A recent decision concerning a senior public servant who claimed his manager treated him terribly while trying to force his dismissal has failed to win anti-bullying orders. The Fair Work Commission found his performance was managed in an “ordinary fashion”.
What was most interesting was that the FWC was satisfied that neither the employee’s managers nor his colleagues bullied him, and that the department demonstrated an “ordinary exercise of management prerogative”.
The FWC went on to say “I am satisfied that the [employee’s] managers are managing the [employee’s] performance in an ordinary fashion. I am not equally satisfied that the [employee] is engaging in that review in a co-operative fashion.”
As part of the overall process, the company instituted a performance improvement plan but said the applicant only partially satisfied one of the five criteria.
The key message we at HR Central want to impress upon you is the need to make sure you have a performance appraisal process in place that you follow every time. The absence this makes it possible for employees to argue that the process was more about bullying rather than performance management.