Lessons in lecturing
LPM’s people guru Polly Jeanneret on preaching about certain eating habits, temperamental partners and back to the Good Work Plan
Q A member of staff has informally complained about a solicitor who is vegan and who has been ‘lecturing everyone’ about veganism (complainant’s words not ours). What would you advise?
A Veganism is potentially protectable under the Equality Act. So it can – though doesn’t automatically – have the same protection as other, more familiar, belief systems: so imagine if you replaced the word ‘veganism’ with ‘Christianity’. Although veganism is fashionable, it’s not a mere fashion. Also, I’m immediately sceptical about the nature of this so-called ‘lecturing’. Often, I find this means that the person who says they are being lectured at simply disagrees with what is being said. In this case, for instance, someone has mentioned there is no vegan option on the staff awayday menu, or suggests that you shouldn’t have leather seats. Is expressing a different point of view really ‘lecturing’? If, on the other hand, the solicitor has set up a pulpit and is handing out leaflets around the canteen, then it might be time for some polite intervention.
Q We have a profitable, but temperamental, partner. Whenever we approach him over some behaviours he says he is unsupported and overworked, neither of which we think are particularly true for his situation. What now?
A There is always a point in employment situations like these, when relationships have been strained, and passive-aggressive emails have passed between employer and employee over many, many months. But neither the firm, nor the partner or solicitor, are really listening to what the other is actually saying or trying to say. This is the time to bring matters to a head. You have to push forward on these behaviours – don’t be afraid of some formality in the process, be precise and firm in your expectations, and wait for the storm that will, I can guarantee, come back at you. That is the moment when progress is made.
Q You mentioned the Government’s ‘Good Work Plan’ in your March column but I’m none the wiser. What is it?
A A long, long time ago the only taxi services in London were black cabs and dodgy overheated mini cabs; when people went to Paris or Barcelona for a holiday or work they stayed in actual hotels; and, in this bygone age, people cooked at home and didn’t get their five-a day delivered by scooter or bicycle. And in those days, most people in the UK were either employed by a company or selfemployed and no one except employment lawyers cared much about anything in between. But then all of a sudden the platform economy arrived, with Uber and Deliveroo, and spread itself all over the UK and the globe. And, all of a sudden, we had precarious employment: within a few years we had thousands of staff who appeared to be employees but were not employees, who were self-employed but not selfemployed. The government decided to act. It commissioned a review that came up with something called ‘good work’ and the Good Work Plan was launched. The only catch is, so far, we are still waiting for the plan to be divulged …
This article can be found in LPM July/August magazine: Who wants to break free?
