The build up is complete and the decision is made. Some poor unsuspecting soul is about to be ejected from the programme on what appears to be a minor misunderstanding or a behavioural faux pas. Putting to one side the board room and workplace behaviours, programme producers are, of course, quite entitled to portray it in the manner of being ‘fired’, as there is no contract under employment law and it makes good TV.
All too often though I find myself explaining to my wife that the programme or film that we are watching cannot happen in real life. ‘You can’t just dismiss someone for that, you have to go through due process’ or ‘I don’t know how that is a redundancy situation, there hasn’t been any consultation’ are an example of the esoteric statements that I often mutter, and I suspect are of little or no interest to her.
On a serious note I do sincerely hope that businesses, especially SME’s with little or no HR support, are not influenced by this gung ho approach to managing people and dealing with employment law issues. It can result in an extremely costly, time consuming and emotionally draining process which, sadly, we have had to help organisations recover from.
If you want to discuss how best to do prevent yourself getting into that situation with one of our HR experts, then please feel free to contact us.
