The Insubordinate Subordinate: Dealing With Workplace Rebellion

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

The Insubordinate Subordinate: Dealing With Workplace Rebellion

"The ability to work well with people is as purchasable a commodity as coffee or sugar, but I'll pay more for it than any ability under the sun." John D. Rockefeller

Yerke is a Finnish expatriate who recently accepted a position as head of the IT department for a large computer peripherals manufacturing company. He is dumbfounded when, two weeks after his arrival, his boss complains that Yerke is a troublemaker who openly questions his decisions and challenges his authority. Pamela, a stellar employee, was recently disciplined for insurbordination because she called in sick after her request for personal leave to attend her daughter's out-of-state wedding was denied. Raymond makes more sales than the rest of his team put together; however, while his customers love him, three sales managers have quit because of his abusive language and disrespectful attitude toward them.

Insubordination, broadly defined as an unwillingness to submit to authority either through an open refusal to obey an order or through a failure to carry one out, is a common problem in the workplace. Examples of insurbordination (or attempts to undermine managerial authority), include the following:

* actively challenging or criticizing a superior's orders

* interfering with management

* showing open disrespect toward a supervisor

* making threats or using coercion or physical violence

* using abusive language or making malicious statements

* ignoring instructions

Discipline is often an appropriate response to insurbodination. However, as can be seen from the above examples, there are varying reasons for, and degrees of, rebellious or disrespectful behavior. Before disciplinary action us taken, it is important to consider a number of factors that will help you decide upon a response that fits the situation. Some of these factors include the reasonableness of the request, the circumstances surrounding it, the employee's work history, and how others have been treated for similar behavior

Out of Bounds Orders

Some flexibility with respect to insubordination may be in order if the employee has a legitimate reason for refusing to carry out the request. Even though employees are rarely allowed to challenge authority, there are some instances in which such a refusal may be justified.

Consider the following situations:

1. carrying out the order would endanger the health, welfare, or safety of the employee or other employees. An employee may rightfully refuse to carry out an order in situations where the manager orders the employee to work under conditions the employee believes pose an immediate danger of death and severe injury, and the employee believes there is insufficient time or opportunity to get management to correct the hazardous condition.

2. carrying out the order involves an illegal act. Employers cannot ask an employee to engage in illegal activity. I once conducted a wrongful termination investigation during which an employee was fired because he refused to pick up illegal drugs for his supervisor.

3. the order is accompanied by religious, racist or sexist slurs. Ideally, the employee would comply with the order and then file a separate offensive behavior complaint. However, certainly some leniency should be allowed for the employee who rebelliously responds to personally insulting behavior.

Obviously, discipline or termination is inappropriate in any of the above situations. If it occurs, it can possibly lead to a successful wrongful discharge, retaliatory discharge, or discrimination lawsuit. In most cases, however, insubordination is the proper subject of discipline.

Do Your Duty

Generally speaking, employees cannot decide for themselves which instructions they will or will not obey. Companies should make this clear in their policies and procedures, by stating in their employee handbook or personnel manual that insubordination is against company policy and that violation of the policy will subject the person to disciplinary action, up to and including termination. Your policy should also state that, if an employee has a complaint about management behavior, they should follow the appropriate employee grievance process.

Let's assume now that an employee has engaged in challenging or disrespectful behavior to a valid order. The next factor to consider is the circumstances. For example:

* Was the order direct, clear and unambiguous?

* Did the employee violate a published policy or work rule?

* Did the employee recognize that s/he was breaking a rule?

* Was the employee aware of the consequences of the conduct?

* Was the employee aware of exceptions to the published rule or policy?

* Is the policy or rule itself the problem?

Considering the above factors sheds a different light on all three of our colleagues from the first paragraph - Yerke, Pamela, and Raymond. Yerke, for example, had no awareness at all that he was behaving inappropriately; coming from a culture that is much less deferential to status or power differences, it was a natural behavior for him to speak up or disagree with his superior. In fact, counseling him on how his behavior was perceived not only improved the relationship with his boss, it helped him understand his subordinates, whose reluctance to question or challenge his ideas he had been interpreting as a lack of motivation and initiative. Pamela and Raymond are similar in that both were aware of the rules and their violations of them. However, their work histories, and the rules in question, were dramatically different. While Pamela's response to her denied leave was inappropriate, her manager's decision to deny her personal leave request was also questionable. Other alternatives, such as making her responsible for finding a substitute, working overtime in advance, or being available by phone, might have been more realistic. As for Raymond, his consistent and willful disrespect not only adversely impacts the morale and retention rate of the rest of the sales team, the fact that he has received numerous warnings (with no real consequences or follow-through) can put the company at legal risk if they discipline another employee for similar behavior.

Fitting the Punishment to the "Crime"

Most employers have a written progressive discipline policy to deal with conduct problems. This policy is most effective when it contains flexible language, doesn't link any conduct to a specific disciplinary response, and allows the company to consider a number of factors in determining the appropriate discipline. Some of the factors that should be considered are:

1) Employee's record - Does the employee have a prior record of similar offenses, or was this a first offense? Does the employee otherwise have a good conduct record and a history of satisfactory performance?

2) Consequences of the act - Were the consequences such that there would be financial or other liability to the company? Would the act affect the company or the employee's ability to carry out assigned responsibilities?

3) Mitigating factors - Were there intervening factors that either caused or had some effect on the employee's violation of the company's disciplinary standards?

4) Attitude - Is the type of discipline contemplated necessary in order to convince the employee that the conduct cannot be tolerated?

5) Past practice - Is the discipline to be administered consistent with the discipline administered in prior similar cases?

After considering the above circumstances, the following steps can be used as guidelines when imposing an oral or written warning for subordination:

· Inform the employee that he or she has engaged in specific conduct that is unacceptable and that certain conduct is expected of the employee. Refer to the specific rule or policy.

· Explain that the improper conduct must stop.

· Discuss the negative consequences that will occur if the employee fails to change unacceptable behavior and the possible positive consequences of changing the improper behavior.

· Explore the reasons for the unacceptable behavior.

· Develop an action plan that you and the employee agree on to change the unacceptable behavior.

· Document, document, document.

Dealing With the Chronic Insurbordinate

Let's face it; some employees are always difficult. If the insubordination is committed by a constant troublemaker, it can be hard to keep your cool and deal effectively with the incident at hand. Keep these rules of thumb in mind:

* Base the confrontation with the worker only on his/her job performance. Never allow any personal prejudices, comments, observations, or suggestions to get in the way of the counseling/discipline meeting.

* Make certain that the employee knows exactly what you're saying. Allow no room for confusion or misunderstanding; ask the employee to paraphrase what the two of you have discussed. Make your policies, and their application, consistent and exact.

* Don't make value judgments. Stick to the behavior in question, not what you think of the employee personally. * Don't belabor a point. Make your point once and go on.

* Don't make idle or thinly veiled threats. Making threats only serves to strain relations even more.

The Bottom Line

Research supports Rockefeller's high opinion of good interpersonal skills; managers who fail do so because of the inability to successfully handle the "people" side of managing. Insurbordination can cause even the coolest communicator to blow a fuse and let personal feelings influence discipline decisions. Having an effective progressive discipline policy, using a discipline checklist, and conducting an investigation of the reasons for the inappropriate behavior (prior to any disciplinary action) can help managers avoid making a bad situation worse. Managers who co so not only create value for their organizations, they build value for themselves.

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WORKRELATIONSHIP TRIVIA: Four out of ten employees will have personal problems that impact work at some point in their lives. One out of every 20 is suffering from a major depression - right now. A relationship with an Employee Assistance Program can be a cost-effective way to minimize this impact and help valuable employees get back on track. Be sure your managers are trained on when and how to refer them for help.

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