you have an issue in work or a problem then there's two things you really need
to consider carefully before you move ahead or take any action the first thing
is and I'm seeing this all the time quite frankly first thing is you need to
signed find out if there is genuine issue or claim or cause of action in
other words our step with serious consequences that you can take because
without that it may be the case that you simply have a grievance or a complaint
or a dissatisfaction or unknown happiness or a feeling of frustration or
a feeling of unfairness but all of these things are not of much benefit to you
quite frankly if there is in some way some read remedy woken to you what's the
first thing you need to consider carefully second thing you really need
to consider is a long term strategy in other words you need to think like a
chess player to a certain extent you need to think not just one move ahead or
tools ahead but maybe even three moves ahead there's a phrase that I use all
the time when I'm giving advice to employees that is you can win the battle
and lose the war in other words you need to be strategic in the action you take
and in the decisions you take by strategic I mean where can you go next
if you have a particular problem or a particular issue and you take a step
what's the consequence that may explain let's say you have a grievance or a
feeling of being treated unfairly or a feeling of
frustration in the workplace that may be a grievance it may be to do with excuse
me dignity at work it may be to do with being taken for granted it may be a
sense of frustration what may be opened to you may only be bringing Ravens
bringing a complaint the outcomes our complaint then will be your complaint
will be upheld or won't be upheld and you may get the opportunity to appeal
then after life you may get the opportunity to appeal in the outcome but
that would probably be the end of us that's the end of it okay so where is
step two or step three or step 4 it may not exist in other words you may
just soak it up the disappointing decision the disappointing outcome and
you may then turn around and say what was the point in doing that what was the
point in bringing that grievance what was the point in making that complaint
about that colleague or that boss because things are now even worse I
brought a complaint and it hasn't been upheld a relationship between me and
that other person is even worse that's what I mean by being strategic I'm not
saying for a minute that you shouldn't bring a complaint or try to take action
if you feel you are being treated unfairly or without dignity or you have
a genuine grievance or complaint I'm not saying not to take any action but I am
saying to consider strategically the moves you want to make down the line so
it may well be the case that if it's only a grievance you may have to draw a
line under after a certain point under relationship in the workplace may be
degraded and disapproved between perhaps you and the employer and you're the
person of complaint against on the other hand
you may have a situation for example of blatant unlawfulness for example say
let's just for the sake of the argument sexual harassment
say you're sexually harassed in the workplace and you then bring that to the
attention of the employer and you make a complaint and the employer does nothing
the next step then in the chess game the next move that opened to you is to bring
a complaint to the WRC and if you can win your case at the WOC if you can
prove your case at the WLC that you have been the victim of sexual harassment in
the workplace that you have tried to sort out the issue in the workplace
yourself by bringing it to the attention of your employer the employer has a duty
of care your employer has other duties as well other obligations to provide a
safe place of work to provide a place of work that's free from discrimination and
harassment and sexual harassment you see employers failed then as I say you can
go to the WC bring a claim for discrimination on the grounds of sexual
orientation or whatever it is sexual harassment and it could be awarded up to
two years salary so I hope you recognize the huge difference between on the one
hand making a complaint or a grievance the outcome of which may be your
complaint is upheld or your complaint is not upheld and a sexual harassment case
for example where if the grievance or complaint at your brain and swimming you
bring it internally first then you probably will be well advised to but
assuming that you do if it's not upheld or if the employer simply poo-poos it or
doesn't take any action then it does a completely different ball game because
moved who were moves free in that particular chess game involves you going
to the WRC or perhaps even the circuit court but the bottom line is you need to
make a qualitative judgment about where you go X with your different scenarios
your difference situation and I'm not look at it
civilized you don't wish to trivialize anything that happens in the workplace
it's not chance game but I'm simply making the analogy I'm simply making the
comparison and I'm simply encouraging you to think one or two or three moves
ahead not just the next move because the next move may see you being boxed into a
corner or in the checkmater to a certain extent and then the relationship between
you and the employer is even poorer and your career is damaged or impaired and
the relationship is poor and so on and so forth so they are two things that I
would recommend you as an employee with an issue or problem in the workplace
consider one is there sufficient meat on the bone is there an actual breach that
will lead to adjustable cause of action at your station will claim a claim to
the WRC or claim in some court that's number one number two are you thinking
strategically are you thinking not just about making this complaint or bringing
this complaint to the WRC or bringing this action or taking this step are you
thinking about what happens then and then what happens and then what happens
hope you find this video useful I see a lot of employees on a regular basis I
advise them and I do find from time to time that when they come to me and they
have taken a particular step I do find that sometimes they are absolutely
frustrated to discover that hadn't done what I have told them in the
consultation they may not have taken the step that they took in other words they
might be better off getting the advice first and it might be better off
thinking strategically and a very good example of that is somebody who hands in
their know whose resigns from the job and then comes to me and says
they will have a case for constructing sensor and most times I have this tell
them that don't because most times they haven't exhausted the internal procedure
first and you know obviously that's very very frustrating for somebody who's been
in a job for a good period of time and who have no Honda in their notice and
who have actually just handed their employer and get-out-of-jail-free card
so hope you find this video useful if you do I would appreciate if you give
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