Tis the Season to be well behaved

With the festive season fast approaching and the social calendar starting to fill up, events fuelled with high spirits (in more than one sense) can be a recipe for disaster where employees are concerned.

Inappropriate comments, language and behaviour are sadly not uncommon and in the worst cases we see employees at risk of losing their jobs for a moment of severe misjudgement. You might think a social event outside of work is just that – not an extension of the workplace and therefore a free for all. That isn’t necessarily the case, and employees who misbehave at work-related functions can be subject to disciplinary action.

Employees should of course be able to relax and enjoy themselves, whilst remembering to maintain a certain level of decorum, so employers should be careful not to jump to the worst conclusion possible if an incident does occur. What may at first seem like a severe and sackable offence might turn out on further investigation to be something else entirely.

Understanding the basics when it comes to misconduct is a great starting point and to help employers with this we’ve put together our Insights on misconduct, available here.