeatedly despite warnings or punitive actions.
In contrast, serious offenses are often deliberate, egregious, and aimed at causing serious damages that disrupt organizations’ operations and cause disharmony within the workforces. Furthermore, the serious offenses result in severe infringement of company policies and the National Labor Relations Act. Carrell and Heavrin (2012) argued that serious offenses warrant immediate dismissal without attempts to implement corrective actions or issue warnings to employees who engage in such actions. Moreover, companies can support their just-cause termination by demonstrating that the dismissed employees had been warned or disciplined for previous violations (Rassas, 2020). Examples of serious offenses include repeated or gross insubordination, negligence and malicious property damage, theft of company finances or property, deliberately exposing co-workers to serious safety and health risks, and sexual harassment. Additionally, employees who engage in corruption, physical violence, the deliberate infringement of confidentiality policies, intimidation, and incitement may be summarily discharged for gross misconduct.
References
Banfield, P., Kay, R., & Royles, D. (2018). Introduction to human resource management. Oxford University Press.
Carrell, M. R., & Heavrin, C. (2012). Labor relations and collective bargaining: Private and public sectors. (10th ed.). Prentice Hall.
Rassas, L. B. (2020). Employment law: A guide to hiring, managing, and firing for employers and employees. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.