What do employers do when they receive a Personal Grievance?
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A personal grievance is the bombshell that you’d expect it to be. Even if your company gets them frequently, it’s unlikely your boss, your team, and your local work environment will get many. There’s a good chance your boss has never had one before. So it’s useful for you to know what happens in the background.
Your boss talks to their boss
When you lodge, or raise a PG with them, you’re laying down a challenge. You’re disputing what they have done, challenging their vision for future workplace harmony (see here for more). this competing vision is generally quite confronting, so it takes quite a bit of discussion, defensive behaviour, self-doubt, and/or finger-pointing while they sort out what went on. If your boss was smart (see here), they’ve been keeping them informed, if they haven’t- well it’s an awkward conversation.
They talk to an expert, and they conduct a risk assessment
I talk about it here, employment law is a minefield for the layman. Because it’s all about process, not outcomes, most managers are lost about how they should go about the hard parts of management. Even if they largely know what they are doing, they are likely worried they’ve made some small mistake.
So they take it to an expert- either in-house HR (if they know what they are doing) or to a lawyer. That expert goes through a) what you’ve said happened, b) what the manager says happened, and c) what the paperwork says happened. From that, they figure out the risk, or an approximation of your chances of winning.
They gauge the business’ appetite for a fight and bad publicity
Once they have an idea of the chances of winning, they need to establish from the business what it’s appetite is for the situation. I discuss this more here, and the key aspect is this- no one likes losing a case and being potentially painted as a bad employer, but some care more than others.
The other aspect is how much is the company prepared to pay, and how much it is prepared to fight. Most organisations aren’t in the business of giving money away, and none are in the business of rewarding employee behaviour they don’t like. Another spectre they worry about, but can’t quantify, is the risk that getting a reputation of paying ‘go away’ money easily. That if a perception grows amongst employees they settle easily, this will encourage chancers to give it a go and try on some spurious lawsuits.
They devise a strategy
From this they will have a plan. Settle early, settle at mediation, settle at mediation only if the price is good, or fight it all the way. These plans are typically combinations of company policy/philosophy, the merits of the case, and the personality of the ultimate decision maker. I’ve known big bosses who you’d never want to disappoint with a big pay out, and bosses who would never want be on in the media for this.
